Rome is the capital of Italy and its largest city. It lies on the River Tiber in the central-western part of the Italian peninsula, in the region of Lazio, about 24 kilometres inland from the Tyrrhenian Sea. The municipality, officially called Roma Capitale, has about 2.7 million people in an area of 1,287 square kilometres, and the wider Metropolitan City of Rome has about 4.2 million. Rome has been a capital for most of the last 2,800 years: of the Roman kingdom, republic and empire, of the Papal States from the 8th century until 1870, and of unified Italy since 1871. It also contains a second country, Vatican City, the only state in the world that sits entirely inside a city. Five places show how those layers fit.
Piazza del Campidoglio: Rome's City Hall on the Capitoline Hill
The Capitoline, one of Rome's seven hills, rises between the valley of the Forum and the flat Campus Martius, where the medieval and modern city later spread. On its summit the Romans built the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, dedicated according to tradition in 509 BC, the year the last king was expelled. It was nearly as large as the Parthenon, and it made the hill the religious heart of the Roman state. The word Capitolium, first used for the temple and then for the whole hill, is the origin of the English word "capitol".
The hill kept its civic role after the empire fell. When Rome revived as a self-governing commune in the 12th century, the Capitoline became the centre of its government: in 1144 a revolt by the citizens against the pope and the nobles led to a senator taking up official residence on the summit. The Palazzo Senatorio, built in the 13th and 14th centuries on top of the Tabularium, the ancient records office, is still Rome's city hall.
What visitors see today is largely the work of Michelangelo. Pope Paul III wanted the neglected hilltop, then used for grazing goats, rebuilt as a symbol of the new Rome to impress the emperor Charles V. Michelangelo's first designs for the square date from 1534. He refaced the Palazzo Senatorio and the Palazzo dei Conservatori, designed the matching Palazzo Nuovo, and placed the bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius at the centre. He also turned the square around. Instead of facing the ruins of the Forum, it now faces towards St Peter's, which by then was the city's true centre of power. The two flanking palaces house the Capitoline Museums, founded in 1471 when Pope Sixtus IV gave the people of Rome a group of ancient bronzes, including the She-wolf.
The Roman Forum and the Colosseum: Capital of an Empire
From the back of the Capitoline, the ground drops into the Roman Forum, a small valley between the Capitoline and Palatine hills. Archaeologists now broadly agree that Rome grew from the gradual merging of hilltop villages around the largest one, on the Palatine, rather than from a single deliberate founding in the mid-8th century BC. Roman tradition nonetheless put that founding on 21 April 753 BC. The marshy valley below the hills became the public square that joined the villages together.
For centuries the Forum was the centre of Roman life. It held the Regia, the old royal residence of the 8th century BC, the Temple of Vesta, the speakers' platforms, the law courts and the Senate house. Triumphal processions passed through it, elections were held in it, and trials and speeches drew crowds. As Rome conquered the Mediterranean, the square filled with temples, basilicas and monuments to generals and emperors. Today it is a field of ruins visited by more than 4.5 million people a year.
At the eastern end of the valley stands the Colosseum, begun by the emperor Vespasian in AD 72 and completed by his son Titus in AD 80. Built of travertine, tuff and Roman concrete, it is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built and could hold an estimated 50,000 to 80,000 spectators for gladiator fights, animal hunts and public executions. After the empire, it served as housing, workshops, a fortress and above all a quarry. The great earthquake of 1349 brought down the outer south side, and much of the fallen stone went into palaces, churches and hospitals elsewhere in Rome. Every Good Friday the pope still leads a torchlit Way of the Cross procession beside it, a reminder that Rome's role as the centre of Christianity grew directly out of its role as the imperial capital.
The Pantheon: A Temple Turned Church in 609
Across the Campus Martius, in the dense streets of the historic centre, stands one of the best-preserved ancient buildings in Rome, in continuous use throughout its history. The first Pantheon was built by Marcus Agrippa in the reign of Augustus. After it burned, the emperor Hadrian rebuilt it, probably dedicating it around AD 126, and he kept Agrippa's name in the inscription on the front. That is why the portico still credits Agrippa for a building he never saw.
The Pantheon's rotunda is covered by a coffered dome of Roman concrete with an open oculus at the top. The height from floor to oculus and the diameter of the interior are the same, 43 metres, so the space would exactly contain a sphere. Almost two thousand years after it was built, it is still the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world. It survived because in 609 it was given to the Church and consecrated as Santa Maria ad Martyres, so it was maintained rather than stripped for materials.
The Pantheon also links ancient Rome to the modern Italian state. The painter Raphael is buried inside, and so are the first two kings of unified Italy: Victor Emmanuel II, who died in 1878, and Umberto I, along with Queen Margherita. It was meant to be the burial place of the whole House of Savoy, but after Italy became a republic in June 1946 the state refused to bury the last two kings there, both of whom died in exile.
St Peter's Basilica and the 44-Hectare Vatican Enclave
West of the Tiber, on the Vatican Hill, the emperor Constantine built a basilica in the 4th century over the site that Catholic tradition holds to be the tomb of Saint Peter, the first bishop of Rome. When it grew old, Pope Nicholas V and then Julius II planned a replacement. The present St Peter's Basilica was begun on 18 April 1506 and completed on 18 November 1626, with designs by Donato Bramante, Michelangelo and Carlo Maderno, and a colonnaded square and fittings by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. It is the largest church in the world by interior measure. Rome's cathedral, however, is not St Peter's but the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran, on the other side of the city.
For more than a thousand years the popes did not just lead a church from Rome; they ruled it. The Papal States began with the Donation of Pepin in 756 and at their height stretched across central Italy. Rome was their capital, and popes from Nicholas V in the 15th century onward spent the following centuries rebuilding the city as a showcase of the Renaissance and Baroque. Many of the streets, fountains and piazzas visitors see today are their work.
When Italian troops took Rome in 1870, the popes lost that territory and refused to accept the loss, staying inside the Vatican for nearly sixty years. The dispute, known as the Roman Question, ended with the Lateran Treaty, signed on 11 February 1929 between the Holy See and Mussolini's government. It created Vatican City as an independent state under the sovereignty of the Holy See. With 44 hectares and about 882 people in 2024, it is the smallest country in the world by both area and population. Its border with Italy runs partly along the walls around its gardens, while St Peter's Square is normally open to the city.
Porta Pia and the Quirinal Palace: Capital of Italy Since 1871
Michelangelo left one more mark on the story of Rome as a capital. In 1561 Pope Pius IV commissioned him to design a new gate in the Aurelian Walls at the end of a new street, the Via Pia. The gate, Porta Pia, was built between 1561 and 1565, and its outer facade was finished only in 1869. A year later the walls beside it were breached in the attack that completed the unification of Italy.
The Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed on 17 March 1861, and ten days later its parliament, meeting in Turin, declared Rome the capital. But Rome was still ruled by Pope Pius IX and protected by a French garrison. The capital moved from Turin to Florence in 1865 while the government waited. In July 1870 France went to war with Prussia and withdrew its troops. On 20 September 1870, about 50,000 Italian soldiers under General Raffaele Cadorna attacked the city, defended by some 13,000 papal troops. Artillery opened fire at 5 a.m., and after a few hours the Italians broke through the walls near Porta Pia. Estimates of the dead range from 32 to 49 Italian soldiers and 12 to 19 papal troops. A plebiscite followed on 2 October, and Rome was formally made the capital of Italy on 3 February 1871. Streets named Via XX Settembre in towns across the country still mark the date.
The new state needed a royal residence and chose the pope's. The Quirinal Palace, built as a papal residence under Gregory XIII on the Quirinal, the highest of the seven hills, has housed thirty popes, four kings of Italy and, since the republic, twelve presidents. It is now the president's official residence and, at 110,500 square metres, is ranked the eleventh-largest palace in the world. Between the Capitoline Hill and Piazza Venezia, the kingdom built its own national symbol, the white marble Victor Emmanuel II Monument, constructed between 1885 and 1935 and home to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Becoming capital also transformed Rome's size. When it was annexed in 1870, the city had about 225,000 people, and in 1881 less than half the area inside the walls was built up. Government ministries, officials and construction workers poured in, and new districts spread beyond the Aurelian Walls.
Taken together, these five places show a capital that has been rebuilt by each new ruler on top of the last, from the Temple of Jupiter to the Vittoriano, which stands on the same hill. For more on the stadium at the end of the Forum, see our guide to the Colosseum. The river that runs between the old city and the Vatican has its own guide to the Tiber, and the tiny state across it is explained in our Vatican City country guide.
Quick Facts About Rome
- Country: Italy
- Continent: Europe (Southern Europe)
- Country population: approximately 58.9 million
- Capital city status: Rome is the capital of Italy, the seat of national government, and the location of foreign embassies, parliament, and the head of state's official residence.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the capital of Italy?
The capital of Italy is Rome. Rome is the seat of national government, hosts most foreign embassies and consulates, and is typically where the head of state and parliament are located.
What continent is Rome in?
Rome, the capital of Italy, is located in Europe, in the Southern Europe region. As Italy's capital, Rome serves as the country's primary connection to the broader Europen political, economic, and cultural sphere.
Why is Rome the capital of Italy?
Rome was chosen as the capital of Italy for reasons that typically combine geography, history, and politics. Capital city selections often reflect a desire for centrality (being accessible from across the country), historical importance (being a longstanding seat of government or culture), or neutrality (being acceptable to multiple regions or ethnic groups within the country). The specific reasons for Rome's designation are detailed in the city's history above.
What is Rome known for?
As the capital of Italy, Rome is best known for housing the country's central government institutions — parliament, presidential or royal residences, supreme court, and key ministries. It is also typically a major cultural and economic center within Italy, hosting national museums, embassies, and signature monuments. The introduction and history sections above provide detailed coverage of the city's specific notable institutions and landmarks.
Related Pages
- Italy Country Guide — full geography, climate, economy, and culture overview
- Flag of Italy — meaning, history, and design of Italy's national flag