Built on seven hills, the city's 3000 year history has always been focused on power. It is a fact that the city has never known the proud era of an unfettered metropolis.
The question of "who founded Rome" is a frequent one during history classes. The answer comes in the form of the long, beautiful tale of the vicissitudes of two orphans, Romulus and his older brother, Remus, who were eventually found and raised by a she-wolf. This legend is taught as history and that's how we learned it, too.
With a little research, however, it becomes clear that this inconsistency is not an isolated case. Rome's duplicity is inherent in her nature. In this city, wonderful examples of duality ranging from deception to hypocrisy have always existed, even fro a geographic standpoint. It is possible to scale the rising, rolling hills and to descend deep into the dark world of the catacombs. In the shadows of historical obelisks, columns and statues, swirling rivers of automobiles and motorcycles blanket the streets, gasping for breath at all hours day or night.
In Rome it is almost impossible to get from one end of the city to the other without a hitch. You can guarantee the traffic will be horrendous and the honking of car horns constant which makes the entire city sound like a second-hand market, the shouting, the frantic characteristic gesturing, all the while progressing - albeit slowly - along roads which run past masterly formed buildings and statues sculpted by seemingly divine inspiration.
Let's stop for a moment and take a closer look at Rome's buildings, because the players of this double game are somehow able to get their bearings amongst them and know what is hiding behind the facades. One can be certain that if a building looks like a palace, then it is a church, and those more modest building that seemingly crouch in the shadows of triumphal arches are the real palaces. Rome has always made a concerted effort to remove the noticeable distinctions between poverty and wealth. It seems that only the Romans themselves can find their way with any degree of certainty amongst the buildings, and they do this in an amazingly incomprehensible way.
Rome is also a large city fighting the thousand problems inherent in any such urban environment. Not only does the idea of separating myth and reality cause problems for city leaders, but the preservation of her innumerable historical treasures is a nightmare as well. Despite its proximity to the sea, Rome's buildings are slowly perishing, captive to a permanent blanket of smog, and the ever-worsening transportation situation leaves its mark everywhere on centuries- and even thousand-year-old walls.
The Vatican, one of the world's smallest independent states, operates on a scant half square kilometre of land within Rome's city limits. It is a residence of the Pope and the centre of the Catholic world. Beyond the entrance to the Holy See is an island of calm compared to the chaotic nature of the outside world. Here tourists cannot simply wander in, only those who have a permit for a visit are allowed entrance.
At the same time Rome is a riot of colours with her captivating yet elegantly green, spacious gardens, her houses of white and rose-coloured marble and bluish waters bursting forth from her numerous fountains. Among these fountains, the most famous has to be the Trevi, probably most well known from himself in Rome must make a pilgrimage to the Trevi Fountain. This baroque masterpiece was conceived by Bernini in the 18th century, and many people come to pay tribute to the sea creatures bathing in the waters of the fountain in the belief that whoever throws coins into the fountain will someday be able to return to the Eternal City.
In any case, the constant clinking of change at the bottom of the well can render a service, too. With the well-publicised introduction of the Euro, we will have to get rid of all our unnecessary national small change since banks will only exchange paper currency for the Euro, so when we do this we can kill two birds with one stone, we can arrange our return to Rome and get ready to welcome the Euro.
It would be an exercise in futility evento try to list all of Rome's attractions. There is one among them - another of Bernini's creations - worth a special mention, St. Peter's Square. To be able to walk around such a baroque architectural masterpiece, where 100 000 people can gather at once, is mind-boggling. And reality is not what is seems here, either. The seemingly circular square is not a circle at all, but rather an ellipse. It is 50 meters longer than it is wide. It is crowned at its ends by the Basilica and the Conciliazione. In the centre of the square rises what is by now the umpteenth obelisk, the sphere at the top of which reputedly contains Julius Caesar's heart, though no mortal man has ever seen it...
After experiencing the dual-nature of the city, one has to ask whether the city was indeed founded by Romulus 3000 years ago. Thanks to a recent discovery of evidence of Romulus' existence, you can't be sure that the historical paradise rested on Mount Palatine after all...