1.
Roman republic
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It was during this period that Romes control expanded from the citys immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean world. During the first two centuries of its existence, the Roman Republic expanded through a combination of conquest and alliance, by the following century, it included North Africa, most of the Iberian Peninsula, and what is now southern France. Two centuries after that, towards the end of the 1st century BC, it included the rest of modern France, Greece, and much of the eastern Mediterranean. By this time, internal tensions led to a series of wars, culminating with the assassination of Julius Caesar. The exact date of transition can be a matter of interpretation, Roman government was headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and advised by a senate composed of appointed magistrates. Over time, the laws that gave exclusive rights to Romes highest offices were repealed or weakened. The leaders of the Republic developed a tradition and morality requiring public service and patronage in peace and war, making military. Many of Romes legal and legislative structures can still be observed throughout Europe and much of the world in modern nation states, the exact causes and motivations for Romes military conflicts and expansions during the republic are subject to wide debate. While they can be seen as motivated by outright aggression and imperialism and they argue that Romes expansion was driven by short-term defensive and inter-state factors, and the new contingencies that these decisions created. In its early history, as Rome successfully defended itself against foreign threats in central and then northern Italy, with some important exceptions, successful wars in early republican Rome generally led not to annexation or military occupation, but to the restoration of the way things were. But the defeated city would be weakened and thus able to resist Romanizing influences. It was also able to defend itself against its non-Roman enemies. It was, therefore, more likely to seek an alliance of protection with Rome and this growing coalition expanded the potential enemies that Rome might face, and moved Rome closer to confrontation with major powers. The result was more alliance-seeking, on the part of both the Roman confederacy and city-states seeking membership within that confederacy. While there were exceptions to this, it was not until after the Second Punic War that these alliances started to harden into something more like an empire and this shift mainly took place in parts of the west, such as the southern Italian towns that sided with Hannibal. In contrast, Roman expansion into Spain and Gaul occurred as a mix of alliance-seeking, in the 2nd century BC, Roman involvement in the Greek east remained a matter of alliance-seeking, but this time in the face of major powers that could rival Rome. This had some important similarities to the events in Italy centuries earlier, with some major exceptions of outright military rule, the Roman Republic remained an alliance of independent city-states and kingdoms until it transitioned into the Roman Empire. It was not until the time of the Roman Empire that the entire Roman world was organized into provinces under explicit Roman control
Roman republic
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Route of Pyrrhus of Epirus
Roman republic
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Roman consul accompanied by two lictors
Roman republic
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Gaius Gracchus, tribune of the people, presiding over the Plebeian Council
Roman republic
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A Roman denarius struck in 56 BC showing on one side the bust of the Goddess Diana, and on the reverse the Roman general Lucius Cornelius Sulla is offered an olive branch by his ally Bocchus I as the captive Jugurtha kneels beside Sulla with his hands bound.
2.
Roman empire
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Civil wars and executions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesars adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the annexation of Egypt. Octavians power was then unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power, the imperial period of Rome lasted approximately 1,500 years compared to the 500 years of the Republican era. The first two centuries of the empires existence were a period of unprecedented political stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana, following Octavians victory, the size of the empire was dramatically increased. After the assassination of Caligula in 41, the senate briefly considered restoring the republic, under Claudius, the empire invaded Britannia, its first major expansion since Augustus. Vespasian emerged triumphant in 69, establishing the Flavian dynasty, before being succeeded by his son Titus and his short reign was followed by the long reign of his brother Domitian, who was eventually assassinated. The senate then appointed the first of the Five Good Emperors, the empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan, the second in this line. A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus, Commodus assassination in 192 triggered the Year of the Five Emperors, of which Septimius Severus emerged victorious. The assassination of Alexander Severus in 235 led to the Crisis of the Third Century in which 26 men were declared emperor by the Roman Senate over a time span. It was not until the reign of Diocletian that the empire was fully stabilized with the introduction of the Tetrarchy, which saw four emperors rule the empire at once. This arrangement was unsuccessful, leading to a civil war that was finally ended by Constantine I. Constantine subsequently shifted the capital to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople in his honour and it remained the capital of the east until its demise. Constantine also adopted Christianity which later became the state religion of the empire. However, Augustulus was never recognized by his Eastern colleague, and separate rule in the Western part of the empire ceased to exist upon the death of Julius Nepos. The Eastern Roman Empire endured for another millennium, eventually falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time. It was one of the largest empires in world history, at its height under Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres. It held sway over an estimated 70 million people, at that time 21% of the entire population. Throughout the European medieval period, attempts were made to establish successors to the Roman Empire, including the Empire of Romania, a Crusader state. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, then, it was an empire long before it had an emperor
Roman empire
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The Augustus of Prima Porta (early 1st century AD)
Roman empire
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Aureus of Augustus, the first Roman Emperor.
Roman empire
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A segment of the ruins of Hadrian's Wall in northern England
Roman empire
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A 5th-century papyrus showing a parallel Latin-Greek text of a speech by Cicero
3.
Roman province
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In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and, until the Tetrarchy, largest territorial and administrative unit of the empires territorial possessions outside of Italy. The word province in modern English has its origins in the used by the Romans. Provinces were generally governed by politicians of senatorial rank, usually former consuls or former praetors and this exception was unique, but not contrary to Roman law, as Egypt was considered Augustus personal property, following the tradition of earlier, Hellenistic kings. The territory of a people who were defeated in war might be brought under various forms of treaty, the formal annexation of a territory created a province in the modern sense of an administrative unit geographically defined. Republican provinces were administered in one-year terms by the consuls and praetors who had held office the previous year, Rome started expanding beyond Italy during the First Punic War. The first permanent provinces to be annexed were Sicily in 241 BC, militarized expansionism kept increasing the number of these administrative provinces, until there were no longer enough qualified individuals to fill the posts. The terms of provincial governors often had to be extended for multiple years,241 BC – Sicilia taken over from the Carthaginians and annexed at the end of the First Punic War. 237 BC – Corsica et Sardinia, these two islands were taken over from the Carthaginians and annexed soon after the Mercenary War, in 238 BC and 237 BC respectively. 197 BC – Hispania Citerior, along the east coast of the,197 BC - Hispania Ulterior, along the southern coast of the, part of the territories taken over from the Carthaginians in the Second Punic War. 147 BC – Macedonia, mainland Greece and it was annexed after a rebellion by the Achaean League. 146 BC – Africa, modern day Tunisia and western Libya, home territory of Carthage and it was annexed following attacks on the allied Greek city of Massalia. 67 BC – Creta et Cyrenae, Cyrenaica was bequeathed to Rome in 78 BC, however, it was not organised as a province. 58 BC – Cilicia et Cyprus, Cilicia was created as a province in the sense of area of command in 102 BC in a campaign against piracy. The Romans controlled only a small area, in 74 BC Lycia and Pamphylia were added to the smal Roman possessions in Cilicia. Cilicia came fully under Roman control towards the end of the Third Mithridatic War - 73-63 BC, the province was reorganised by Pompey in 63 BC. Gallia Cisalpina was a province in the sense of an area of military command, during Romes expansion in Italy the Romans assigned some areas as provinces in the sense of areas of military command assigned to consuls or praetors due to risks of rebellions or invasions. This was applied to Liguria because there was a series of rebellions, Bruttium, in the early days of Roman presence in Gallia Cisalpina the issue was rebellion. Later the issue was risk of invasions by warlike peoples east of Italy, the city of Aquileia was founded to protect northern Italy form invasions
Roman province
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Roman Empire under Augustus (31 BC – AD 14). Yellow: 31BC. Dark Green 31–19 BC, Light Green 19–9 BC, Pale Green 9–6 BC. Mauve: Client states
4.
Provinces of Italy
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In Italy, a province is an administrative division of intermediate level between a municipality and a region. There are currently 107 provinces in Italy, a further 4 such cities were added later. The reorganization of the Italian provinces became operative by January 2015, a province of the Italian Republic is composed of many municipalities. Usually several provinces together form a region, the region of Aosta Valley is the sole exception – it is not subdivided into provinces, the three main functions devolved to provinces are, local planning and zoning, provision of local police and fire services, transportation regulation. The number of provinces in Italy has been growing in recent years. Usually, the name is the same as that of its capital city. According to the 2014 reform, each province is headed by a President assisted by a body, the Provincial Council, and an executive body. President and members of Council are elected together by mayors and city councilors of each municipality of the province, the Executive is chaired by the President who appoint others members, called assessori. Since 2015 the President and others members of the Council will not receive a salary, in each province there is also a Prefect, a representative of the central government who heads an agency called prefettura-ufficio territoriale del governo. The Questor is the head of States Police in the province, there is also a provinces police force depending from local government, called provincial police. Sardinia - following the outcome of the referendums of 2012 it was decreed that such institutions should be reformed or abolished by March 2013. In January 2014 the Sardinian Regional Administrative Court declared unconstitutional the abolition of the Sardinian provinces, sicily - provinces were replaced by Free Communal Consortia in 2013. In 1861, at the birth of the Kingdom of Italy, however, at that time the national territory was smaller than the current one, regions of Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Trentino Alto Adige and Lazio were not included in the kingdom. In 1866, following the Third Independence War, territories of Veneto, Friuli, there were therefore nine more provinces, Belluno, Mantua, Padua, Rovigo, Treviso, Venice, Verona, Vicenza and Udine, all previously part of the Austrian Empire. Eventually, in 1870, following the annexion of Rome and its province from the Papal States, after the First World War, new territories were annexed to Italy. The Province of Trento was created in 1920, Provinces of La Spezia, Trieste and Ionio in 1923. In 1924 the new provinces of Fiume, Pola, and Zara were created, in 1927, following a Royal charter, a general province rearrangement took place. 17 new provinces were created and the province of Caserta was suppressed, in the same year the institution of circondari, sub-provincial wards created before the unification, was abolished
Provinces of Italy
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Italian Republic
5.
Rome
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Rome is a special comune and the capital of Italy. Rome also serves as the capital of the Lazio region, with 2,873,598 residents in 1,285 km2, it is also the countrys largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the center of the Metropolitan City of Rome, which has a population of 4.3 million residents, the city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio, along the shores of the Tiber. Romes history spans more than 2,500 years, while Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at only around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Europe. The citys early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans and it was first called The Eternal City by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid, Virgil, and Livy. Rome is also called the Caput Mundi, due to that, Rome became first one of the major centres of the Italian Renaissance, and then the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism. Famous artists, painters, sculptors and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, in 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic. Rome has the status of a global city, Rome ranked in 2014 as the 14th-most-visited city in the world, 3rd most visited in the European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, monuments and museums such as the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum are among the worlds most visited tourist destinations with both locations receiving millions of tourists a year. Rome hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics and is the seat of United Nations Food, however, it is a possibility that the name Romulus was actually derived from Rome itself. As early as the 4th century, there have been alternate theories proposed on the origin of the name Roma. There is archaeological evidence of occupation of the Rome area from approximately 14,000 years ago. Evidence of stone tools, pottery and stone weapons attest to about 10,000 years of human presence, several excavations support the view that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built above the area of the future Roman Forum. Between the end of the age and the beginning of the Iron age. However, none of them had yet an urban quality, nowadays, there is a wide consensus that the city was gradually born through the aggregation of several villages around the largest one, placed above the Palatine. All these happenings, which according to the excavations took place more or less around the mid of the 8th century BC. Despite recent excavations at the Palatine hill, the view that Rome has been indeed founded with an act of will as the legend suggests in the middle of the 8th century BC remains a fringe hypothesis. Traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth
Rome
Rome
Rome
Rome
6.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
Daylight saving time
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Ancient water clock that lets hour lengths vary with season.
Daylight saving time
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G. V. Hudson invented modern DST, proposing it first in 1895.
Daylight saving time
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Retailers generally favor DST. United Cigar Stores hailed a 1918 DST bill.
Daylight saving time
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William Willett independently proposed DST in 1907 and advocated it tirelessly.
7.
Vehicle registration plate
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A vehicle registration plate, also known as a number plate or a license plate, is metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identification purposes. The registration identifier is a numeric or alphanumeric ID that uniquely identifies the owner within the issuing regions database. The first two letters indicate the state to which the vehicle is registered, the next two digit numbers are the sequential number of a district. Due to heavy volume of vehicle registration, the numbers were given to the RTO offices of registration as well, the third part indicates the year of registration of the vehicle and is a 4 digit number unique to each plate. In some countries, the identifier is unique within the entire country, whether the identifier is associated with a vehicle or a person also varies by issuing agency. In the vast majority of jurisdictions, the government holds a monopoly on the manufacturing of vehicle registration plates for that jurisdiction. Thus, it is illegal for private citizens to make and affix their own plates. Alternately, the government will merely assign plate numbers, and it is the owners responsibility to find an approved private supplier to make a plate with that number. In some jurisdictions, plates will be assigned to that particular vehicle for its lifetime. If the vehicle is destroyed or exported to a different country. Other jurisdictions follow a policy, meaning that when a vehicle is sold the seller removes the current plate from the vehicle. Buyers must either obtain new plates or attach plates they already hold, as well as register their vehicles under the buyers name, a person who sells a car and then purchases a new one can apply to have the old plates put onto the new car. One who sells a car and does not buy a new one may, depending on the laws involved, have to turn the old plates in or destroy them. Some jurisdictions permit the registration of the vehicle with personal plates, in some jurisdictions, plates require periodic replacement, often associated with a design change of the plate itself. Vehicle owners may or may not have the option to keep their original plate number, alternately, or additionally, vehicle owners have to replace a small decal on the plate or use a decal on the windshield to indicate the expiration date of the vehicle registration. Plates are usually fixed directly to a vehicle or to a frame that is fixed to the vehicle. Sometimes, the plate frames contain advertisements inserted by the service centre or the dealership from which the vehicle was purchased. Vehicle owners can also purchase customized frames to replace the original frames, in some jurisdictions licence plate frames are illegal
Vehicle registration plate
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Some jurisdictions license non-traditional vehicles, such as golf carts, particularly on on-road vehicles, such as this one in Put-in-Bay, Ohio.
Vehicle registration plate
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Burkina passenger plate
Vehicle registration plate
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Burkina Faso Gendarmerie plate
Vehicle registration plate
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Botswana plate
8.
Italian car number plates
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Present Italian car number plates have black characters on a rectangular white background, with small blue side-fields on the right and left. The current numbering scheme, in use from 1994, is unrelated to the provenance of the car. Italian plates are printed by the state and they had to have the owners name and the local communal number that had to be visible. These early Italian number plates gave the name of the place of origin, followed by a number, as GENOVA83. These were first plates to be made of metal and had to be done by the cars owner. Today, the registration number was a numeric code, different for each province, and a progressive number on a sigle line, unique for that province. E. g.63 –2993, where 63 is the code for Turin, from 1927 to 1932, the progressive code was before the provincial designator on a single line. Then, the code was before the provincial designator in front plates and after it in rear plates. From 1932 to 1951, Rear plate was square 32.0 x 22.0 cm, Rear plate had from 1928 to 1944, the Fasces emblem next to the provincial code. After Mussolinis fall, in 1944 to 1948 the Association of War Maimed and Disabled printed the number plates, after 1948 the Italian Republic Constitution was approved, so the Republic emblem appeared on the number plate on both rear and front plates. From 1951 to 1976, Rear plate was square 27.5 ×20 cm, note that single line rear registration plates were not available until 1976. The registration number was the provincial designator, which is a code. For cars from 1000000, it was A00000-A99999, B00000-B99999 etc, possible letters were, in this order, A B D E F G H K L M N P R S T U V Z X Y W. After that, it was 00000A-99999A, 00000D-99999D etc. Possible letters were, in order, A D E F G H L M N P R S T V W X Y Z, then, the letter was moved to the second position. Schematic representation, Front plate was identical as in the period 1927-1976, Rear plate, instead, was changed in three pieces. One, size 10,7 ×33 cm, black with digits, contains the progressive number and, very small. The other two were black with letters, and contained the provincial designator. In 1985, plates become black digits with white reflective background, Rear plate was identical as in the period 1976-1985
Italian car number plates
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1948-1976 Italian vehicle licence plate from Livorno.
Italian car number plates
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1976-1985 front and rear Italian vehicle licence plates from Rome.
Italian car number plates
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1985-1994 Italian vehicle licence plate from Verona.
Italian car number plates
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1999-present Italian vehicle licence plate from Bolzano.
9.
Nemi
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Nemi is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome, in the Alban Hills overlooking Lake Nemi, a volcanic crater lake. It is 6 kilometres northwest of Velletri and about 30 kilometres southeast of Rome, the towns name derives from the Latin nemus, or holy wood. In 1514 Marcantonio I Colonna gave to Nemi the Statuti e Capituli del Castello di Nemi, possibly in connection with the cult of Diana Nemorensis, Roma emperor Caligula built several very large and costly luxury barges for use on the lake. One ship was a dedicated to ceremonies for the Egyptian Isis cult or the cult of Diana Nemorensis, designed to be towed. After Caligulas overthrow, the boats were scuttled, the ships were rediscovered during the Renaissance, when architect Leon Battista Alberti is reported to have attempted to raise the ships by roping them to buoyant barrels. While ingenious, this proved unsuccessful, because of extensive rotting. The boats were finally salvaged from 1929 to 1932 under orders of Benito Mussolini and this was just one of many attempts to relate himself to the Roman Emperors of the past. The ships were exposed by lowering the level using underground canals that were dug by the ancient Romans. The excavation was led by Guido Ucelli and was reported in Le Nave di Nemi by Guido Ucelli, surviving remnants from the excavations as well as replicas are now displayed in the Museo Nazionale Romano at the Palazzo Massimo in Rome. The ship hulls survive today at Museo delle Navi Romane, Nemi, Nemi itself is home to a few late medieval to 18th‑century churches, and the Castello Ruspoli, dominating both town and landscape, the core of which dates to the 10th century. Nemi is famous for its strawberries, which are smaller and sweeter than commercially grown varieties. Nemis strawberries are grown on the sides of the volcanic crater, Nemi conducts an annual festival of strawberries. Official website Blog of exhibition of material from Roman Sanctuary of Diana at Nemi, Nottingham museum,2013 Nemi at Nottingham Project
Nemi
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Strawberries for sale in Nemi
Nemi
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A panoramic view of Nemi in 2006
10.
Rome metropolitan area
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The Rome metropolitan area is centred on the city of Rome, the Italian capital, in Lazio, Italy. The metropolitan area is statistical and does not imply any kind of administrative unity or function. The Rome metropolitan area includes the city of Rome and 39 municipalities, the most important of these by population are Guidonia Montecelio, Aprilia, Fiumicino, Tivoli, Ciampino and Velletri, as shows the table below. This table shows the main Italian metropolitan areas by population, the Rome metropolitan area is in first place
Rome metropolitan area
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satellite picture of the Rome metropolitan area
11.
Capture of Rome
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On 27 March 1861, the Parliament declared Rome the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. However, the Italian government could not take its seat in Rome because it did not control the territory. In addition, a French garrison was maintained in the city by Napoleon III of France in support of Pope Pius IX, who was determined not to hand over temporal power in the States of the Church. In July 1870, at the very last moment of the Churchs rule over Rome, in July 1870, the Franco-Prussian War began. In early August, Napoleon III recalled his garrison from Rome, in the earlier Austro-Prussian War Italy had allied with Prussia and Italian public opinion favoured the Prussian side at the start of the war. The removal of the French garrison eased tensions between Italy and France, Italy remained neutral in the Franco-Prussian War. With the French garrison gone, widespread public demonstrations demanded that the Italian government take Rome, but Rome remained under French protection on paper, therefore an attack would still have been regarded as an act of war against the French Empire. Until events elsewhere took their course the Italians were unwilling to provoke Napoleon, the new French government was clearly in no position to retaliate against Italy, nor did it possess the political will to protect the Popes position. Along with the letter, the count carried a document that Lanza had prepared, the Pope would retain the inviolability and prerogatives attaching to him as a sovereign. The Leonine City would remain under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the Pontiff. According to Raffaele De Cesare, The Pope’s reception of San Martino was unfriendly, Pius IX allowed violent outbursts to escape him. Throwing the King’s letter upon the table he exclaimed, Fine loyalty and you are all a set of vipers, of whited sepulchres, and wanting in faith. He was perhaps alluding to other letters received from the King, after, growing calmer, he exclaimed, I am no prophet, nor son of a prophet, but I tell you, you will never enter Rome. San Martino was so mortified that he left the next day, several times during his pontificate, Pius IX considered leaving Rome. As the frequency of protests against the Papal States increased across the Italian peninsula. Palma, a prelate, who was standing at a window, was shot. On February 9,1849, democratic revolutionaries of the new Italian republic seized Rome, on 12 April 1850, Pius IX returned to Rome, no longer a political liberal supporting constitutional republics. A later occurrence was in 1862, when Giuseppe Garibaldi was in Sicily gathering volunteers for a campaign to take Rome under the slogan Roma o Morte
Capture of Rome
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Capture of Rome Presa di Roma
Capture of Rome
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Portrait of Napoleon III (1808-1873), Franz Xaver Winterhalter
Capture of Rome
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Pope Pius IX.
Capture of Rome
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On 15 November 1848 the Swiss Guards were disarmed, briefly making Pius IX a self-imposed prisoner within the Quirinal.
12.
Civitavecchia
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Civitavecchia is a town and comune of the Metropolitan City of Rome in the central Italian region of Lazio. A sea port on the Tyrrhenian Sea, it is located 80 kilometres west-north-west of Rome, the harbour is formed by two piers and a breakwater, on which is a lighthouse. The name Civitavecchia means ancient town, population was around 53,000 as of 2015. The modern city was built over a pre-existing Etruscan settlement, the harbour was constructed by the Emperor Trajan at the beginning of the 2nd century. The first occurrence of the name Centum Cellae is from a letter by Pliny the Younger, the origin of the name is disputed, it has been suggested that it could refer to the centum halls of the villa of the emperor. In the early Middle Ages, Centumcellae was a Byzantine stronghold and it became part of the Papal States in 728. As the port was raided by the Saracens in 813-814,828,846 and finally in 876, a new settlement in a more secure place was therefore built by order of Pope Leo VII as soon as 854. The Popes gave the settlement as a fief to several lords, including the Count Ranieri of Civitacastellana and the Abbey of Farfa, and the Di Vico. The place became a port under Pope Innocent XII in 1696. The French Empire occupied it in 1806, on 16 April 1859 the Rome and Civitavecchia Rail Road was opened for service. The Papal troops opened the gates of the fortress to the Italian general Nino Bixio in 1870, during World War II, Allied bombings severely damaged Civitavecchia, and caused civilian casualties. Louis Till, the father of Emmett Louis Till was convicted of the rape of two local Italian women and the murder of another in Civitavecchia. Civitavecchia is today a major cruise and ferry port, the starting point for sea connection from central Italy to Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, Tunis. The city is also the seat of two power stations. The conversion of one of them to coal has raised the populations protests, the massive Forte Michelangelo was first commissioned from Donato Bramante by Pope Julius II, to defend the port of Rome. The upper part of the tower, however, was designed by Michelangelo. North of the city at Ficoncella are the Terme Taurine baths frequented by Romans, the modern name stems from the common fig plants among the various pools. And also next to the town is the location of the ship docks
Civitavecchia
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Civitavecchia fort and harbour
Civitavecchia
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Civitavecchia in 1795, etching by William Marlow.
Civitavecchia
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View of the port
Civitavecchia
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View of station platforms
13.
Frosinone
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Frosinone is a town and comune in Lazio, central Italy, the administrative seat of the province of Frosinone. It is located about 75 kilometres south-east of Rome close to the Rome-Naples A1 Motorway and it is commonly identified as the capital of the geographical region of Ciociaria. The first traces of human presence around modern Frosinone date from the lower Paleolithic, the earliest settlements in the area are from around 4000 years ago, including late Bronze Age remains in what is now the upper part of the city and 7th-6th century BC sepoltures. 21 tombs from a Volscan necropolis were found in the Frosinone centre, Frusino was part of the Hernici but its inhabitants were mostly Volscans. In 306 BC the city part in the Hernic League against Rome, defeated and sacked. Later, during the Second Punic War, it was devastated by Hannibals armies, the Roman writer Cicero had a villa in Frusino. The city obtained the rights and became a colony in Roman imperial times. Frosinone was the birthplace of two early Christian popes, Hormisdas and his son Silverius, who are now its patron saints. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Frosinone was destroyed several times by foreign invaders, in the early Middle Ages it was an agricultural center, after escaping the dominance of the nearby commune of Anagni, in the early 14th century it fell under Alatri. In 1350 it was damaged by an earthquake, after the Sack of Rome, Frosinone was also ravaged by German, Florentine and French troops and again, in 1556, by Spanish troops fighting against Pope Paul IV. The following year it became the seat of the papal governor of the province of Campagna. Frosinone steadily expanded its population in times, passing from around 2000 people in the mid-17th century to the over 10,000 it had at the Unification of Italy. In 1863 it was connected to the railway network. In 1927 the Fascist government made it the capital of a new province, created with territories from the provinces of Caserta and Rome. In 1943-1944, during the Allied invasion of southern occupied Italy in World War II, it was bombed 56 times by Anglo-American planes, the first Allied troops entered Frosinone on 31 May 1944. After the war, as the city was rebuilt in modern lines, Frosinone lost its traditional agricultural role in favour of industry and, above all. In 1962 it was reached by the A1 Rome-Naples motorway, Frosinone is on a hill overlooking the valley of the Sacco River, and is surrounded by the Ernici and Lepini mountain ranges. East of Frosinone lies an early gothic Cistercian cloister
Frosinone
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Panorama of Frosinone
14.
Velletri
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Velletri is an Italian comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome, on the Alban Hills, in Lazio, central Italy. Neighbouring communes are Rocca di Papa, Lariano, Cisterna di Latina, Artena, Aprilia, Nemi, Genzano di Roma and its motto is, Est mihi libertas papalis et imperialis. Velletri was an ancient city of the Volsci tribe and it came into conflict with the Romans during the reign of Ancus Marcius, the fourth king of Rome, and in the fifth and fourth centuries, during the early Roman Republic. In the Middle Ages it was one of the few “free cities” in Lazio and it was the site of two historical battles in 1744 and 1849. It was at the centre of fighting between the Germans and the allies in 1944 after the Anglo-American landing at Anzio during the Second World War. Today, Velletri is home to a court and a prison, in addition to several colleges. It is the terminus of the Rome-Velletri railway, inaugurated by Pius IX in 1863, the territory of Velletri stretches between two distinct areas. The northern part is situated on the foothills of the Colli Albani range and was geologically formed about 150,000 years ago. The southern boundary forms around Pontine Marshes, whose reclamation started at the time of Pope Pius VI and was accomplished during the regime of Benito Mussolini, the Seismic classification of Velletris territory is Zone 2 The territory of Velletri collects water run off from many streams. These streams, most of them torrential in character or small in scale, are known as fossi, main fossi include, Fosso Minella at the edge of the municipal area to Genzano di Roma, near the Velletri frazione of SantEurosia. This stream originates from Monte Spina, elevation 731 metres above sea level, in the territory of Nemi and its named after the Minella bridge on State Road 7, Via Appia Nuova and originates at 405 metres above sea level, at the foot of Colle degli Olmi. Minella also runs parallel to the fosso delle Tre Armi, which connects to it. Fossa SantEurosia, originating from Colle degli Olmi, it goes through the village of the same name, Fossa Paganica, which originates from springs on Colle Caldaro, and on Colle Tondo. Fosso di Ponte Veloce, which arises from Colle Tondo, on Maschio dellArtemisio and this watercourse near Villa Borgia, superseded the old town of Velletri, changes name to Fossa Farina near the iron bridge of the Roma-Velletri railway. Fossa Anatolia, originating from Colle Bello, it flows at the foot of old town Velletri, other water sources include the Acqua de Ferrari, at 650 metres, underlying Monte de Ferrari at Rocca di Papa, from which is part of the municipal water supply. The area west of the city is a bit higher at San Lorenzo reaching 372 m above sea level. The remainder of the territory to the south and west is basically flat except for small hills that do not exceed 300 m above sea level. The climate of Velletri is mild, due to the Tyrrhenian Sea not being far, the climate is very rainy, with an annual average of 1,400 to 1,500 mm precipitation, making it the rainiest city of Lazio and the second in Italy
Velletri
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Panorama of Velletri
Velletri
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Mount Artemisio overshadows Velletri
Velletri
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The Athena of Velletri, found in a villa near the town.
Velletri
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Triumph of Charles III at the Battle of Velletri by Francesco Solimena. Oil on canvas, 1744.
15.
Province of Viterbo
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The province of Viterbo is a province in the region of Lazio in Italy. Its provincial capital is the city of Viterbo, as of 2015, the province has a total population of 321,955 inhabitants over an area of 3,615.24 square kilometres, giving it a population density of 89.05 inhabitants per square kilometre. The provincial president is Marcello Meroi and the province contains 60 comuni, the area of the province of Viterbo contained a number of Etruscan cities including Tuscina, Vetralla, Tarquinia, and Viterbo. Matilda of Tuscany gifted the city to the papacy in the eleventh century, Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor was based in Viterbo as he planned to invade Rome in 1153, and Frederick I conquered the city in 1160 while preparing to attack Rome. The Knights of Saint John were expelled from Rhodes in the 16th century and were granted refuge in Viterbo before they could travel to Malta. Pope Paul III described himself as a citizen of Viterbo and formed a university in the city and it joined the Kingdom of Italy on 12 September 1870 and during World War II, Viterbo was heavily bombed
Province of Viterbo
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Viterbo, the Palace of the Popes.
Province of Viterbo
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Map highlighting the location of the province of Viterbo in Italy
Province of Viterbo
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Panorama of the walls of Civita Castellana.
Province of Viterbo
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Tarquinia, wall painting in the Tomb of the Leopards
16.
Amaseno
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The village is very ancient and named in the Aeneid. A lot of Amasenos people have immigrated in the United States of America, in Canada, the Catholic Church situated at the villages center, St. Mary of Amaseno, houses a relic of St. Lawrence, the ancient Roman deacon martyred in the 3rd Century. A vial of the blood is enshrined there, and every 10 August on his feast day. The reliquary vial has been verified by scientists to contain blood, along with a piece of skin and some fat. The cathedral was consecreted in 1165 and since then the village was known as the Valley of St. Lawrence. The principal food product is the buffalo mozzarella, other important products include olive oil and marzolina. San Lorenzello, Italy Official website www. amasenoonline. com
Amaseno
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Santa Maria Annunziata
Amaseno
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The Auricola
17.
Province of Latina
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The Province of Latina is a province in the Lazio region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Latina and it has an area of 2,251 square kilometres and a total population of 561,189. There are 33 comuni in the province, see Comuni of the Province of Latina, the main comuni by population are, The province of Latina was founded on 18 December 1934, encompassing mainly the drained areas of the Agro Pontino previously part of the province of Rome. Apart the Pontine lands, it includes the Aurunci, Lepini and Ausoni mountain ranges, the port of Gaeta and Formia, in the southernmost part of the province, belonged traditionally and linguistically to Campania. Although the smallest of the provinces in the Lazio region, the province of Latina includes a variety of geographical and historical areas, the mainland area is, in the south- and north-eastern part, mostly occupied by limestone hills and mountains. Ranges include the Lepini, Aurunci, Ausoni, the highest elevation is that of 1, 533-metre Monte Petrella. The climate is semi-continental with hot summers and cold winters, temperatures fall below 0 °C. Tourism is an interesting resource, attracted especially by the uncontaminated nature. The main centres of this area are Cori, Sezze, the Agro Pontino occupies the plain extending southwards from Aprilia to Terracina, along the Tyrrhenian Sea. The sole mountain peak is that of Circeo promontory, the Agro Pontino is the most economically developed part of the province, housing a flourishing agricultural sector and numerous service firms and industries. It also houses much of the basins of the province, like the coast Lakes of Fogliano, Caprolace. Apart the capital, the cities include Cisterna di Latina, Terracina. Cities rich of ancient and medieval history, Gaeta and Formia were traditionally part of the Kingdom of Naples and they belonged to the Campania region until 1934. Traces of the different cultural milieu can be identified in the costumes and, most of all, in the local dialect, Formia and Gaeta constitutes a single metropolitan area with an important port, a station on the main railway line Rome-Naples. Other important centres include Sperlonga and Minturno, once mainly used as penitentiaries, the Pontine Islands are now a renowned tourist resort in summer. The only inhabited islands are Ponza and Ventotene, roman Catholic Archdiocese of Gaeta#Province of Latina Official website
Province of Latina
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Linguistic map of Southern Lazio: Central Italian in pink and Southern Italian (Neapolitan language) in magenta.
Province of Latina
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Map highlighting the location of the province of Latina in Italy
18.
Latium
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Latium is the region of central western Italy in which the city of Rome was founded and grew to be the capital city of the Roman Empire. Latium was originally a triangle of fertile, volcanic soil on which resided the tribe of the Latins or Latians. It was located on the bank of the Tiber river, extending northward to the Anio river. The right bank of the Tiber was occupied by the Etruscan city of Veii, subsequently, Rome defeated Veii and then its Italic neighbors, expanding Latium to the Apennine Mountains in the northeast and to the opposite end of the marsh in the southeast. The modern descendant, the Italian Regione of Lazio, also called Latium in Latin, and occasionally in modern English, is larger still. The ancient language of the Latins, the tribesmen who occupied Latium, was to become the predecessor of the Old Latin language, ancestor of Latin. Latium has played an important role in history owing to its status as the host of the city of Rome. Consequently, Latium is home to celebrated works of art and architecture, in its center is a crater lake, Lacus Albanus, oval in shape, a few km long and wide. The last pagan temple to be built stood until the Middle Ages when its stone and location were reused for various monasteries and finally a hotel. The selection of Jupiter as a god and the descent of the name Latini to the name of the Latin language are sufficient to identify the Latins as a tribe of Indo-European descent. Virgil, a poet of the early Roman Empire, under Augustus, derived Latium from the word for hidden because in a myth Saturn, ruler of the golden age in Latium. A major modern etymology is that Lazio comes from the Latin word latus, meaning wide, the region that would become Latium had been home to settled agricultural populations since the early Bronze Age and was known to the Ancient Greeks and even earlier to the Mycenaean Greeks. The name is most likely derived from the Latin word latus, meaning wide, expressing the idea of land but the name may originate from an earlier. The Etruscans, from their region of Etruria exerted a strong cultural and political influence on Latium from about the 8th century BC onward. Indeed, the cultural and geographic proximity to the cities of Magna Graecia had a strong impact upon its early history. By the 10th century BC, archaeology records a slow development in agriculture from the area of Latium with the establishment of numerous villages. The Latins cultivated grains, grapes, olives, apples, the various Latini populi lived in a society led by influential clans. These clans were a sign of their origin, which continued in Rome as the thirty curiae which organized Roman society
Latium
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Early Latium and Campania
19.
Latins (Italic tribe)
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The Latins, sometimes known as the Latians, were an Italic tribe which included the early inhabitants of the city of Rome. From about 1000 BC, the Latins inhabited the region known to the Romans as Old Latium, that is. The Latins were an Indo-European people who migrated into the Italian peninsula during the late Bronze Age. Their language, Latin, belonged to the Italic branch of Indo-European and their material culture, known as the Latial culture, was a distinctive subset of the Iron Age Villanovan culture that appeared in parts of the Italian peninsula after 1000 BC. Latino-Faliscians occupied the Tyrrhenian coast between the current Lazio and Calabria and overlapped and mingled with the oldest Neolithic peoples and they had cremation burials and possessed advanced metallurgical techniques. Major tribes included, Latins and Falisci in Lazio, Oenotrians and Italii in Calabria, Ausones, Aurunci and Opici in Campania and these included common festivals and religious sanctuaries. The rise of Rome as by far the most populous and powerful Latin state from c. 600 BC led to relations with the other Latin states. In the period of the Tarquin monarchy, it appears that Rome acquired political hegemony over the other states, after the fall of the Roman monarchy in c. This system progressively broke down after c. 390 BC, when Romes aggressive expansionism led to conflict with other Latin states, in 341–338 BC, the Latin states jointly fought the Latin War against Rome in a final attempt to preserve their independence. The war resulted in 338 BC in a decisive Roman victory, the other Latin states were either annexed or permanently subjugated to Rome. It has been suggested that the name Latium derives from the Latin word latus, referring, by extension, if this is true, then Latini originally meant men of the plain. The Latins belonged to a group of Indo-European tribes, conventionally known as the Italic tribes, on this model, it appears likely that the West Italic group were the first wave, followed, and largely displaced by, the East Italic group. This is deduced from the locations of the surviving West Italic niches. Besides Latin, putative members of the West Italic group are Faliscan, the West Italic languages were thus spoken in limited and isolated areas, whereas the East Italic group comprised the Oscan and Umbrian dialects spoken over much of central and southern Italy. However, the chronology of Indo-European immigration remains elusive, as does the relative chronology between of the Italic IE languages and the languages of the peninsula, notably Etruscan. Most scholars consider that Etruscan is a survival, part of a Mediterranean linguistic substratum. Some authors believe that, before the spread of Gaulish language in the plain of the river Po from c, however, Etruscan could equally have been introduced by later migrants. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus preserves the tradition that the Tyrrhenoi originated in Lydia in Anatolia, the tribe spoke the Latin language, a member of the western branch of the Italic languages, in turn a branch of the Indo-European family of languages
Latins (Italic tribe)
Latins (Italic tribe)
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The Lapis Niger, probably the oldest extant Latin inscription (c. 600 BC)
Latins (Italic tribe)
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Villanovan culture cinerary hut-urn, showing the likely shape of Romulus' Hut in Rome: a simple mud-and-straw shelter
Latins (Italic tribe)
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Modern replicas of scuta (shields), as used by the legions of the Imperial Roman army. Note the alae et fulgura ("wings-and-thunderbolts") emblem, representing Jupiter, the highest Roman god
20.
Roman Republic (19th century)
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The Roman Republic was a state declared on February 9,1849, when the government of Papal States was temporarily replaced by a republican government due to Pope Pius IXs flight to Gaeta. The republic was led by Carlo Armellini, Giuseppe Mazzini, together they formed a triumvirate, a reflection of a form of government seen in the ancient Roman Republic. These religious freedoms were quite different from the situation under the preceding government, the Constitution of the Roman Republic was the first in the world to abolish capital punishment in its constitutional law. On November 15,1848, Pellegrino Rossi, the Minister of Justice of the Papal government, was assassinated. The following day, the liberals of Rome filled the streets, where various groups demanded a government, social reforms. On the night of November 24, Pope Pius IX left Rome disguised as an ordinary priest, and went out of the state to Gaeta, a fortress in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Because not only you and your family are dear to Our heart, We repeat they did not know Our thinking, the government issued some liberal reforms which Pius IX rejected and when securely established in Gaeta he designed a new government. A delegation was created by the High Council established by the Pope and the mayor of Rome and this delegation was composed of the mayor himself, Prince Tommaso Corsini, three priests – Rezzi, Mertel and Arrighi – Marchese Paolucci de Calboli, doctor Fusconi and lawyer Rossi. However, they were stopped at the boundary at Terracina. The Pope, informed of this, refused to speak to them, in Rome a Costituente Romana was formed,29 November. Without a local government in Rome, for the first time in history, the Costituenti decided to schedule direct and universal elections on the following 21 January 1849. Since the pope had forbidden Catholics to vote at those elections, in each and every part of the Papal States more than 50% of the potential voters went to the polls. The voters were not asked to express themselves on the parties, the aristocracy was represented with a prince, six marquises, fifteen counts and three other nobles. The new assembly was dominated by the bourgeoisie, the affluent, professionals, the Constitutional Assembly convened on February 8 and proclaimed the Roman Republic after midnight on February 9. According to Jasper Ridley, When the name of Carlo Luciano Bonaparte and that a Roman Republic was a foretaste of wider expectations was expressed in the acclamation of Giuseppe Mazzini as a Roman citizen. Among the first acts of the Republic was the proclamation of the right of the Pope to continue his role as head of the Roman Church, the Triumvirate passed popular legislation to eliminate burdensome taxes and to give work to the unemployed. There the legion rose to about 1000 and gained discipline and organization, the Pope asked for military help from Catholic countries. Mazzini won friends among the poor by confiscating some of the Churchs large landholdings and he inaugurated prison and insane asylum reforms, freedom of the press, and secular education, but shied away from the Right to Work, having seen this measure fail in France
Roman Republic (19th century)
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Giuseppe Mazzini
Roman Republic (19th century)
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State and Civil Flag
Roman Republic (19th century)
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Aurelio Saffi.
Roman Republic (19th century)
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Proclamation of the Roman Republic in 1849, in Piazza del Popolo
21.
Lake Albano
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Lake Albano is a small volcanic crater lake in the Alban Hills of Lazio, at the foot of Monte Cavo,20 kilometres southeast of Rome. Castel Gandolfo, overlooking the lake, is the site of the Papal Palace of Castel Gandolfo, in Roman times it was known as Albanus Lacus and lay not far from the ancient city of Alba Longa. With a depth of about 170 m, Lake Albano is the deepest in Lazio. The lake is 3.5 km long by 2.3 km wide, plutarch reports that in 406 BC the lake surged over the surrounding hills, despite there being no rain nor tributaries flowing into the lake to account for the rise in water level. The ensuing flood destroyed fields and vineyards before eventually pouring into the sea and it is thought to have been caused by volcanic gases, trapped in sediment at the bottom of the lake and gradually building up until suddenly releasing, causing the water to overflow. Around 395 BC, during the wars between Rome and Veii, a tunnel was built crossing the crater walls. It served as an emissary whenever the water level overflowed its mouth, the emissary is at 293 meters over the sea level. The tunnel ends at a spot called Le Mole, below Castel Gandolfo and it hosted the canoeing and rowing events of the 1960 Summer Olympic Games that were held in Rome. The lane marking system developed for these events is referred to as the Albano buoy system. Lakes of Italy Britannica. com Italian Tourism - Lakes The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | Date,2008 | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, Columbia University Press
Lake Albano
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The lake.
Lake Albano
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Provinces
Lake Albano
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Painting by Sylvester Shchedrin, before 1825
Lake Albano
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Lake Albano, George Inness, 1869
22.
Lake Bracciano
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Lake Bracciano is a lake of volcanic origin in the Italian region of Lazio,32 km northwest of Rome. It is the second largest lake in the region and one of the lakes of Italy. It has a perimeter of approximately 32 km. Its inflow is from precipitation runoff and percolation, and from underground springs, the lake owes its origin to intense volcanic activity from 600,000 to 40,000 years before present, which created many small volcanoes in the Sabatino territory. The main magma chamber was situated under the present lake of Bracciano and its collapse created the caldera now occupied by the lake, which is a crater lake. Some small craters are still recognisable around the lake and in the immediate vicinity, three towns border the lake, Bracciano, Anguillara Sabazia and Trevignano Romano. The lake is an important tourist attraction situated near Rome, as it serves as a drinking water reservoir for the city of Rome it has been under control since 1986 in order to avoid pollution of its waters. The use of motorboats is strictly forbidden, and a sewer system has been built for all the bordering towns in order to avoid any spoiling of the water quality. This makes Bracciano one of the cleanest lakes of Italy, the absence of motorized navigation favours sailing, canoeing and swimming. In the last few years the lake and its surroundings have been brought under protection by the creation of a regional park. Under Pope Paul V, water was brought from Lake Bracciano to the Trastevere region of Rome and to the Rione of Regola. The oldest post Fugazzola Delpino has discovered at La Marmotta dates from around 5,690 BCE and she is more certain of when it died, within a decade of so of 5230 BCE. The strongest evidence that the Marmottans came from far away, probably originally making their way Arrone to its source in Lake Bracciano, is simply that their culture was advanced. In the region around Lake Bracciano, according to Fugazzola Delpino, there is no sign of any but hunter-gatherers before the settlement was built at La Marmotta. They kept sheep and goats, they brought pigs and cows with them too and they cultivated flax to make linen. They planted opium poppies One of their boats has been recovered, a team of Czech archeologists built a copy of the boat and sailed it 500 miles along the Mediterranean coast to test its seaworthiness. Italian Air Force Museum TurismoBracciano - The Lake of Bracciano Bracciano Tourism website
Lake Bracciano
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From Castello Orsini-Odescalchi, Bracciano, in 2009
Lake Bracciano
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View from space of Lake Bracciano and surroundings
23.
Lago di Fondi
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The plain is a basin below the arc of the Monti Ausoni and the Monti Lepini. In addition to the flows from springs, a number of canals have been constructed from regions of the marsh below sea level to drain water from the marsh into the lake, pumping stations are required to lift the water into the canals. Before the marsh was reclaimed the lake was part of it, canals at either end of the lake connect it to the Tyrrhenian Sea. A barrier fringe of sand developed offshore enclosing first a lagoon, the positions of the lakes are determined by local elevations and equilibrium between inflow and outflow. In the last few centuries bonifica or restoration, of the marshland to produce agricultural land, according to the Water Framework Directive of the European Union the lagoons of Lazio are transitional waters, partly saline but influenced by freshwater flows. Although the geology is the same in this case the ecology is far from it, transitional waters tend to be biodiverse, each case is a habitat island due to variability of the environmental, or abiotic, factors from locality to locality. The ecotomes, or transitional communities created, are unique, in 2008 a group of scientists from the University of Salento published a study of biodiversity in 26 Italian lagoons. They compared the composition of benthic macro-invertebrate guilds in the lakes. The 944 taxa included 343 families, any two lakes can be given a percentage similarity based on the number of taxa they contain in common. Using the methods of cladistics the investigators constructed a cladogram of lagoons, of the second group, Fondi and Lungo, both of the South Pontino, were most like each other. The other lakes of that group are all of Agro Pontino, all similarities were considered low, only two lagoons overall shared more than 50% of the families. In essence, each lagoon contains its own species, with a slight similarity for geographic proximity. Fondi Basset, Alberto, Pinna, Maurizio, Sabetta, Letizia, Barbone, Enrico, Galuppo, hierarchical scaling of biodiversity in lagoon ecosystems
Lago di Fondi
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View of the Piana di Fondi from Temple of Jupiter Anxur over Terracina, looking southeast. The lake and a canal joining it to the Tyrrhenian Sea are visible in the upper left.
24.
Lake Martignano
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Lake Martignano, is a small lake in Lazio, Italy 24 kilometres north-north-west of Rome, in an extinct crater or maar. Administratively its coast is divided amongst the municipalities of Rome, Anguillara Sabazia, in ancient times Lake Martignano was part of southern Etruria and called Alsietinus Lacus. There is a beach, lake-side cafes and restaurants. An 11 000-year record of vegetation and environment from Lago di Martignano, Latium, Italy
Lake Martignano
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Lake Martignano
25.
Lago di Rascino
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Lago di Rascino is a lake karst mountain in the Province of Rieti, Lazio, Italy, in the territory of Fiamignano, in Cicolano. At an elevation of 1146 m, its area is 0.283 km². It is located at the edge of the large karst plateau. Not having tributaries, the reservoir collects rainwater and snow and the presence of karst sinkholes allows the outflow, pike Tench Rudd Carp Perch Carling
Lago di Rascino
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Lago di Rascino
26.
Lake Vico
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Lake Vico is a caldera lake in the northern Lazio region, central Italy. It is one of the highest major Italian lakes, with an altitude of 510 m, administratively, it is part of the municipalities of Caprarola and Ronciglione. The lake is surrounded by the Cimini Hills, in particular by the Fogliano and it is part of the Lake Vico Natural Reserve. According to legend, the lake was created by Hercules, who defied the local inhabitants by wielding his club, when he did this, a stream sprang up and formed the lake. Lake Vico occupies the caldera of Vico Volcano. A volcanic cone was built up in a series of eruptions that occurred 305,000 to 258,000 years ago, the lake is drained by the River Vicano. Before the construction of a tunnel by the Etruscans, the lake was deeper than today. The area is famous for its extensive beech forest, which is one of the most southerly in Europe, the elevation, plus the surrounding sides of the crater, create cool enough conditions for the continued survival of the trees. A large part of the side of the crater is a nature reserve to protect this forest. An incomplete list of wildlife present in the Vico Natural Preserve include, Ronciglione Caprarola Viterbo Vetralla Capranica Lake Vico VR panoramas at Tuscia 360
Lake Vico
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Lake Vico Lago di Vico
Lake Vico
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View from space of Lake Vico and surroundings including Rome
27.
Aurunci Mountains
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The Monti Aurunci or Aurunci Mountains is a mountain range of southern Lazio, in central Italy. It is part of the Antiappennini, a running from the Apennines chain to the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is bounded to the north-west by the Ausoni Mountains, to the north by the Liri river, to the east by the Ausente, to the south-east by the Garigliano and to the south by the Tyrrhenian sea. The line between the Aurunci and the Ausoni has not been established but the Aurunci are considered by convention to be east of a line through Fondi, Lenola, Pico, S. Giovanni. Altitudes vary from hills to the 1,533 m of Monte Petrella, main peaks include the Redentore and Monte SantAngelo. They include a Regional Park, the Parco Naturale dei Monti Aurunci, the mountains take the name from the ancient tribe of the Aurunci, an offshoot of the Ausoni. Both tribes were derived from the Italic people who were called by the Romans the Volsci, hence, the Monti Lepini, the Monti Ausoni and the Monti Aurunci are also called the Volsci or Volscian Chain. Coincidentally they are all of the same karst topography and have the same orogeny, the Monti Aurunci mainly consist of friable limestone, which becomes harder toward Gaeta. The degree of faulting and cracking is so high that the mountains retain no rainfall, the stream beds are dry except for vernal pools. Most generally, the central coastal region of Italy is the front of a subduction zone where the African plate moving locally from southwest to northeast is carried under the European plate. There is some counterclockwise rotation of Italy, hence the faults in the Tyrrhenian Sea slip both parallel to the shoreline and perpendicular to it, the surface rock in the Anti-Apennines was deposited on the floor of Tethys Sea during the Jurassic and Cretaceous of the Mesozoic. This lighter calcareous rock rides over the front of the zone, uplifted by compressional. This landform began to appear in the Messinian stage of the Miocene and it went on to mature in the Pliocene. In the Pleistocene the basins filled with sediment from the weak run-off of the mountains. Of the Amphibians, Urodela are found at around 557 m and Anura at around 314 m in vernal pools, springs and wells. The salamanders are Salamandrina perspicillata, Triturus carnifex, Lissotriton italicus and Lissotriton vulgaris, the Garigliano Nuclear Power Plant was constructed from 1959 to 1963 by General Electric on the Garigliano River, the water of which they used for cooling, on the border of the Monti Aurunci. It was intended to provide power to the region. Subsequent flooding carried the waste downstream into the Gulf of Gaeta, the effect on the ecology was toxic
Aurunci Mountains
28.
Monte Cavo
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Monte Cavo, or less occasionally, Monte Albano, is the second highest mountain of the complex of the Alban Hills, near Rome, Italy. An old volcano extinguished around 10,000 years ago, it lies about 20 km from the sea and it is the dominant peak of the Alban Hills. The current name comes from Cabum, an Italic settlement existing on this mountain, volcanic activity under king Tullus Hostilius on the site was reported by Livy in his book of Roman history. there had been a shower of stones on the Alban Mount. On the Mons Albanus, between January and March, the Latin Festivals were held, the newly chosen Consuls had to sacrifice to Jupiter Latiaris and to announce the Latin Holidays. When the Consul obtained a victory in war he also had to celebrate the triumph on the Alban Mount, here in the Latium temple were celebrated every year the Feriae Latinae for four days by the representatives of 47 cities. In 531 BC, King Tarquinius Superbus built here a temple shared with the Latins, the Hernici and the Volsci, in return, Jupiter Latiaris conferred upon whoever was elected head of the Latin confederation, the power of dictator latinus. A triumphal procession along this sacred way left the Appian Way at Ariccia, more than 5 km of this way is well preserved through the woods. The history of the Pagan temple of Iuppiter Latiaris was interrupted in the early Middle Ages and it was visited by Pope Pius II in 1463, and subsequently by Pope Alexander VII. After the Dalmatian hermits the Polish religious order of Edmondo of Buisson was established there, then the Trinitarian Spaniards, then the hermitage was converted to a monastery. The Passionists came in 1758 and restored it in 1783, using the materials of the temple of Jupiter, as found and raised by Henry Benedict Stuart, Duke of York, bishop of Frascati. During this period there were guests in the monastery, the king Francis II of Naples in 1865, the contemplative-missionaries abandoned the monastery in 1889. From 1942 the hotel was used as base for radio communications by the German Wehrmacht. On June 3,1944, soldiers of 142nd Regiment-36th Infantry Division, in the post-war era the structure became a telecommunications station. Access is prohibited to unauthorized persons, a few blocks of the ancient temple are still visible behind the fenced area. The unsightly presence of the antennae has been a cause of some civil complaint, strabo - Geographica book V chapter 3 - Rome 20 BC This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed. T. J. Cornell - The beginnings of Rome, Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to Punic War - London 1995 - ISBN 0-415-01596-0 Livy, Ab urbe condita Book I cap
Monte Cavo
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Monte Cavo (on the right of Alban Hills)
Monte Cavo
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Hotel Monte Cavo at the beginning of the 20th century.
Monte Cavo
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The same structure used as a telecommunications station at the end of the 20th century.
29.
Cimini Hills
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The Monti Cimini, in English, Cimini Hills, are a range of densely wooded volcanic hills approximately 56 km north-west of Rome. They are part of the Antiapennine range, facing the Apennines main range towards the Tyrrhenian Sea and they are situated in the centre of Tuscia Viterbese, the highest point at Mount Cimino,1,053 m above sea level. Lake Vico, a crater lake, is situated in the hills. The vegetation is predominantly beech forestation, the area is renowned for its hot springs, renaissance villas and Etruscan ruins
Cimini Hills
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The Mount Fogliano and Lake Vico.
30.
Monti Sabatini
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The mountains are part of the Lazios Anti-Apennines. Included between the Monti Sabatini is the Lake Bracciano, which is a depression formed about 3.7 Ma. The sedimentary base of the Sabatini complex lies buried under 200 m of volcanic ash, the highest point is Monte Rocca Romana, at 612 m. Other mountains in the area include Monti della Tolfa, Monte Soratte, list of volcanoes in Italy Monti Volsini Monti Cimini Sabatini Volcanic Complex
Monti Sabatini
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A view from the space of the Sabatini region, showing Lake Bracciano as the dark round structure. Source: Nasa Shuttle.
Monti Sabatini
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Lake Bracciano.
31.
Monte Soratte
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Monte Soratte is a mountain ridge in the province of Rome, Italy. It is a narrow, isolated limestone ridge with a length of 5.5 km, located some 10 km south east of Civita Castellana and c.45 km north of Rome, it is the sole notable ridge in the Tiber Valley. The nearest settlement is the village of SantOreste, saint Orestes or Edistus, after whom the settlement is named, is said to have been martyred near Monte Soratte. The highest summit is 691 m above sea-level, the ridge is part of a 444-hectare Natural Reserve housing a variety of vegetation and fauna. It is also characterized by the so-called Meri, pits which can be up to 115 metres deep, the area was used by the ancient Italic tribes of the area for the cult of the God Soranus. Mount Soratte was mentioned by Horace, and Virgil, who stated that Apollo was its guardian deity, the hermitage of St. Sylvester is just below the summit. According to a legend, its church was founded by Pope Sylvester, the church houses 14th- and 15th-century frescoes. Another four hermitages are on the ridge, the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie was built in 1835 over a pre-existing 16th-century edifice and houses a once highly venerated image of the Madonna. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe mentioned the peak in Italian Journey, his diary of his travels through Italy from 1786–1788 and he wrote that Soracte stands out by itself in magnificent solitude. Probably this mountain is made of limestone and belongs to the Apennines, during World War II, after the 8 September 1943 bombing raid of Frascati, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring moved his headquarters from Frascati to the bunkers in Monte Soratte. Mount Soratte was also nicknamed Mount of Mussolini, as its profile seen from Magliano Sabina mimics that of the former Italian duce wearing a helmet
Monte Soratte
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Mount Soratte seen from Via Flaminia
32.
Mount Circeo
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Monte Circeo or Cape Circeo is a mountain remaining as a promontory that marks the southwestern limit of the former Pontine Marshes. Although a headland, it was not formed by coastal erosion – as headlands are usually formed – but is a remnant of the processes that created the Apennines. At the northern end of the Gulf of Gaeta, it is about 5 kilometres long by 1.5 kilometres wide at the base, running from east to west and surrounded by the sea on all sides except the north. The land to the north of it is 15 metres above sea level, while the headland is quite steep and hilly, the land immediately to the east of it is low-lying and very swampy. Most of the ancient swamp has been reclaimed for agriculture and urban areas, the mountain is composed mostly of marl and sandstone from the Paleogene and of limestone from the lower Early Jurassic. In 1939, the skull of a Neanderthal man was found in the Guattari Cave by a led by Alberto Carlo Blanc. Several other findings also prove that the mountain was inhabited in prehistorical times, upon the east end of the promontory ridge are the remains of an enceinte, a polygonal structure that roughly forms a rectangle and that measures about 200 by 100 metres. The blocks are carefully cut and jointed, right angles were intentionally avoided. The wall stands almost entirely free, as at Arpinum – polygonal walls in Italy typically form embanking walls –, the blocks of the inner face are much less carefully worked both here and at Arpinum. It seems to have been an acropolis, and contains no traces of buildings, except for a cistern, circular. Circeii, as it was known, was founded as a Roman colony at an early date – according to some authorities in the time of Tarquinius Superbus, –. The Roman colonists were expelled by the Volsci in around 490 BC during a war between two states.5 kilometres north of the west end of the promontory. An inscription speaks of an amphitheatre, of which no remains are visible, the transference of the city did not, however, mean the abandonment of the east end of the promontory, on which stand the remains of several very large villas. An inscription, indeed, cut in the rock near San Felice, speaks about this part of the Latin, on the south and north sides of the promontory, there are comparatively few buildings while at the west end there is a sheer precipice to the sea. The town only acquired municipal rights after the Social War and was unimportant except as a seaside resort, cicero compares its villas with those at Antium, and probably both Tiberius and Domitian resided there. Presumably, Domitians villa contained important artistic works, such as the Apollo and the Faun With the Transverse Flute, the view from the highest summit of the promontory is remarkably beautiful, the whole mountain is covered with fragrant shrubs. From any point in the Pontine Marshes or on the coast-line of Latium, mount Circeo is today included in the National Park of Circeo, established in 1934 on 5,616 ha over the territories of Latina, Sabaudia, San Felice Circeo and Zannone Island
Mount Circeo
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Mount Circeo as seen from Terracina, Italy
Mount Circeo
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Mount Circeo as seen from the beach of dunes in Sabaudia, Italy.
Mount Circeo
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"Torre Paola" at Sabaudia, a 16th-century watchtower built by will of Pope Pius IV at the west end of the promontory, guarding the canal.
33.
Castelli Romani
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The so-called Roman Castles are a group of comunes in the Metropolitan City of Rome. They are located at short distance south-east of the city of Rome, at the feet of the Alban Hills, the area of the castles occupies a fertile volcanic area which has allowed since ancient times a flourishing agriculture. The former crater is occupied by two lakes, the Lake of Nemi and that of Albano, families which ruled in the castles include Orsini, Colonna, Chigi, Aldobrandini, Savelli, Annibaldi and Ruspoli. The DOC red and rosés are composed of Cesanese Comune, Merlot, Montepulciano, Nero Buono, the white wines of the region are composed of Malvasia Candia, Puntinata and Trebbiano with up to 30% of other local white grape varieties. Ariccia is celebrated for its porchetta, local sweets include maritozzi, a kind of sweet bun. History of Rome History of Lazio Castelli Romani Portal of the Castelli Romani Cultural/tourist Portal of the Castles Roman Italy Travel video in English of the Castelli Romani
Castelli Romani
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The Savelli Castle in Rocca Priora
Castelli Romani
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The Lake Albano. In the background Castel Gandolfo
34.
Ciociaria
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Ciociaria is an area of Central Italy roughly corresponding to the province of Frosinone, but without a defined border nor historical identity. The name was adopted by a fascist movement of Frosinone as an ethnical denomination for the province of Frosinone, in the Middle Ages, this region was referred to as Campagna. The local dialect, now known as ciociaro, was referred to as campanino. The term first appears in a map of the Papal States, the variant Cioceria has been used since the 18th century. The name Ciociaria comes from the primitive footwear of its inhabitants and these shoes are rarely used nowadays, but remain as a local symbol, used by folklore groups, and for historical celebrations. Ciociaria has annual food fairs, entertainment events and music festivals, religious, country and rural traditions are still strong and alive. During popular events people wear costumes with the typical footwear, the ‘cioce’. Part of the Ciociarian folklore are the songs, both sacred and profane, dances such as the saltarello, accompanied by music and the dishes of local cuisine. The Symbol of Ciociara is a copper amphora called Conca, formerly used to water from the fountains. Wicker and “vinchio” are woven in the shape of baskets, hampers, bags, gold and coral jewellery have always been worn by the famous “balie ciociare”. The main producing towns are Alatri, Anagni, Fiuggi, Veroli, works in copper and wrought iron can be found in Ferentino, Serrone and Frosinone, in Veroli there is an “Exhibition of Wrought-Iron” held every two years. The travertine of Anagni is extracted from local quarries, there are embroideries, like the embroidered towels and tablecloths of Veroli and Boville Ernica and the holy vestments of Anagni, “the Town of Popes”. The day following the Battle of Monte Cassino, Goumiers rampaged through the surrounding countryside committing mass rape in Ciociaria, victims of such crimes became known in Italy as marocchinate, literally translatable as Moroccaned. Alberto Moravia wrote a novel on the event, which was made into a movie directed by Vittorio de Sica. Ciociaria in cinematography Media related to Ciociaria at Wikimedia Commons CiociariaTurismo, official turist site of Ciociaria
Ciociaria
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Fresco representing the Campagne and Maritime Province, in Vatican Museums
Ciociaria
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Ciociara (woman from Ciociaria) by Enrique Simonet.
Ciociaria
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Cioce as they appear in the real rural usage
Ciociaria
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Linguistic map of Ciociaria: Central Italian in pink and Southern Italian (Neapolitan language) in magenta.
35.
Pontine marshes
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The northwestern border runs approximately from the mouth of the river Astura along the river and from its upper reaches to Cori in the Monti Lepini. The former marsh is a low tract of agricultural land created by draining and filling. The area amounts to about 80,000 ha, the Via Appia, a Roman military road constructed in 312 BC, crosses the inland side of the former marsh in a long, straight stretch flanked by trees. Before then, travelers had to use the Via Latina along the flanks of the mountains and it was part of ancient Latium adiectum and still belongs to Lazio. Bordered by the Aurunci Mountains, this land is reclaimed, as well. Leaving Terracina, the Via Appia crosses it, as well, the marsh was an extensive alluvial plain at about sea level created by the failure of the streams draining the mountains to find clearly defined outlets to the sea through the barrier dunes. Above sea level, it was a swamp, below, it was mud flats. Sparsely inhabited throughout much of their history, the Pontine Marshes were the subject of land reclamation work performed periodically. The tribe of the Volsci began with minor draining projects in the vicinity of Tarracina in connection with their occupation of it in the pre-Roman period, the road proved difficult to keep above water. Under Augustus, a compromise was reached with the construction of a parallel canal, the part of the marsh above sea level was successfully drained by channels, and new agricultural land of legendary fertility came into being. Whenever the channels were not maintained, the swamp reappeared, meanwhile, frequent epidemics of malaria at Rome and elsewhere kept the reclamation issue alive. Under Benito Mussolinis regime in the 1930s, the problem was solved by placing dikes. It continues to need constant maintenance, Italian confidence in the project was so high, the city placed by Mussolini in 1932 in the center of the marsh, Latina, became the capital of a new province, Latina. The marsh itself was located in Latium Novum, the part of the region. The two terms create some confusion in the literature, as the region was heavily settled. The underlying land form is a horst–graben, in expansion of the crust causes a section to drop. Underneath the marsh is such a valley, while the steeply sided Volscian Mountains, the graben was formed over a period approximated by the end of the Pliocene about 2.588 million years ago. The natural outcome of this topography was the creation of outer barrier islands
Pontine marshes
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Hunting in the Pontine Marshes, oil on canvas by Horace Vernet, 1833.
Pontine marshes
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Lake Fogliano, a coastal lagoon in the Pontine Plain.
Pontine marshes
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Terracina today, looking northward at the promontory: The former marsh to the right of it stretches over the horizon. In the lower right corner, the Volscian Mountains descend to the edge of the narrow strip on which Terracina is situated.
Pontine marshes
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National Park of Circeo, on the coast of the Pontine Fields: The view is an aerial photograph. Visible in the foreground is Lago di Fogliano, one of the laghi costieri, "coastal lagoons".
36.
Sabina (region)
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For the Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox Saint, see at the Basilica of Santa Sabina, and for Hadrians wife, see Vibia Sabina. Sabina, also called the Sabine Hills, is a region in central Italy. It is named after Sabina, the territory of the ancient Sabines and it was separated from Umbria by the River Nar, todays Nera, and from Etruria by the River Tiber. Today, Sabina is mainly northeast of Rome in the regions Lazio, Umbria, upper Sabina is in the province of Rieti. Sabina Romana is in the province of Rome, part of Sabina is in the regions of Umbria and Abruzzo. Some Sabines who lived in two of the Seven Hills of Rome formed part of the postulation of Rome at the time of its foundation, the second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius, was from Cures, the capital of Sabina. During the reigns of the Roman kings Ancus Marcius and Tarquinius Priscus the Sabines attacked roman territory several times and this also occurred during the early period of the Roman Republic. After the Third Samnite War, the Romans moved to crush the Sabines, the Roman consul Manius Curius Dentatus pushed deep into Sabina in the area between the rivers Nar and Anio and the source of the River Avens. Spurius Carvilius confiscated large tracts of land in the plain around Reate and Amiternum, florus did not give the reasons for this campaign. The modem historian Salmon speculates that it might have been because of the part they had played or failed to play in the events of 296/295. That is, they let the Samnites cross their territory to go to Etruria and join forces with the Etruscans, Umbrians, forsythe also speculates that it may have been a punishment for this. Livy mentioned that Dentatus subdued the rebellious Sabines, the Sabines were given citizenship without the right to vote, which meant that their territory was effectively annexed to the Roman Republic. Reate and Amiternum were given full Roman citizenship in 268 BC, in the Augustan division of Italy, Sabina was included in the region IV Samnium. With Diocletians late 3rd-century administrative reforms, Italy became a Roman diocese and was subdivided into Roman provinces, Sabina became part of the province of Samnium. Constantine the Great turned Italy into a praetorian prefecture and subdivided it into two dioceses, Sabina fell under the diocese of Italia suburbicaria as the province of Valeria. With the Lombard invasion of Italy in the Early Middle Ages, with the Byzantine reconquest of central Italy, it came under the Duchy of Rome of the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna. With the rise of the Papal States, Sabina was governed directly by the pontificate or indirectly, by the counts of Sabina, a title of the noble Crescentii family in the 10th and 11th centuries. During the late 9th to early 10th century, the region was, along much of central Italy
Sabina (region)
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Landscape of Sabina at Norcia.
37.
Tiber
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It drains a basin estimated at 17,375 square kilometres. The river has achieved lasting fame as the watercourse of the city of Rome. The river rises at Mount Fumaiolo in central Italy and flows in a southerly direction past Perugia. However, it does not form a delta, owing to a strong north-flowing sea current close to the shore, to the steep shelving of the coast. The source of the Tiber consists of two springs 10 metres away from each other on Mount Fumaiolo and these springs are called Le Vene. The springs are in a beech forest 1,268 metres above sea level, during the 1930s, Benito Mussolini placed an antique marble Roman column at the point where the river arises, inscribed QUI NASCE IL FIUME SACRO AI DESTINI DI ROMA. There is an eagle on the top of this column, the first miles of the Tiber run through Valtiberina before entering Umbria. It is probable that the genesis of the name Tiber was pre-Latin, like the Roman name of Tibur, the same root is found in the Latin praenomen Tiberius. There are also Etruscan variants of this praenomen in Thefarie and Teperie, the legendary king Tiberinus, ninth in the king-list of Alba Longa, was said to have drowned in the river Albula, which was afterward called Tiberis. Yet another etymology is from *dubri-, water, considered by Alessio as Sicel and this root *dubri- is widespread in Western Europe e. g. Dover, Portus Dubris. According to the legend, Jupiter made him a god and guardian spirit of the river and this gave rise to the standard Roman depiction of the river as a powerfully built reclining god, also named Tiberinus, with streams of water flowing from his hair and beard. The Tiber was also believed to be the river into which Romulus and Remus were thrown as infants, according to legend, the city of Rome was founded in 753 BC on the banks of the Tiber about 25 kilometres from the sea at Ostia. The island Isola Tiberina in the centre of Rome, between Trastevere and the ancient center, was the site of an important ancient ford and was later bridged. Legend says Romes founders, the twin brothers Romulus and Remus, were abandoned on its waters, the river marked the boundary between the lands of the Etruscans to the west, the Sabines to the east and the Latins to the south. Benito Mussolini, born in Romagna, adjusted the boundary between Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna, so that the springs of the Tiber would lie in Romagna and it was later used to ship stone, timber and foodstuffs to Rome. During the Punic Wars of the 3rd century BC, the harbour at Ostia became a key naval base and it later became Romes most important port, where wheat, olive oil, and wine were imported from Romes colonies around the Mediterranean. Wharves were also built along the riverside in Rome itself, lining the riverbanks around the Campus Martius area, the Romans connected the river with a sewer system and with an underground network of tunnels and other channels, to bring its water into the middle of the city. Wealthy Romans had garden-parks or horti on the banks of the river in Rome up through the first century BC and these may have been sold and developed about a century later
Tiber
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The Tiber in Rome
Tiber
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Mussolini's headstone near the source of Tiber
Tiber
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Roman representation of Tiber as a god (Tiberinus) with cornucopia at the Campidoglio, Rome.
Tiber
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View of the Tiber looking towards the Vatican City.
38.
Affile
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Affile is a comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome in the Italian region Latium, located about 50 kilometres east of Rome. Archaeology has showed the existence of a pre-Roman centre here, on the border of the lands of the Hernici, in the 1st century AD it is mentioned as oppidum Afile by Frontinus. It was crossed by the Via Sublacense, in the 10th century a village existed in the former Roman oppidum, centred on the church of St. Peter. In 1013 a castle is cited in Affile, which in 1109 was ceded by Pope Paschal II to the Abbey of St. Scholastica of Subiaco, later it was a possession of the Altieri and Braschi families. In 999 emperor Otto III founded in the site a church, church of St. Peter, known from the early 6th century. The last renovation is from the 15th century and it has frescoes from the 13th and 16th-17th centuries. Church of Santa Felicita Castrum, site on a different hill of the site of Affile around St. Peters church. It had once numerous towers, gates and massive walls, of which traces remain. On 11 August 2012 a publicly funded mausoleum and memorial park was unveiled in the town to Rodolfo Graziani, the event was met with widespread criticism in the national and international media. The mausoleum was reported to cost Euro 127,000, paid for by taxpayers from regional funds and he later defended the council’s decision by stating that “Graziano was not a war criminal” However, demonstrations against the memorial were quickly organised. On 12 September the monument was damaged and covered in graffiti, the monument has also been denounced in Ethiopia. Speaking after the 18th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, historian Bahru Zewde said and he went on to fulfill that vow with indiscriminate use of chemical weapons and the massacre of thousands of Ethiopians. Graziani was never tried for his war crimes in Africa, had he been alive, there is no doubt that he would have been forced to face justice at the International Criminal Court. The erection with public funds of a monument for someone who has the blood of so many Africans on his hands is therefore adding insult to injury. Elsewhere, a protest was held in London on 31 August 2012 outside the Italian Ambassador’s Residence, which was followed by a further demonstration in Washington on 5 November 2012
Affile
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Affile
39.
Ardea, Lazio
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Ardea is an ancient town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome,35 kilometres south of Rome and about 4 kilometres from todays Mediterranean coast. The economy is based on agriculture, although, starting from the 1970s. Ardea is one of the most ancient towns in western Europe, founded about in the 8th century BC was the capital of the Rutuli, mentioned in the Aeneid. After the Roman conquest, Ardea was most often mentioned in connection with the Via Ardeatina, one of the consular roads, in 509 BC Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the king of Rome sought unsuccessfully to take the town by storm, and then commenced a siege of the town. However the siege was interrupted by the revolution resulted in the overthrow of the king. One of the leaders of the revolution, Lucius Junius Brutus, came to the camp of the Roman army at Ardea, in 443 BC the Volscians laid siege to Ardea. The siege was broken by Roman troops under the leadership of Marcus Geganius Macerinus. During the Second Punic War, it was one of the few cities that refused military support to Rome, in the 3rd-2nd centuries BC it decayed until, in the Imperial Age, it was scarcely populated at all. The 1st century agricultural writer Columella possessed estates there, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Ardea was abandoned. It returned to only after the 9th century AD. Its castle in 1118 housed Pope Gelasius II and was later contended among various feudal barons of the area, in 1419 Pope Martin V assigned it to his kinsmen, the Colonna family, who sold it in 1564 to the Cesarini. In 1816 it became a frazione of Genzano, remains of the ancient city include the old defensive agger, dating to the 7th century BC and later updated to larger walls. Archaeological excavations have brought to four temples, of unknown dedication. Part of the pavement of a basilica have also found in the area of the ancient Forum. Other sights include, The Church of Santa Marina, erected in 1191 by Cencio Savelli, the interior, on a single nave, was originally entirely frescoed. Romanesque Church of San Pietro Apostolo, which was a possession of the monks of San Paolo Fuori le Mura of Rome and it incorporates a former watchtower used to counter Saracen attacks, now turned into a bell tower. It has 15th-century frescoes and a 16th-century wooden crucifix, the Giardini della Landriana, designed by Russell Page. Giacomo Manzù Museum, housing some 400 works of the artist, tor San Lorenzo, a tower in the eponymous seaside frazione
Ardea, Lazio
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The church of St. Peter.
40.
Ariccia
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Ariccia is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome, central Italy,16 miles south-east of Rome. It is in the Alban Hills of the Lazio region and could be considered an extension of Romes southeastern suburbs, one of the Castelli Romani towns, Ariccia is located in the regional park known as the Parco Regionale dei Castelli Romani. Ariccia is the center of a region that was important in Roman and pre-Roman mythology and religion because of its association with the goddess Diana. Legend also recalls that it served as a burial place of the Greek hero Orestes. Ariccia was one of the oldest cities of ancient Latium, in modern times, Ariccia has become famous for its porchetta, pork that is slowly roasted with herbs and wild fennel, and it has been known since historical times for its wine. The comune of Ariccia includes the frazioni of Vallericcia and Fontana di Papa and it is bounded by the communes of Albano Laziale, Castel Gandolfo, Genzano di Roma and Marino Laziale. There is a connection between the name and Aricia, the wife of Hippolytus, the Roman forest god who lived in the sacred forests near Aricia. According to a reference by Caius Julius Solinus, Ariccia was founded by Archilocus Siculus in very ancient times. Ruins found in the city confirm the existence of a settlement in the 8th-9th centuries BC, from the end of the 6th century BC until 338 BC, the city was the central member of the Latin League. The association with the cult of Diana led to its development as an influential and affluent center of healing, in 508 BC, Lars Porsena king of Clusium departed Rome after ending his war against Rome by peace treaty. Porsena split his forces, and sent part of the Clusian army with his son Aruns to wage war on the Latin city of Aricia, the Aricians sent for assistance from the Latin League, and also from the Greek city of Cumae. When support arrived, the Arician army ventured beyond the walls of the city, according to Livy, the Clusians initially routed the Arician forces, but the Cumaean troops allowed the Clusians to pass by, then attacked from the rear, gaining victory against the Clusians. Livy says the Clusian army was destroyed, in 495 BC, Aricia was the site of a battle between the Aurunci and Rome, Rome being the victor. Aricia was definitively conquered by the Romans in the 4th century BC and it received the title of municipium, and expanded towards the valley below, where the Via Appia connected it with Rome. Ariccia became, therefore, the first main posting station on the journey from Rome towards southern Italy. Being rather near to the Imperial capital, and favoured by a fresher climate and it also was recognized for the caliber of its wine and food stuffs. Martial wrote favorably of its leeks and Pliny relished a unique variety of Arician cabbages, the inhabitants subsequently moved to the ancient acropolis and founded a new community. In 990 the Castrum Ariciensis was a dominion of Guido, count of Tusculum, during the reign of Pope Nicholas II the castle was absorbed by the Papal States, from which it in turn passed again to the Earls of Tusculum as a fiefdom
Ariccia
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Ariccia and Vallericcia
Ariccia
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View of the historical centre from the great bridge.
Ariccia
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The church of Santa Maria Assunta by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
Ariccia
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Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Ariccia Palazzo Chigi, 1826-27.
41.
Bracciano
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Bracciano is a small town in the Italian region of Lazio,30 kilometres northwest of Rome. The town is famous for its lake and for a particularly well-preserved medieval castle Castello Orsini-Odescalchi. The lake is used for sailing and is popular with tourists. The town is served by a railway which connects it with Rome in about 55 minutes. Close to it lie the two towns of Anguillara Sabazia and Trevignano Romano. There is no information about the origins of Bracciano, on the Via Cassia overlooking the lake. It probably rose from one of the towers built in the tenth century as a defence against the Saracen attacks. In the eleventh century the territory was acquired by the Prefetti di Vico family. Ferdinand Gregorovius dated the possession of Bracciano by the Orsini to 1234, the area was later acquired by the Roman hospital of Santo Spirito in Sassia and, from 1375, was a Papal possession. In 1419 the Colonna Pope Martin V confirmed the fief of Bracciano in the Orsini family branch of Tagliacozzo. Under this powerful family the city developed into a town, famous in the whole of Italy for its castle. In 1481 it housed Pope Sixtus IV, who had fled from the plague in Rome, four years later, however, the city and the castle were ravaged by Papal troops under Prospero Colonna, and subsequently a new line of walls was built. In 1494 Charles VIII of France and his troops marching against Rome stopped at Bracciano. This act led to the excommunication of the Orsini, and in 1496 the city was besieged by an army headed by Giovanni di Candia, son of Pope Alexander VI Borgia. Cesare Borgia, another of Alexanders natural sons, was unsuccessful in his attempt to take the Orsini stronghold a few years later, the sixteenth century was a period of splendour for Bracciano. The castello received some modernization for the visit of the Medici that year. Isabella spent the remainder of her life avoiding a return to the castle, the economy was boosted by the exploitation of sulphur and iron, the production of tapestries and paper. The latter was favoured by the construction of an aqueduct whose ruins can still be seen in the city, Bracciano in this period had some 4,500 inhabitants
Bracciano
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A view of the Castello Orsini-Odescalchi.
Bracciano
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The historic center of Bracciano.
Bracciano
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The castle seen from the hospital parking lot.
Bracciano
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The lake as seen from Largo Falcone and Borsellino, near the castle.
42.
Castel Gandolfo
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Castel Gandolfo is a town located 15 miles southeast of Rome in the Lazio region of Italy. Occupying a height on the Alban Hills overlooking Lake Albano, Castel Gandolfo has a population of approximately 8,834 residents and is considered one of Italys most scenic towns. Within the towns boundaries lies the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo which served as a residence and vacation retreat for the pope. Although the palace is located within the borders of Castel Gandolfo, however, it was acknowledged on October 21,2016 that the palace was no longer owned by the Vatican and that it was now open to the public as part of a museum. The resort community includes almost the whole coastline of Lake Albano which is surrounded by many summer residences, villas and it houses the Stadio Olimpico that staged the rowing events during the Rome Olympics. Castel Gandolfo has several places of archaeological interest including the Emissario del Lago Albano, the area is included within the boundaries of the Parco Regionale dei Castelli Romani. There are also points of artistic interest, such as the Collegiate Church of St. Thomas of Villanova. The boundaries of the town extend obliquely in a north-northeast turn around the area of the Alban Hills. It is included and protected by the Regional Park of Castelli Romani, most of the soil is of volcanic origin, with prevalence of materials such as tuff and pozzolana. Its seismic classification is rated a Zone 2 The main water body is Lake Albano, the Metropolitan City of Rome currently manages the lake. Up to 1802, it was the property of the Abbey of Saint Nilus Grottaferrata, the maximum elevation registered in the territory is 425 metres above sea level, at the Collegio di Propaganda Fide adjoining Villa Barberini. On the crown of the hills around the Lake Albano, the elevation is only 400 metres above sea level, at the summit of Monte Cucco, the lowest elevation of the territory is 101 metres above sea level at the village of Pavona. In terms of climate, the area falls within the domain of the temperate Mediterranean climate with mild winters, autumn temperatures higher than those of spring and ventilated summers. In the area of Colli Albani, and at Castel Gandolfo, the known as stau. Summers are hot and dry, while winter is mild and rainy without, in general, extreme low temperatures, in summer, temperatures can reach 35 °C with peaks of 37 °C in rare cases. Climate classification, Zone D,1966 GR / G, the name Castel Gandolfo is derived from the Latin Castrum Gandulphi, the name of the castle on this site was presumably owned by the family of Gandolfi, originally from Genoa. Another hypothesis, supported by Pope Pius II in his commentary, is that the results from Gandulphi Sabinorum. The modern city occupies the site of legendary ancient Alba Longa and it was later developed by emperor Domitian into his vast palace
Castel Gandolfo
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The town of Castel Gandolfo overlooking Lake Albano
Castel Gandolfo
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Lake Albano
Castel Gandolfo
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Painting by Sylvester Shchedrin (c.1825)
Castel Gandolfo
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The Pontifical College of St. Thomas of Villanova in Liberty Piazza
43.
Ciampino
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Ciampino is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome, Lazio, Italy. It was a frazione of Marino until 1974, when it became a comune, the city is named after Giovanni Giustino Ciampini, a religious, scientist and archaeologist who lived here in the 17th century. It grew from 5,000 inhabitants in 1951 to 28,000 in 1971, today, the city has circa 37,000 inhabitants. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Ciampino has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, the citys climate is basically Mediterranean type, but there are rare continental peaks, especially in winter. The autumn and spring seasons are particularly rainy and with mild temperatures, snow is a very rare phenomenon, they are mostly timid sleet or downpour of graupel. The summer is hot, humid and potentially drought. Therefore, the rainfall will have on the foothills of the hills, facing the sea, towards the south-west. In the summer, in conditions of heat waves particularly. Media related to Ciampino at Wikimedia Commons
Ciampino
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Ciampino International Airport
44.
Colonna, Lazio
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Colonna is a comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome in the Italian region Latium, located about 20 kilometres southeast of Rome, on the Alban Hills. With a population of some 4,300, it is the smallest of the Castelli Romani, the territory of Colonna is believed to have included the ancient community of Labici, located in the area of the modern comune of Monte Compatri. Labici was conquered in 418 BC by the Romans under the dictator Quintus Servilius Priscus Structus Fidenas, the Labicani then founded Labicum Quintanas near the Tower of the Pasolina near Colonna. The place is noted as Ad Quintanas, a station on the Via Labicana, Labicum Quintanas became an episcopal see in the 4th century. The inhabited area began to decay and disappeared with the Gothic War, in 1101 Peter, child of Gregory III, Count of Tusculum, received as inheritance the territory and the Castle of Columna, with Monte Porzio Catone, Monte Compatri and other surrounding possessions. Peter was the founder of Colonna family, which took the name from this property, in 1298 Pope Boniface VIII ordered the destruction of Colonna and its castle as punishment against the Colonna family. With the advent of Pope Clement V the Colonna family resumed the fief with all of its territories, in 1662, the Colonna family sold the Castrum Columnae to Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi. In 1710 the Ludovisi family sold it to the Rospigliosi-Pallavicini family, the Rospigliosi-Pallavicini maintained the feudal dominion on Colonna up to 5 June 1848. In 1849 the Comune and the Municipality of Colonna was constituted, the Baronial Palace was built by the Colonna family in the 16th century on the site of the Roman castrum on the highest part on the hill. The main façade has a portal, while the opposite front has a double order of five arcades. The southwest side was modified when the dedicated to Saint Nicholas was erected in the 18th century by the Pallavicini family. In the first Sunday of July, the Donkeys Palio is held, the seven quarters of the town compete riding donkeys in medieval dress. The commune is connected to Rome and southern Italy through the Via Casilina and it has also a station on the Rome–Cassino railway, the one on the Rome-Fiuggi narrow gauge railway is now abandoned, having been replaced by regional bus service held by COTRAL
Colonna, Lazio
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Colonna
45.
Frascati
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Frascati is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome in the Lazio region of central Italy. It is located 20 kilometres south-east of Rome, on the Alban Hills close to the ancient city of Tusculum, Frascati is closely associated with science, being the location of several international scientific laboratories. Frascati produces the wine with the same name. It is also a historical and artistic centre, the most important archeological finding in the area, dating back to Ancient Roman times, during the late Republican Age, is a patrician Roman villa probably belonging to Lucullus. In the first century AD its owner was Gaius Sallustius Crispus Passienus and his properties were later confiscated by the Flavian imperial dynasty. Consul Flavius Clemens lived in the villa with his wife Domitilla during the rule of Domitian, according to the Liber Pontificalis, in the 9th century Frascati was a little village, probably founded two centuries earlier. The name of the city comes from a typical local tradition of collecting firewood —many place-names around the town refer to trees or wood. After the destruction of nearby Tusculum in 1191, the population increased. It was owned by various families, including the Colonna, until, in 1460. In 1515 Colonna gave Frascati its first statute, Statuti e Capituli del Castello di Frascati, in 1518 a hospital was built, named after St. Sebastiano, in memory of the old basilica destroyed in the 9th century. After Prince Colonnas death in 1522, Lucrezia della Rovere sold Frascati to Pier Luigi Farnese, on May 1,1527 a Landsknecht company, after having sacked Rome, arrived out of the bordering villages. However, the changed the direction of their movement next to a niche, a Rural Aedicule consecrated to the Virgin Mary. This event is commemorated by a church now called Capocroce, in 1538, Pope Paul III conferred the title of Civitas to Frascati, with the name Tusculum Novum. In 1598 construction began on a new cathedral dedicated to St. Peter, on September 15,1616 the first public and free school in Europe was established on the initiative of Saint Joseph Calasanz. On June 18,1656 a part of the plaster peeled off a wall inside the Church of St. Mary in Vivario, and it was the image of Saints Sebastian and Roch, protector from the plague. In that same year there was an epidemic of plague in Rome, since that year, the two Saints have been co-patron Saints of the city. There are statues of the two saints in the façade of the Cathedral, between 1713 and 1729, the head from a colossus of Antinous was discovered in the area, and displayed in the Villa Mondragone. In 1757 the Valle theater opened in the centre of the town, in 1809 Frascati was annexed to the French Empire, and selected as the capital of the Roman canton
Frascati
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Cathedral of San Pietro Apostolo.
Frascati
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Print of Matteo Greuter (1620).
Frascati
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Religious holiday in Frascati: arrival of St Joseph Calasanz and the image of Our Lady (1823).
Frascati
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Villa Aldobrandini.
46.
Genzano di Roma
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Genzano di Roma is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome, in the Lazio region of central Italy. It is one of the Castelli Romani, at a distance of 29 kilometres from Rome, the origin of the name Genzano is still disputed. According to one version, the hill overlooking the Lake of Nemi on which the city is situated was once devoted to the goddess Cynthia, another version relates its origin to the Gentiani family. For others the presence on the hills, at time of the tribus or gens Cynthia originators and custodians of the cult of courage. During the Roman empire the area was inhabited by wealthy Roman citizens who wished to benefit from the cleaner air, the remains of many ancient Roman villas are to be found in the surroundings. The most impressive being the walls of the Villa of the Antonini where the later Roman emperor Antoninus Pius was born, the Herculean Sarcophagus of Genzano, currently in the British Museum was found here. In the 12th century a tower of the Gandolfi family, lord of Castel Gandolfo, in 1183 Pope Lucius III gave it to the Cistercian monks of St. Anastasius of Aquae Salviae in Rome. In 1235 they built a castle around which the town later grew. In 1378 the Popes assigned it to Giordano Orsini, the Cistercians and the Colonna alternatively ruled Genzano until 1563, when the castle was ceded for 150,000 scudos to the Massimi, from which it was bought by Giuliano Cesarini. The painter Maratti was one of the citizens who settled in Livia Sforza-Cesarinis new town, in 1873 it was decided that the name of the town should be changed to Genzano di Roma to avoid confusion within the postal service as there are two towns in Italy called Genzano. In the 19th and early 20th century it was seat of numerous peasant revolts, during World War II it suffered damage under Allied bombings. A whole street is covered with carpets of flowers and a masked parade walk on these. The event was held for the first time in 1778, each year the artists suggestions must conform to a previously agreed upon theme, such as The Colours of Michelangelo, or The Designs of Bernini. In Spring it has become traditional a mini Infiorata made by the children from the local schools. Châtillon, France Merseburg, Germany Mokotów, Poland Official website of Infiorata
Genzano di Roma
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Panorama of Genzano
47.
Grottaferrata
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Grottaferrata is a small town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome, situated on the lower slopes of the Alban Hills,20 kilometres south east of Rome. Nearby communes include Frascati, Rocca di Papa, Marino and Rome, the history of Grottaferrata identifies largely with that of the Basilian Monastery of Santa Maria, founded here in 1004 by Saint Nilus the Younger. The founding legend narrates that, at the spot where the now stands. Its iron window grates gave the site the name, first of Cryptoferrata then of Grottaferrata, from the site, a Roman bronze of a man and a cow attracted the antiquarian attention of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, who had the group removed to Lucera. Nilus died soon afterwards in the Sant Agata monastery in Tusculum, the monastic building was carried out by his successors, especially the fourth abbot, Saint Bartholomew, who is usually considered the second founder. Building materials scavenged from the villa were incorporated into the new structure, marble columns, sections of carved cornice. The sanctuary was complete enough in 1024 to be consecrated by the Tusculan Pope John XIX, the high repute of the monks attracted many gifts, eleventh- and thirteenth-century mosaics remain, but of the ambitious ensemble of Cosmatesque inlay, only the polychrome stone paving remains. The abbeys possessions in lands were numerous and widespread, and in 1131 King Roger II of Sicily made the abbot Baron of Rossano with an extensive fief. Between the 12th and 15th centuries the monastery suffered from the strife of warring factions, Romans and Tusculans, Guelphs and Ghibellines, popes and antipopes, Colonna. From 1163 till the destruction of Tusculum in 1191, the part of the monastic community sought refuge in a dependency of the abbey. In the middle of the 13th century the Emperor Frederick II made the abbey his headquarters during the siege of Rome, the fifteenth century saw the bloody feuds of the Colonna and the Orsini raging round the walls. According to the humanist Ambrogio Traversari, in 1432 the appearance of the abbey was that of a rather than a monastery. In 1462 began a line of non-resident abbots in commendam, fifteen in number, of whom all, the most distinguished were the Greek Bessarion, Giulio della Rovere, and the last of the line, Cardinal Consalvi, secretary of state to Pius VII. Cardinal Bessarion, himself a Basilian monk, increased the scanty and impoverished community, Cardinal Giulio della Rovere, for more selfish motives, erected the castle and surrounded the whole monastery with the imposing fortifications that still exist. Cardinal Alessandro Farnese replaced the ceiling, gian Lorenzo Bernini was commissioned by Cardinal Francesco Barberini to provide the high altar, completed in 1665. Till 1608 the community was ruled by priors dependent on abbots in commendam, the revenues of the community were separated from those of the commendatory abbots, and the first of a series of triennially appointed regular abbots was appointed. The triennial system survived the suppression of the commendam and lasted till the end of the century, with one break from 1834 to 1870. In 1901, new constitutions came into force and Arsenio Pellegrini was installed as the first perpetual regular abbot since 1462
Grottaferrata
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Grottaferrata
48.
Guidonia Montecelio
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Guidonia Montecelio, commonly known as Guidonia, is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome, Lazio, central Italy. The terrain of Guidonia Montecelio is mainly flat, and the community lies in between the Via Nomentana and the Via Tiburtina and it borders with Fonte Nuova, Marcellina, Palombara Sabina, Rome, San Polo dei Cavalieri, SantAngelo Romano and Tivoli. The hamlets are Albuccione, Bivio di Guidonia, Colle Fiorito, Colleverde, La Botte, Marco Simone, Montecelio, Pichini, Setteville, Setteville Nord, Villalba, Montecelio was founded in 998 as a fortified castrum. In 1915 the Regio Esercito built a military airport in the area for its Corpo Aeronautico Militare. Today the town is part of Rome metropolitan area, with a presence of industry. The number of commuting to Rome is high, with transport in a critical situation. David Di Michele - Football player Guidonia Montecelio is twinned with, Kawasaki, Japan Cape Canaveral, kashira, Russia Media related to Guidonia Montecelio at Wikimedia Commons Local portal News & Info from Guidonia Montecelio Guidonia Montecelio
Guidonia Montecelio
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Panorama of Guidonia
Guidonia Montecelio
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Guidonia within the Province of Rome
Guidonia Montecelio
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Travertine caves in Guidonia.
49.
Ladispoli
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Ladispoli is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome, Lazio, central Italy. Lies about 35 kilometres west of center of Rome on the Mediterranean Sea, Ladispoli occupies the area existed the ancient Alsium, the port of the Etruscan city of Cerveteri and later a Roman colony cited by Cicero. Alsium was destroyed in the 6th century AD, during the Gothic War, later a castle, named Palo, was built in the area, it was a fief of the Orsini and, from 1693, of the Odescalchi family. Modern Ladispoli was founded in 1888 by Ladislao Odescalchi, whom its name stems from, in the late 1970s and until the early 1990s, parts of Ladispoli served as refugee camps for Soviet emigrants seeking political and/or religious asylum in Western countries. The experience of Jews from the former USSR staying in Ladispoli in the 1980s was first described in English by Maxim D. Shrayer in his literary memoir Waiting for America, the Etruscan necropolis of Monteroni and Vaccina. The Castellaccio, a country residence. The Giardino delle Orchidee Spontanee del Mediterraneo, a botanical garden According to ISTAT figures at 31 December 2010 foreign nationals were 7711 people
Ladispoli
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Housing in Ladispoli
50.
Mazzano Romano
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Mazzano Romano is a comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome in the Italian region Latium, located about 35 kilometres north of Rome. Mazzano Romano borders the municipalities, Calcata, Campagnano di Roma, Castel SantElia, Faleria, Magliano Romano. First mentioned in 945, it is one of the villages formed from the great estate assembled by Pope Adrian I about 780. It includes the Regional Park of Veii
Mazzano Romano
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Town Hall.
Mazzano Romano
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Coat of arms
51.
Monte Compatri
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Monte Compatri is a comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome in the Italian region Latium, located about 20 kilometres southeast of Rome on the Alban Hills. It is one of the Castelli Romani, monte Compatri has been identified with the ancient Labicum, a colony of Alba Longa. In the Middle Ages it was a fief of the Counts of Tusculum, then of the Annibaldi, the Altemps, parish church of Santa Maria Assunta in Cielo, erected by will of Scipione Borghese. The campanile is the former communal tower, diplomat Alessandro Moreschi last castrato singer in the Sistine Chapel Calahorra, Spain Official website Centro Culturale Laghetto
Monte Compatri
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Apse of the Assunta Baroque parish church.
52.
Monte Porzio Catone
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Monte Porzio Catone is a comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome in the central Italian region Latium, located about 20 kilometres southeast of Rome, on the Alban Hills. Monte Porzio Catone borders the municipalities, Frascati, Grottaferrata, Monte Compatri. The Astronomical Rome Observatory is located 2 kilometres from the city centre and it was built starting from 1939, being finished in 1965. It rises above the remains of a Roman villa, the Matidias Villa, currently the observatory is endowed with the Astrolab and other didactic resources for initiatives to schools, university, associative and private groups. The Tusculan Hermitage Monastery was founded in 1607 by Camaldolese Monks of Monte Corona, in 1613 the building was completed. The convents church is devoted to Saint Romuald, the hospitality to male pilgrims by the hermits is guaranteed. Women are forbidden entry to the Hermitage, an inscription on the wooden door reads, in Latin, Ecce Elongavi Fugiens et Mansi In Solitudine. Other sights include the church of St. Gregory the Great, erected in 1666 by Carlo Rainaldi for the Borghese family, saint-Michel-lObservatoire, France Official website Official website of the Rome Astronomical Observatory
Monte Porzio Catone
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Monte Porzio Catone
Monte Porzio Catone
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Tusculan Hermitage of Camaldoli.
53.
Nerola
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Nerola is a town and comune of the Metropolitan City of Rome, Latium, Italy. The name Nerola is probably derived from the Sabine word nero or nerio, in the site traces of a Roman era villa have been found, which legend attributes as belonging to Nero himself. Within the comune is the frazione of Acquaviva, on the ancient Via Salaria, no longer a residential bishopric, Aquaviva is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see. At the end of the 12th century, the fiefdom was granted to the Orsini family, at the end of the 15th century, the castle was subsequently reinforced with strong towers and other defensive fortifications around the village. Near the castle, the chiesa vecchia was built in 1483, in 1867, the castle was occupied by a contingent of partisans of Giuseppe Garibaldi who were fighting against papal troops. Since passing to Marquis Ferrari-Frey in 1939, the castle has been restored and now houses a hotel
Nerola
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The fountain in the town hall square.
Nerola
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Castello Orsini at Nerola.
54.
Palestrina
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Palestrina is an ancient city and comune with a population of about 21,000, in Lazio, about 35 kilometres east of Rome. It is connected to the latter by the Via Prenestina and it is the birthplace of composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Palestrina is sited on a spur of the Monti Prenestini, a range in the central Apennines. Palestrina borders the municipalities, Artena, Castel San Pietro Romano, Cave, Gallicano nel Lazio, Labico, Rocca di Cave, Rocca Priora, Rome, San Cesareo, Valmontone. Early burials show that the site was occupied in the 8th or 7th century BC. The ancient necropolis lay on a plateau at the foot of the hill below the ancient town, from these come the famous bronze boxes and hand mirrors with inscriptions partly in Etruscan. Also famous is the bronze Ficoroni Cista, engraved pictures of the arrival of the Argonauts in Bithynia. An example of archaic Latin is the inscription on the Ficoroni Cista, the caskets are unique in Italy, but a large number of mirrors of precisely similar style have been discovered in Etruria. Hence, although it would be reasonable to conjecture that objects with Etruscan characteristics came from Etruria, other imported objects in the burials show that Praeneste traded not only with Etruria but also with the Greek east. The origin of Praeneste was attributed by the ancients to Ulysses, the name derives probably from the word Praenesteus, referring to its overlooking location. Praeneste was probably under the hegemony of Alba Longa while that city was the head of the Latin League and it withdrew from the league in 499 BC, according to Livy, and formed an alliance with Rome. After Rome was weakened by the Gauls of Brennus, Praeneste switched allegiances, from 373 to 370, it was in continual war against Rome or her allies, and was defeated by Cincinnatus. Eventually in 354 and in 338 the Romans were victorious and Praeneste was punished by the loss of portions of its territory, as such, it furnished contingents to the Roman army, and Roman exiles were permitted to live at Praeneste, which grew prosperous. The roses of Praeneste were a byword for profusion and beauty, præneste was situated on the Via Labicana. Its citizens were offered Roman citizenship in 90 BC in the Social War, in Sullas second civil war, Gaius Marius the Younger was blockaded in the town by the forces of Sulla. When the city was captured, Marius slew himself, the inhabitants were massacred in cold blood. From an inscription it appears that Sulla delegated the foundation of the new colony to Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus, within a decade the lands of the colonia had been assembled by a few large landowners. From the late Republic to the late Empire, markets, baths, shrines and even a second forum were built in the lower city, the poet Horace ranked cool Praeneste with Tibur and Baiae as favored resorts
Palestrina
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Palestrina
Palestrina
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Remains of the Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia.
Palestrina
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Reconstruction of the temple of the Fortuna Primigenia by Palladio.
55.
Palombara Sabina
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Palombara Sabina is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome, Italy. Savelli-Torlonia Castle, built from the 11th century by the Ottaviani, antipope Innocent III was arrested here in 1180. It was acquired by Luca Savelli, a nephew of pope Honorius III, in 1250 and it is now home to a library, an exhibition of Roman statues found nearby Palombara in 2008, and a natural sciences museum. Abbey of Saint John in Argentella Church of Santa Maria Annunziata Church of St. Blaise, fortified village of Castiglione, in the Monti Lucretili park, at 750 metres. Convent of St. Michael, in rural Romanesque style and it was built over a Roman villa, of which traces of opus reticulatum remain
Palombara Sabina
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View of Palombara Sabina
56.
Poli, Lazio
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Poli is a town and comune in Lazio, central Italy. It is located in the Monti Prenestini area and it is also the birthplace of Pope Innocent XIII and Cardinal Agostino Vallini. Palazzo Conti Church of Santo Stefano and it has frescoes by Taddeo Zuccari
Poli, Lazio
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Poli
57.
Rocca di Papa
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Rocca di Papa is a small town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome, Lazio, Italy. It is one of the Castelli Romani about 25 kilometres southeast of Rome on the Alban Hills and it is close to the other communes of Velletri, Rocca Priora, Monte Compatri, Grottaferrata, Albano and Marino. It is the center of the Regional Park known as the Parco Regionale dei Castelli Romani, documents from 12th century name Rocca di Papa as Castrum Rocce de Papa, because Pope Eugene III lived there. In 1541 Pier Luigi Farnese, with French troops, destroyed the castle, in 1855 the people proclaimed the Rocca di Papa Republic against prince Colonna and the Papal States government. In 1889 the Royal Geodynamic Observatory was built on the top of Rocca di Papa, between 1922 and 1935 the scientist Guglielmo Marconi carried out several experiments from this building in radio-transmission, wireless transmission and broadcasting. In 1944, during World War II, Rocca di Papa was bombed, the Center of the city was destroyed. Thirty four people died in air strike and 35 died in a second air strike on 25 May. The city was liberated from the Nazi German occupation on 4 June 1944 by the 85th Infantry Division, Papal Fortress, known since medieval times but restored in the current form during the reign of Pope Paul III. Santuario Madonna del Tufo Chiesa del Crocefisso Church of the Assunta and it is dedicated to the Assumption, and was rebuilt after the earthquake of 1806 in larger size. Fontana della Barcaccia Quartiere dei Bavaresi, built by Bavarian militiamen left here by Emperor Louis IV in 1328, convent of Palazzolo, located on top of a rock dominating the east shore of Lake Albano. The old Roman buildings was turned into monasteries and a dedicated to St Mary of Palatiolo. In the orchard of the convent is a monument of the 2nd century BC with a staircase pyramid. Currently, the Abbey and the church belong to the English College, the economy of Rocca di Papa is mostly based on tourism and agriculture, the latter dominated by wine and vine production. The Geophysical Museum shows scientific data about the inside of the Earth and it has preservation tools and scientific documents of the geology, geography and terrestrial physics of the Earth. The astronomic observatory Franco Fuligni, located in the frazione of Vivaro, is a public structure, there is the Federal Equestrian Centre of C. O. N. I. It is situated on a knoll in the center of the farm of Domatore. Since 1960, when the equipment for the events was installed for the Olympic Games, it has been the center of equestrian championships. The equipment has improved and enlarged to form an adequate spot for the preparation of the best horse-riders, offering an excellent track with every kind of difficulty
Rocca di Papa
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View of Rocca di Papa.
Rocca di Papa
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Convent of Palazzola.
Rocca di Papa
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First funicular of Rocca di Papa, station of "Valle Oscura".
58.
Sacrofano
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Sacrofano is a comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome in the Italian region Latium, located about 25 kilometres north of Rome. Located near the Monti Sabatini, at the feet of an extinct volcano, Sacrofano borders the following municipalities, Campagnano di Roma, Castelnuovo di Porto, Formello, Magliano Romano, Riano, Rome. They were originally part of the territory of the Etruscan city of Veii, later it was home to numerous Roman villas, which were abandoned in the 5th-6th centuries. A fundus Scrofanum is mentioned for the first time in 780, apart a short conquest by Cesare Borgia, they kept Sacrofano for nearly three centuries, in 1560 it was included in the Duchy of Bracciano. In 1662 the Orsini ceded it to the Chigi family, the Rocca The church of San Giovanni Battista, dating from the 12th century but restored in the 15th century. It has a bell tower from the 14th century. The church has a plan, with a single nave. The 1515 altar, in polychrome marbles, houses the relic of St. Justin Martyr, Sacrofano has a station on the Roma-Civitacastellana-Viterbo regional railway. It can be reached by car from Rome in c.20 minutes through the Via Flaminia and the Via Sacrofanese
Sacrofano
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Sacrofano
Sacrofano
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Coat of arms
Sacrofano
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An ancient tower in Sacrofano.
59.
Tivoli, Lazio
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Tivoli is a town and comune in Lazio, central Italy, about 30 kilometres east-north-east of Rome, at the falls of the Aniene river where it issues from the Sabine hills. The city offers a view over the Roman Campagna. Catillus and his three sons Tiburtus, Coras, and Catillus drove out the Siculi from the Aniene plateau, according to a more historical account, Tibur was instead a colony of Alba Longa. Historical traces of settlement in the date back to the 13th century BC. The citys name may share a root with the river Tiber. Virgil in his Aeneid makes Coras and the younger Catillus twin brothers, from Etruscan times Tibur, a Sabine city, was the seat of the Tiburtine Sibyl. In the nearby woods, Faunus had a sacred grove, at first an independent ally of Rome, Tibur allied itself with the Gauls in 361 BC. Vestiges remain of its walls of this period, in opus quadratum. In 338 BC, however, Tibur was defeated and absorbed by the Romans, the city acquired Roman citizenship in 90 BC and became a resort area famed for its beauty and its good water, and was enriched by many Roman villas. The most famous one, of which the ruins remain, is the Villa Adriana, maecenas and Augustus also had villas at Tibur, and the poet Horace had a modest villa, he and Catullus and Statius all mention Tibur in their poems. In 273, Zenobia, the queen of Palmyra, was assigned a residence here by the Emperor Aurelian. The 2nd-century temple of Hercules Victor is being excavated, the present Piazza del Duomo occupies the Roman forum. The name of the city came to be used in form as Tiburi instead of Tibur and so transformed through Tibori to Tiboli. But its inhabitants are still called Tiburtini and not Tivolesi, in 547, in the course of the Gothic War, the city was fortified by the Byzantine general Belisarius, but was later destroyed by Totilas army. After the end of the war it became a Byzantine duchy, after Italy was conquered by Charlemagne, Tivoli was under the authority of a count, representing the emperor. From the 10th century onwards Tivoli, as an independent commune governed by its elected consuls, was the fiercest rival of Rome in the struggle for the control over the impoverished central Lazio, Emperor Otto III conquered it in 1001, and Tivoli fell under the papal control. Reminders of the turbulence of communal life are the tower houses that may be seen in Vicolo dei Ferri, Via di Postera, Via del Seminario. In the 13th century Rome imposed a tribute on the city, in the 14th century Tivoli sided with the Guelphs and strongly supported Urban VI against Antipope Clement VII
Tivoli, Lazio
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Main attractions of Tivoli, Top left: View of big fountain in Villa d'Este; Top right: Rocca Pia Castle; Center: City panorama; Bottom left: Temple of Tiburtine Sibyl; Bottom middle: The Maritime Theater in Hadrian's Villa; Bottom right: Cathedral
Tivoli, Lazio
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Landscape showing the Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, by Adam Elsheimer, c. 1600
Tivoli, Lazio
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Waterfalls of Tivoli, Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich, 1745–1750
Tivoli, Lazio
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The castle of Rocca Pia, built in 1461 by Pope Pius II
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Zagarolo
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Zagarolo is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome, in the region of Lazio of central Italy. It has 17,803 inhabitants and a area of 28 square kilometres. It lies 34 kilometres south-east of Rome, and it borders the municipalities of Colonna, Gallicano nel Lazio, Monte Compatri, Palestrina, Rome, San Cesareo. Zagarolos town center lies on a narrow tuff hill,2 kilometres long and about 100 metres wide, at an elevation of 310 metres. The south continuation of the important pilgrim route Via Francigena passes through the countryside of Zagarolo, Zagarolo may have origins in Gabii, an ancient city founded in the 5th century, which is a few kilometers from Zagarolo. The town center is of medieval origin and its current urban plan was developed in the 16th century, Zagarolo is the birthplace of composer Goffredo Petrassi. Most of the attractions of Zagarolo are in the historical town center. For many centuries it remained under the Colonna influence, and was besieged and destroyed several times due to the rivalry between the papacy and the Colonna family. In the 16th century the Colonnas and the papacy started having peaceful relationships, the palace now was used as a residence and two major wings were added to it towards the piazza, frescoes were painted and a hanging garden was built. In 1591 a council of eight cardinals was held in the Palace, with the mission to revise the Bible for an edition, among them were Marcantonio Colonna. The building is characterized by frescoes painted by manierist artists of 16th century, attributed to Dutch painters, to Antonio Tempesta, in the Palace also worked Carlo Maratta and Ludovico Gimignani, who died in this palace in 1697. Later the Palace became property of the Pallavicini family, until it was sold to the comune in 1979, when the Rospigliosi acquired the duchy of Zagarolo in 1668, it became property of that family. During World War II the palace was transformed in a German military hospital, today the Library of Zagarolo and the Toy Museum are inside the palace, and it is used for conventions, exhibitions and other cultural events. Church of St. Lawrence Martyr, located in Piazza del Risorgimento, convent and Church of St. Mary of the Graces, located in Piazza Santa Maria Church of St. Annunziata, has a peculiar octagonal belltower, and dominates the skyline of Zagarolo. Church of St. Peter, a Baroque church built on the site of an ancient church. It has an elliptical dome 46 meters high, the first gate to be encountered entering the city center from the southeast is Porta Rospigliosi, decorated with bas-reliefs in the 16th century and Roman busts and theatrical masques. The other gate, at the northwest entrance to the city is Porta San Martino, the Zagarolo Toy Museum, located in Rospigliosi Palace. The Museum offers a reconstruction of toys and the act of playing in a series of sections that, through a historic excursus
Zagarolo
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Palazzo Rospigliosi
Zagarolo
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1927 postcard of the Zagarolo train station "Stazione Vicinale"
61.
Virtual International Authority File
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The Virtual International Authority File is an international authority file. It is a joint project of national libraries and operated by the Online Computer Library Center. The project was initiated by the US Library of Congress, the German National Library, the National Library of France joined the project on October 5,2007. The project transitions to a service of the OCLC on April 4,2012, the aim is to link the national authority files to a single virtual authority file. In this file, identical records from the different data sets are linked together, a VIAF record receives a standard data number, contains the primary see and see also records from the original records, and refers to the original authority records. The data are available online and are available for research and data exchange. Reciprocal updating uses the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting protocol, the file numbers are also being added to Wikipedia biographical articles and are incorporated into Wikidata. VIAFs clustering algorithm is run every month, as more data are added from participating libraries, clusters of authority records may coalesce or split, leading to some fluctuation in the VIAF identifier of certain authority records
Virtual International Authority File
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Screenshot 2012
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Integrated Authority File
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The Integrated Authority File or GND is an international authority file for the organisation of personal names, subject headings and corporate bodies from catalogues. It is used mainly for documentation in libraries and increasingly also by archives, the GND is managed by the German National Library in cooperation with various regional library networks in German-speaking Europe and other partners. The GND falls under the Creative Commons Zero license, the GND specification provides a hierarchy of high-level entities and sub-classes, useful in library classification, and an approach to unambiguous identification of single elements. It also comprises an ontology intended for knowledge representation in the semantic web, available in the RDF format
Integrated Authority File
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GND screenshot
63.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
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Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
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Province of Rome
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The Province of Rome was one of the five provinces of Lazio, Italy. The province of Rome was the most populous of Italy, and is coterminous with the Rome metropolitan area. The Province of Rome existed from 1870 to 31 December 2014, on 1 January 2015, it was replaced with a new administrative area, the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital. The province of Rome was established in 1870 after the Capture of Rome by the newly formed Kingdom of Italy from the Papal States and it was initially divided into five districts, Rome, Civitavecchia, Frosinone, Velletri and Viterbo, corresponding to the old papal delegazioni. In 1923 the district of Rieti, formerly part of the province of Perugia, was annexed to that of Rome, in 1934 the provincial territory lost its southern part, which became the new province of Latina. Latium, the oldest regional division of the province Lazio, the region the province of Rome is a part of Official website
Province of Rome
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The Appian Way
Province of Rome
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Map highlighting the location of the province of Rome in Italy
Province of Rome
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Nemi
Province of Rome
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Alban Hills
Italy
