Rome

The Appian Way was one of the earliest and strategically most important Roman roads of the ancient republic. It connected Rome to Brindisi, Apulia,... in southeast Italy. Its importance is indicated by its common name, recorded by Statius: The road is named after Appius Claudius Caecus, the Roman censor who began and completed the first section as a military road to the south in 312 BC during the Samnite Wars. The Roman army depended for its success on the use of bases in which to prepare for retreat and to refresh and re-equip afterwards. Bases allowed the Romans to keep a large number of soldiers in the field waiting for the opportunity to strike. However, the bases needed to be connected by good roads for easy access and supply from Rome. The Appian Way was used as a main route for military supplies since its construction for that purpose in the mid-4th century BC. The Appian Way was the first long road built specifically to transport troops outside the smaller region of greater Rome . The few roads outside the early city were Etruscan and went mainly to Etruria.
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The Colosseum, or the Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre , is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, the... largest ever built in the Roman Empire. It is considered one of the greatest works of Roman architecture and Roman engineering. Occupying a site just east of the Roman Forum, its construction started in 72 AD under the emperor Vespasian and was completed in 80 AD under Titus, with further modifications being made during Domitian's reign . The name "Amphitheatrum Flavium" derives from both Vespasian's and Titus's family name . Capable of seating 50,000 spectators, the Colosseum was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles such as mock sea battles, animal hunts, executions, re-enactments of famous battles, and dramas based on Classical mythology. The building ceased to be used for entertainment in the early medieval era. It was later reused for such purposes as housing, workshops, quarters for a religious order, a fortress, a quarry, and a Christian shrine.
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The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter , officially known in Italian as Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano and commonly known as Saint Peter's... Basilica, is a Late Renaissance church located within the Vatican City. Saint Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world. While it is neither the official mother church of the Roman Catholic Church nor the cathedral of the Pope as Bishop of Rome, Saint Peter's is regarded as one of the holiest Catholic sites. It has been described as "holding a unique position in the Christian world" and as "the greatest of all churches of Christendom". In Roman Catholic tradition, the basilica is the burial site of its namesake Saint Peter, who was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus and, according to tradition, the first Bishop of Rome and therefore first in the line of the papal succession. Tradition and some historical evidence hold that Saint Peter's tomb is directly below the altar of the basilica. For this reason, many Popes have been interred at St. Peter's since the Early Christian period. There has been a church on this site since the 4th century.
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Sistine Chapel is the best-known chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City. It is famous for its... architecture and its decoration that was frescoed throughout by Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio and others. Under the patronage of Pope Julius II, Michelangelo painted 1,100 m of the chapel ceiling between 1508 and 1512. The ceiling, and especially The Last Judgment , is widely believed to be Michelangelo's crowning achievement in painting. The chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who restored the old Cappella Magna between 1477 and 1480. During this period a team of painters that included Pietro Perugino, Sandro Botticelli and Domenico Ghirlandaio created a series of frescoed panels depicting the life of Moses and the life of Christ, offset by papal portraits above and trompe l’oeil drapery below.
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The Borghese Gallery is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. It is a building that was from the first... integral with its gardens, nowadays considered quite separately by tourists as the Villa Borghese gardens. The Galleria Borghese houses a substantial part of the Borghese collection of paintings, sculpture and antiquities, begun by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the nephew of Pope Paul V . The Villa was built by the architect Flaminio Ponzio, developing sketches by Scipione Borghese himself, who used it as a villa suburbana, a party villa at the edge of Rome. Scipione Borghese was an early patron of Bernini and an avid collector of works by Caravaggio, who is well represented in the collection by his Boy with a Basket of Fruit, St. Jerome, Sick Bacchus and others. Other paintings of note include Titian's Sacred and Profane Love, Raphael's Entombment of Christ and works by Peter Paul Rubens and Federico Barocci. The Casina Borghese lies on the outskirts of seventeenth-century Rome.
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The Doria Pamphilj Gallery is a large art collection housed in the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj in Rome, Italy. It is situated between the Via del Corso... and Via della Gatta. The principal entrance is on the Via del Corso . Like the palace, it is still privately owned by the princely Roman family Doria Pamphilj. The large collection of paintings, furniture and statuary has been assembled since the 16th century by the Doria, Pamphilj, Landi and Aldobrandini families now united through marriage and descent under the simplified surname Doria Pamphilj. The collection includes paintings and furnishings from Innocent X's Palazzo Pamphilj , who bequeathed them to his nephew Camillo Pamphilj. The Palazzo has grown over the centuries; it is likely the largest in Rome still in private ownership. The main collection is displayed in state rooms, including the chapel, complete with the mummified corpse of the family saint. However, the bulk is displayed in a series of four gilded and painted galleries surrounding a courtyard.
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The Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, or National Gallery of Ancient Art, is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, located on two sites: the Palazzo... Barberini and the Palazzo Corsini. The Palazzo Barberini was designed for Pope Urban VIII, a member of the Barberini family, by Italian architect Carlo Maderno on the old location of Villa Sforza. Its central salon ceiling was decorated by Pietro da Cortona with the visual panegyric of the Allegory of Divine Providence and Barberini Power to glorify the papal Barberini family. The Palazzo Corsini, formerly known as Palazzo Riario, is a 15th century palace that was rebuilt in the 18th century by architect Ferdinando Fuga for Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini. For a partial list of artworks, see Palazzo Corsini entry. The gallery's collection includes works by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Caravaggio, Giovanni Baglione, Hans Holbein, Perugino, Nicolas Poussin, Giulio Romano, Raphael, Carlo Saraceni Tiepolo, Tintoretto and Tiziano.
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The Capitoline Museums are a group of art and archeological museums in Piazza del Campidoglio, on top of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, Italy. The... museums are contained in three palazzi surrounding a central trapezoidal piazza in a plan conceived by Michelangelo Buonarroti in 1536 and executed over a period of more than 400 years. The history of the museums can be traced to 1471, when Pope Sixtus IV donated a collection of important ancient bronzes to the people of Rome and located them on Capitoline Hill. Since then, the museums' collection has grown to include a large number of ancient Roman statues, inscriptions, and other artifacts; a collection of medieval and Renaissance art; and collections of jewels, coins, and other items. The museums are owned and operated by the municipality of Rome. The statue of a mounted rider in the centre of the piazza is of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. It is a copy, the original being housed on-site in the Capitoline museum.
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The very simple Aldo Fabrizi is a film actor.

Anna Magnani was an Italian stage and film actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress, along with four other international awards, for her... portrayal of a Sicilian widow in The Rose Tattoo. Born in Rome, she worked her way through Rome's Academy of Dramatic Art by singing at night clubs. During her career, her only child was stricken by polio when he was 18 months old and remained crippled. She was referred to as "La Lupa," the "perennial toast of Rome" and a "living she-wolf symbol" of the cinema. Time magazine described her personality as "fiery", and drama critic Harold Clurman said her acting was "volcanic". In the realm of Italian cinema, she was "passionate, fearless, and exciting," an actress that film historian Barry Monush calls "the volcanic earth mother of all Italian cinema." Director Roberto Rossellini called her "the greatest acting genius since Eleonora Duse". Playwright Tennessee Williams became an admirer of her acting and wrote The Rose Tattoo specifically for her to star in, a role for which she received her first Oscar in 1955.
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Alberto Sordi, also known as Albertone, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian actor. He was also a film director and the dubbing voice of... Oliver Hardy in the Italian version of the Laurel & Hardy films. Born in Rome to a schoolteacher and a musician, Sordi enrolled in Milan's dramatic arts academy but was kicked out because of his thick Roman accent. In the meantime he studied to be an opera singer, a bass. It was his accent and voice that would later prove to be his trademark. In a career that spanned seven decades, Sordi established himself as an icon of Italian cinema with his representative skills at both comedy and light drama. His movie career began in the late 1930s with bit parts and secondary characters in wartime movies. After the war he began working as a dubber for the Italian versions of Laurel and Hardy shorts, voicing Oliver Hardy. Early roles included Fellini's The White Sheik in 1952, Fellini's I vitelloni , a movie about young slackers, in which he plays a weak, effeminate immature loafer and a starring role in Lo scapolo playing a single man trying to find love.
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Gianni Togni is an Italian singer. He begins his musical experience with the album In una simile circostanza , he obtained a notable success in 1980... with the single "Luna", from the album E in quel momento.
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Carlo Zecchi was an Italian pianist, music teacher and conductor. Zecchi was born in Rome. He led pianistic courses in Accademia Nazionale di Santa... Cecilia, Rome, and in Salzburg. Highly acclaimed performer of Domenico Scarlatti, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Claude Debussy works, and of Romantic music. He died in Salzburg.
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Renzo Rossellini was an Italian composer, best known for his film scores. Born in Rome, he was brother of director Roberto Rossellini and father of... producer Franco Rossellini. He died in Monte Carlo. He composed the scores of his brother's films, and others such as The Children Are Watching Us or Il segno di Venere. He also wrote several ballets, oratorios, cantatas, four operas—La Guerra , Il vortice , Uno sguardo dal ponte , L'Annonce faite à Marie —, symphonies, chamber music, and songs.
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Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI, Italian pronunciation: [ˈɛnnjo morriˈkoːne], is an Italian composer and conductor, who... wrote music for more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years. His scores have been included in over 20 award-winning films as well as several symphonic and choral pieces. Morricone is most famous for his work in the Spaghetti Westerns directed by his friend Sergio Leone, including A Fistful of Dollars , For a Few Dollars More , The Good, the Bad and the Ugly , and Once Upon a Time in the West . Born in Rome, Italy Morricone took up the trumpet as a child and attended the National Academy of Santa Cecilia to take lessons on the instrument at the age of nine. He formally entered a conservatory at the age of 12, enrolling in a four-year harmony programme. He received his trumpet diploma in 1946 and started working professionally, composing the music to "Il Mattino" . Morricone soon gained popularity by writing his first background music for radio dramas and quickly moved into film.
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Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini is an Italian actress, filmmaker, author, philanthropist, and model. Rossellini is noted for her... 14-year tenure as a Lancôme model, and for her roles in films such as Blue Velvet and Death Becomes Her. Rossellini is a daughter of Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and Italian director Roberto Rossellini. She has three siblings from her mother: her twin sister Isotta Ingrid Rossellini, who is an adjunct professor of Italian literature; a brother, Robertino Ingmar Rossellini; and a half-sister, Pia Lindström, who formerly worked on television and is from her mother's first marriage with Petter Lindström. She has four other siblings from her father's two other marriages: Romano , Renzo, Gil, and Raffaella. Rossellini was born in Rome, and raised there, as well as in Santa Marinella and Paris. She underwent an operation for appendicitis at the age of five. At 13, she was diagnosed with scoliosis.
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Aria Asia Anna Maria Vittoria Rossa Argento is an Italian actress, singer, model and director. Her mother is actress Daria Nicolodi and her father... is Dario Argento, an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter, well known for his work in the Italian giallo genre and for his influence on modern horror and slasher movies. Her maternal great-grandfather was composer Alfredo Casella. When Asia Argento was born in Rome, the city registry office refused to acknowledge Asia as an appropriate name, and instead officially inscribed her as Aria Argento. She nonetheless uses the name Asia Argento professionally. Argento has said that as a child she was lonely and depressed due, in part, to her parents' work. Her father used to read her his scripts as bedtime stories. At age eight, Argento published a book of poems. At the age of 14, she ran away from home. She was an introvert and read to make up for having no friends. In an interview with Filmmaker magazine she stated that she was agoraphobic while she was writing Scarlet Diva and that she could not leave her apartment for months.
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Vanessa Hessler is an American-Italian model and actress. A model since she was 15, Hessler has appeared in many publications throughout Italy and... Germany. Hessler was born to John, an American, and Gabriella, an Italian. She lived in Rome until she was 8, then moved to Washington DC, her father's birthplace. She lived in Rockville, MD in her early teenage years. In 2002 she returned to Italy and started working as a model. She speaks Italian, English and French. Hessler dated Moatassem Gaddafi, son of Muammar Gaddafi, for four years. She worked for Donna sotto le stelle and Notte Mediterranea, both on TV. In 2004, she was chosen for a Korff's advertising campaign and for Alta Roma Alta Moda, the Rome fashion week. She lives in Rome and Washington, and appeared in commercials for Baby Star, Nara Camicie and Gilli. Hessler planned to work in television, and in early 2006 she wanted to replace Alessia Marcuzzi to host Le Iene, but lost to Cristina Chiabotto. Hessler has appeared in advertising for GUESS, Calvin Klein, Giorgio Armani, L'Oréal, and Ferrero SpA.
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Monica Vitti is an Italian actress best known for her starring roles in films directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, her lover at that time, during the... early 1960s. After working with Antonioni, Vitti changed focus and began making comedies, working with director Mario Monicelli on many films. She has appeared with leading men like Marcello Mastroianni, Richard Harris, and Dirk Bogarde. Her last film was Scandalo Segreto. Born Maria Luisa Ceciarelli in Rome, she acted in amateur productions as a teenager, then trained as an actor at Rome's National Academy of Dramatic Arts and at Pittman's College, where she played a teen in a charity performance of Dario Niccodemi's La nemica. She toured Germany with an Italian acting troupe and her first stage appearance in Rome was for a production of Niccolò Machiavelli's La Mandragola. Vitti's first film role was in Ettore Scola's Ridere Ridere Ridere but her first widely noted performance was at the age of 26 in Mario Amendola's Le dritte .
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Anna Magnani was an Italian stage and film actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress, along with four other international awards, for her... portrayal of a Sicilian widow in The Rose Tattoo. Born in Rome, she worked her way through Rome's Academy of Dramatic Art by singing at night clubs. During her career, her only child was stricken by polio when he was 18 months old and remained crippled. She was referred to as "La Lupa," the "perennial toast of Rome" and a "living she-wolf symbol" of the cinema. Time magazine described her personality as "fiery", and drama critic Harold Clurman said her acting was "volcanic". In the realm of Italian cinema, she was "passionate, fearless, and exciting," an actress that film historian Barry Monush calls "the volcanic earth mother of all Italian cinema." Director Roberto Rossellini called her "the greatest acting genius since Eleonora Duse". Playwright Tennessee Williams became an admirer of her acting and wrote The Rose Tattoo specifically for her to star in, a role for which she received her first Oscar in 1955.
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