Rome, Italian Roma, historic city and capital of Roma Provincia (province), of Lazio regione (region), and of the country of Italy. Rome is located in the central portion of the Italian peninsula, on the Tiber River about 15 miles (24 km) inland from the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Rome’s contemporary history reflects the long-standing tension between the spiritual power of the papacy and the political power of the Italian state capital. Rome was the last city-state to become part of a unified Italy, and it did so only under duress, after the invasion of Italian troops in 1870.

Rome’s hot, dry summer days, with high temperatures often above 75 °F (24 °C), are frequently cooled in the afternoons by the ponentino, a west wind that rises from the Tyrrhenian Sea. The city receives roughly 30 inches (750 mm) of precipitation annually; spring and autumn are the rainiest seasons.

Rome is as much a city of fountains as it is of churches or palaces, antiquities. The more than 300 monumental fountains are an essential part of Rome’s seductive powers. Part of the every day yet part of the daily surprise, they are points of personal, often sentimental attachment to the city.
Every fountain has its history, and many have legends, the best known of which guarantees a return to Rome to those who toss coins into the Trevi Fountain.

By the 3rd century BCE the Palatine was a superior residential district. Rome’s first emperor, Augustus, was born there in 63 BCE and continued to live thereafter he became emperor. His private dwelling, built about 50 BCE and never seriously modified, still stands. It is known as the House of Livia, for his widow, and has small, graceful rooms decorated with paintings. Other private houses, now excavated and visible, were incorporated into the foundations of the spreading imperial structures.

Some 25 of the original parish churches, or tituli, the first legal churches in Rome, still function. Most had been private houses in which the Christians illegally congregated, and some of these houses, as at Santi Giovanni e Paolo, are still preserved underneath the present church buildings. Since the 4th century, the tituli priests have been cardinals who, over the centuries, have rebuilt, enlarged, and embellished their churches.

Rome cannot be called an industrial city, although it has a fair amount of medium and light industries. Among these have been the engineering, electronics, and chemical industries, as well as printing, clothing manufacture, and food processing.
Factories have been located mostly in the northwestern part of the city, but many closed or relocated during the 1980s and ’90s. The construction industry remains important.
Most of the major employers in the city are part of the services sector. Rome is a major market center for central and southern Italy, although financial exchange remains concentrated in Milan. The government, with its many agencies and ministries, is a particularly large employer.

Tourism, however, is an outstanding contributor to the economy of the city. Rome is a major cultural, shopping, and entertainment center, attracting tens of millions of Italians and foreigners each year. The capital is also a frequent host to conferences and trade fairs. Many visitors, whether bona fide pilgrims or simply tourists interested in the main religious sites, have ties to the Roman Catholic Church.