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Rome (in Italian: Roma) is the capital of Italy and of its Latium region. It is situated at an altitude of 14 m on the Tiber and Aniene rivers, near the Mediterranean Sea. The Vatican City, a sovereign enclave within Rome, is the seat of the Roman Catholic Church and the home of the Pope. Rome is the largest city in Italy and it also is the largest among European capital cities, with an area of 1,290 square kilometers. Within the city limits, the population is about 2,550,000 (2004); almost 3.5 million live in the general area of Rome as represented by the province of Rome.

In mythology, Rome was founded by Romulus, who, with his brother Remus, were brought up by a wolf. He killed his brother and became the first king of the city that took his name. In historical times, the civilization of ancient Rome originated in the 8th or 9th century BC, when northern tribes migrated to the Italian peninsula to settle around the River Tiber. For almost a thousand years, Rome was the most important city in the Western world and the largest city in the world, as the capital of the expansive Roman Empire. With the rise of Christianity, Rome became the center of the Roman Catholic Church and the home of the Popes. The slow decline of the Roman Empire heralded the beginning of the Middle Ages, but the city regained prominence as the political capital of Europe for several hundred years leading up to the Renaissance. Rome remains influential today, as the capital of Italy and as a major world class metropolis.

The historic centre of Rome was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1980 (see also list of other UNESCO heritage sites).

The Forum Romanum was the central area around which ancient Rome developed, in which commerce, business, prostitution, cult and the administration of justice took place. A processional way, the Via Sacra, crosses it linking it with the Colosseum. By the end of the Empire, it lost its everyday use remaining as a sacred place. The now-ruined Temple of Saturn [centre] is a monument to the agricultural deity Saturn that stands at the western end of the Forum Romanum in Rome and represents the oldest-surviving foundation in that area, having been established c. 498 BC. The present ruins represent the third incarnation of the Temple of Saturn, replacing the second incarnation destroyed in the fire of 283. While dedicated to the god Saturn, the temple's chief use was as the treasury for the Roman Empire, when it was used to store the Empire's reserves of gold and silver. Gradual collapse has left nothing but the remains of the front portico standing, but the eight surviving columns and partially intact pediment (displaying the inscripiton "Senatus Populusque Romanus incendio consumptum restituit", meaning "The Senate and People of Rome restored what fire had consumed") represent one of the iconic images of Rome's ancient architectural heritage.

[Text adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Saturn]