Sapienza University of Rome

4 June 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Universities, Colleges, Academies Reading Time:  6 minutes

Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza, the former University Chapel © Paris Orlando/cc-by-sa-4.0

Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza, the former University Chapel © Paris Orlando/cc-by-sa-4.0

The Sapienza University of Rome (Italian: Sapienza – Università di Roma), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”, abbreviated simply as Sapienza (“wisdom”), is a public research university located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1303 and is as such one of the world’s oldest universities, and with 122,000 students, it is the largest university in Europe. Due to its size, funding, and numerous laboratories and libraries, Sapienza is a major education and research centre in Southern Europe. The university is located mainly in the Città Universitaria (University city), which covers 44 ha (110 acres) near the Tiburtina Station, with different campuses, libraries and laboratories in various locations in Rome.   read more…

Lake Bolsena in Lazio

8 May 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

© Kweedado2

© Kweedado2

Lake Bolsena (Italian: Lago di Bolsena) is a lake of volcanic origin in the northern part of the province of Viterbo called Alto Lazio (“Upper Latium”) or Tuscia in central Italy. It is the largest volcanic lake in Europe. Roman historic records indicate activity of the Vulsini volcano occurred as recently as 104 BC; it has been dormant since then. The two islands in the southern part of the lake were formed by underwater eruptions following the collapse that created the depression.   read more…

Civita di Bagnoregio in Lazio

13 April 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

© Davide Papalini/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Davide Papalini/cc-by-sa-3.0

Civita di Bagnoregio is an outlying village of the comune of Bagnoregio in the Province of Viterbo in central Italy. It lies 1 kilometre (0.6 mi) east of the town of Bagnoregio and about 120 kilometres (75 mi) north of Rome. The only access is a footbridge from the nearby town, with a toll introduced in 2013. Because of the toll, communal taxes were abolished in Civita and nearby Bagnoregio. And because of its unstable foundation that often erodes, Civita is famously known as “the dying city”. It is one of I Borghi più belli d’Italia (“The most beautiful villages of Italy”).   read more…

Latina in Lazio

9 January 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Palazzo del Governo © flickr.com - Erik/cc-by-sa-2.0

Palazzo del Governo © flickr.com – Erik/cc-by-sa-2.0

Latina is the capital of the province of Latina, in the Lazio region, in Central Italy. As of 2011, the city has 126,612 inhabitants and is the second-largest city of the region, after the national capital Rome. It was founded as Littoria in 1932 under the fascist administration, when the area surrounding it which had been a swamp since antiquity was drained.   read more…

Caprarola in Lazio

19 October 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Environment Reading Time:  4 minutes

© Livioandronico2013/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Livioandronico2013/cc-by-sa-4.0

Caprarola is a town and comune in the province of Viterbo, in the Lazio region of central Italy. The village is situated in a range of volcanic hills known as the Cimini Mounts.   read more…

Great Synagogue of Rome

14 October 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions Reading Time:  7 minutes

© Fczarnowski/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Fczarnowski/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Great Synagogue of Rome (Italian: Tempio Maggiore di Roma) is the largest synagogue in Rome. The Jewish community of Rome goes back to the 2nd century B.C when the Roman Republic had an alliance of sorts with Judea under the leadership of Judah Maccabeus. At that time, many Jews came to Rome from Judea. Their numbers increased during the following centuries due to the settlement that came with Mediterranean trade. Then large numbers of Jews were brought to Rome as slaves following the Jewish–Roman wars in Judea from 63 to 135 CE.   read more…

Column of Marcus Aurelius in Rome

10 June 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  10 minutes

Column of Marcus Aurelius © flickr.com - Rodney/cc-by-sa-2.0

Column of Marcus Aurelius © flickr.com – Rodney/cc-by-sa-2.0

The Column of Marcus Aurelius (Latin: Columna Centenaria Divorum Marci et Faustinae, Italian: Colonna di Marco Aurelio) is a Roman victory column in Piazza Colonna, Rome, Italy. It is a Doric column featuring a spiral relief: it was built in honour of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and modeled on Trajan’s Column.   read more…

Ghetto of Rome

6 April 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  15 minutes

Great Synagogue of Rome © Livioandronico2013/cc-by-sa-4.0

Great Synagogue of Rome © Livioandronico2013/cc-by-sa-4.0

The Roman Ghetto or Ghetto of Rome (Italian: Ghetto di Roma) was a Jewish ghetto established in 1555 in the Rione Sant’Angelo, in Rome, Italy, in the area surrounded by present-day Via del Portico d’Ottavia, Lungotevere dei Cenci, Via del Progresso and Via di Santa Maria del Pianto, close to the River Tiber and the Theatre of Marcellus. With the exception of brief periods under Napoleon from 1808 to 1815 and under the Roman Republics of 1798–99 and 1849, the ghetto of Rome was controlled by the papacy until the capture of Rome in 1870.   read more…

Chigi Palace in Rome

7 October 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  8 minutes

Chigi Palace and column of Marcus Aurelius © flickr.com - jimmyweee/cc-by-2.0

Chigi Palace and column of Marcus Aurelius © flickr.com – jimmyweee/cc-by-2.0

The Chigi Palace (Italian: Palazzo Chigi) is a palace and former noble residence in Rome which is the seat of the Council of Ministers and the official residence of the Prime Minister of Italy. Since 13 February 2021, the tenant of the Chigi Palace has been Prime Minister Mario Draghi. It is located in the Piazza Colonna, next to Palazzo Montecitorio, seat of the Chamber of Deputies.   read more…

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