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Rome Weekend Break - City Breaks

Rome weekend break: History/recommended reading

Potted history:

Romans still like to think that their city was founded in 735 BC by Romulus who, after a traumatic upbringing being nursed by a wolf, decided to knock off his twin brother Remus and set about building the city on the banks of the river Tiber . By the sixth century BC history replaces myth and Rome is ruled over by the Etruscan kings, before being declared a Republic.

Both Julius Caesar and democracy were stabbed in the back in 44BC as Rome became the seat of Empire, giving history such mighty figures as Nero, Trajan and Hadrian. By the fourth century Rome 's imperial might was flagging, the empire was overstretched and the city was about to be sacked.

It was left up to the church to pick up the pieces nearly four hundred years later when Charlemagne established the Holy Roman Empire (no mean feat for a French king). Rome under the papacy enjoyed mixed fortune, but eventually fell to the Spanish king Charles V in 1527.

Come the turn of the nineteenth century and Rome was once again happily governing a unified Italy . Then in stepped Mussolini and fascism. Having backed the wrong horse Rome came out of WWII remarkably unscathed (physically at least) but the city had developed a taste for ultra right-wing politics and corruption, a flavor of which arguably lingers on today.

About town:

The easiest way to get about town is on foot; you'll see much more and the centre is compact enough to mean that you shouldn't have to work up a sweat. Gridlock on the roads makes bus travel slow and pushes up taxi prices (although they're still more reasonable than many other European cities), making the Metro the speediest option.

Handy numbers:

Central Tourist Office: Via Parigi 5 (near Termini), Tel: 06 4889 9253
Airport enquiries: Fiumicino Tel: 06 65951, Ciampino Tel: 06 794 941
Rail enquiries: Tel: 848 888 088
Emergencies (police/ambulance): Tel: 113

Take five:

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon: a weighty one-stop-shop of ancient Roman history

Rome : Biography of a City by Christopher Hibbert: history bang up to date

The Italians by Luigi Barzini: a witty portrait of the Italian psyche

Daily Life in Ancient Rome by Jerome Carcopino: putting colour into the ruins

When in Rome by Ngaio Marsh: murder, mystery and Inspector Alleyn

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