Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populous city, with over 2.7 million residents in a municipality of some 1,285.3 km2 (496.3 sq mi), while the population of the urban area is estimated to be 3.46 million.

Rome's history as a city spans over two and a half thousand years, as one of the founding cities of Western Civilisation. It was the centre of the Roman Empire, which dominated Europe, North Africa and the Middle East for four hundred years from the 1st Century BC until the 4th Century AD. Rome has a significant place in Christianity and is the present day home of the Roman Catholic Church and the site of the Vatican City.

As one of the few major European cities that escaped World War II relatively unscathed, central Rome remains essentially Renaissance and Baroque in character.