Rome (Italian Roma) is the capital of Italy and of its region, called Lazio. It is located across the confluence of the Tiber and Aniene rivers. It was once the capital of the Roman Empire, the most powerful, largest and longest lasting empire of classical Western civilization. The Vatican, a sovereign enclave within Rome, is the seat of the Roman Catholic Church located at St. Peter's square, and the home of the Pope.

Rome is the largest comune in Italy and it is also one of the largest European capital cities in land area, with an area of 1,285 square kilometers. The comune territory extends up to the Tyrrhenian Sea, with the district of Ostia, on the south-west, located on the shore. Within the city limits, the population is about 2.5 million; almost 3.8 million live in the urbanised area of Rome, as represented by the Province of Rome, making it second in population to Milan. The current Mayor of Rome is Walter Veltroni.

With a gross domestic product of €97 billion in the year 2005, the comune of Rome produced 6.7% of Italy's GDP, which is the highest proportion of GDP produced by any single one of Italy's comunes.

The city's history extends nearly 2,800 years, during which time it has been the seat of ancient Rome and, later, the Papal States, Kingdom of Italy and Italian Republic (modern Italy). Rome is also called "la Citta Eterna" (the Eternal City), "l'Urbe" (Latin for "the City" as an antonomasia) and "la citta dei sette colli" ("the city of the seven hills").

The civilization of ancient Rome originated in the 8th or 9th century BC, when the tribe of the Latini migrated to the Italian peninsula to settle around the River Tiber. According to Roman mythology, Rome was built on April 21, 753 BC by the twin descendants of the Trojan prince Aeneas, Romulus and Remus. Romulus killed Remus in a quarrel over where their city was to be located and became the first of seven Kings of Rome, as well as the source of the city's name.

For almost a thousand years, Rome was a city of pivotal importance in the Western world and possibly the largest city in the world, with around 1.5 to 2 million inhabitants, as the capital of the expansive Roman Empire. With the rise of Christianity, Rome became the centre 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 cultural capital of Western Roman Empire for several hundred years leading up to the Renaissance. Rome remains influential today, as the capital of Italy, as centre of the Catholic Church, and as a major metropolis.