Hotels in Rome, Italy

A little about Rome...

Rome is the capital city of Italy and of the Lazio region, as well as the country's largest and most populous comune, with more than 2.7 million residents (December 2006, demo.istat.it). The metropolitan area has a population of about 4 million. It is located in the central-western portion of the Italian peninsula, where the river Aniene joins the Tiber. The Mayor of Rome is Walter Veltroni.

Villas and gardens:
Villa BorgheseThe center of Rome is surrounded by some large green areas and opulent ancient villas, which are the remains of the crowns of villas which encircled the papal city. Most of them were largely destroyed by real estate speculation at the end of the 19th century. The most important among the surviving ones are:
Villa Borghese, with a large landscape garden in the naturalistic 19th century English style, containing a number of buildings, museums (see Galleria Borghese) and attractions;
Villa Ada, the largest public landscaped park of Rome;
Villa Doria Pamphili, the second largest with an area of 1.8 km²;
Villa Torlonia, a splendid example of Art Nouveau mansion that was the Roman residence of Benito Mussolini;
Villa Albani, commissioned by Alessandro Cardinal Albani to house his collection of antiquities and Roman sculpture, which soon filled the casino that faced the Villa down a series of formal parterres.

The city of Rome surrounds the Vatican City, the enclave of the Holy See, which is a separate sovereign state. It hosts Saint Peter's Square with the Saint Peter's Basilica. The open space before the basilica was redesigned by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, from 1656 to 1667, under the direction of Pope Alexander VII, as an appropriate forecourt, designed "so that the greatest number of people could see the Pope give his blessing, either from the middle of the façade of the church or from a window in the Vatican Palace" (Norwich 1975 p 175). In Vatican City there are also the prestigious Vatican Library, Vatican Museums with the Sistine Chapel, the Raphael Rooms and other important works of Leonardo Da Vinci, Raphael, Giotto, and Botticelli.

Museums and galleries: The list of most important museums and galleries of Rome includes: the National Museum of Rome, the Museum of Roman Civilization, the Villa Giulia National Etruscan Museum, the Capitoline Museums, the Borghese Gallery, the Museum of Castel Sant'Angelo, and the National Gallery of Modern Art.