Two thousand years of empire ate here first
Rome functions as a living 21st-century city while simultaneously being the world's largest outdoor museum. The food is deliberately simple — cacio e pepe (just pasta, pecorino, and black pepper), supplì (fried rice balls), and pizza al taglio (by the slice, sold by weight from street-level windows). The rule: the oldest-looking trattoria with no English menu is the right choice. Every other sentence from a Roman is technically historically accurate.
Founded traditionally in 753 BCE, Rome became the center of an empire stretching from Scotland to Mesopotamia. After the Western Roman Empire fell in 476 CE, the city gradually rebuilt under papal authority — the Renaissance and Baroque churches, fountains, and piazzas that define its skyline today were built by competing popes trying to outdo each other. Rome became the capital of unified Italy in 1871, finally ending over a millennium of papal temporal power.