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In the 18th century, at the height of the Baroque period, Naples, one of Italy’s most beautiful cities, was known as the città delle cinquecento cupole, “the city with five hundred cupolas,” because of the number of churches one could admire in its historical center. Indeed, the Campania capital counts about one thousand churches and religious buil...

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Deep in the south of Egypt, on the west bank of the Nile facing the historic capital Thebes, stand two 60-foot-tall statues of the pharaoh Amenhotep III (14th century BCE). By the time the Romans annexed Egypt in 30 BCE, these colossi were an ancient remnant of the grandeur of the pharaoh’s mortuary temple, doomed by the Nile’s floodwaters, that th...

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A year-long study of the sewerage system under the Colosseum has cast new light on the snacking habits of Roman spectators watching the games in the ancient arena. Specialist architects and archaeologists used wire-guided robots to explore 70 metres of drains where they unearthed pips and stones from snacks including olives, grapes, figs, walnuts,...

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Great news! The new podcast by Visit Italy is a local, informal, entertaining journey through Italians' Italy. We start with a trip to the Rome loved by the Romans. We have been doing so for a few months, and you have shown us your appreciation. Week after week, we are telling you about Italy according to Italians in our Like a local column. With a...

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Rome mayor Roberto Gualtieri has paid tribute to a taxi driver who saved the life of a tourist after the man collapsed on a street near the central Termini station. The driver, identified as Gianluca, witnessed the scene as he drove by in his 'Lyon 2' taxi. Without hesitating he grabbed the defibrillator he had in his car and rushed to the man's ai...

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An ancient gold coin proves that a third century Roman emperor written out of history as a fictional character really did exist, scientists say. The coin bearing the name of Sponsian and his portrait was found more than 300 years ago in Transylvania, once a far-flung outpost of the Roman empire. Believed to be a fake, it had been locked away in a m...

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In October 2022, I visited Italy for the first time as part of a two-week European train trip through Germany, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. It was my first time visiting each country and I spent a week in Italy with one night on a sleeper train, two nights in Venice, two nights in Rome, and one night in Milan. I left thinking I wished I had mor...

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Right in the middle of Rome, within the Vatican City rises the magnificent St. Peter's Basilica, the largest church in the world. Its impressive dome stands out over all the other roofs of the Eternal City, while the Vatican Museums know that what they hold inside goes beyond the value of the Sistine Chapel alone.  The beating heart of Catholicism,...

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Thanks to archaeology, history and art, today we know quite a lot about the Ancient Romans, yet, there are still some mysteries to unveil: one of them is certainly that of the Vestals, the holy priestesses who dedicated their lives to Vesta, the goddess of the hearth and the family, whose worship was considered essential for the welfare and safety...

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Rome is a desirable year-round tourist destination holding an impressive breadth of artistic and cultural heritage. Going on vacation to Rome for the first time means not missing a whole series of "must-see" stops, such as the Colosseum and the Vatican Museums. But outside of the "mainstream" circuit, so to speak, the capital still has plenty to of...

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