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. Once the capital of an ancient republic and empire whose armies and polity
defined the Western world in antiquity and left seemingly indelible imprints
thereafter, the spiritual and physical seat of the Roman Catholic Church, and
the site of major pinnacles of artistic and intellectual achievement, Rome is
the Eternal City, remaining today a political capital, a religious centre, and
a memorial to the creative imagination of the past.