Rome and Italy
Italy (Italian Republic, Italian: Repubblica Italiana) is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within the Italian Peninsula, and Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland.
Italy has been the home of many European cultures, such as the Etruscans and the Romans, and later was the birthplace of the university and of the Renaissance, that began in Tuscany and spread all over Europe. Italy's capital, Rome, was for centuries the center of Western civilization. Italy possessed a colonial empire from the second half of the nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century.
Today, Italy is a democratic republic and a developed country with the eighth-highest quality-of-life index rating in the world. It is a founding member of what is now the European Union, having signed the Treaty of Rome in 1957, as well as a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It is a member of the G8, having the world's seventh-largest nominal GDP, and is also a member state of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Council of Europe, the Western European Union, and the Central European Initiative. Italy is a Schengen state.
Rome is the capital city of Italy and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with more than 2,7 million residents in an urban area of some 1'285,3 km2. It is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber
river.
Rome's history as a city spans over two and a half thousand years, as one of the founding cities of Western Civilisation. It was the centre of the Roman Empire, which dominated Europe, North Africa and the Middle East for four hundred years from the 1 st Century BC till the 4 th Century AD. Rome has a significant place in Christianity and is the present day home of the Roman Catholic Church and the site of the Vatican City, an independent city-state run by the Catholic Church within as an enclave of Rome.
As one of the few major European cities that escaped World War II relatively unscathed, central Rome remains essentially Renaissance and Baroque in character. Rome is the third-most-visited tourist destination in the European Union and its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
As a modern city it has been capital of the unified Italy since 1870, and grew mainly in two periods either side of Word War II. According to Roman tradition, the city was founded by the twins Romulus and Remus on 21 April 753 BC. The original settlement developed into the capital of the Roman Kingdom, and then the Roman Republic (from 510 BC, governed by the Senate), and finally the Roman Empire (from 27 BC, ruled by an Emperor). This success depended on military conquest, commercial predominance, as well as selective assimilation of neighbouring civilisations, most notably the Etruscans and Greeks. Roman dominance expanded over most of Europe and the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, while its population surpassed one million inhabitants. For almost a thousand years, Rome was the most politically important, richest, and largest city in the Western world.
With the reign of Constantine I, the Bishop of Rome gained political as well as religious importance, eventually becoming known as the Pope and establishing Rome as the centre of the Catholic Church. Rome remained the capital of the Papal States until its annexation by the Kingdom of Italy in 1870; the city became a major pilgrimage site during the Middle Ages.
The latter half of the 15th century saw the seat of the Italian Renaissance move to Rome from Florence. The Papacy wanted to equal and surpass the grandeur of other Italian cities and to this end created ever more extravagant churches, bridges, and public spaces, including a new Saint Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, Ponte Sisto (the first bridge to be built across the Tiber since antiquity), and Piazza Navona. The Popes were also patrons of the arts engaging such artists as Michelangelo, Perugino, Raphael, Ghirlandaio, Luca Signorelli, Botticelli, and Cosimo Rosselli.
After a victorious World War I, Rome witnessed the rise to power of Italian Fascism guided by Benito Mussolini, who marched on the city in 1922. This was a period of rapid growth in population, from 212'000 people at the time of unification to more than 1'000'000. Rome grew momentously after World War II, as one of the driving forces behind the "Italian economic miracle" of post-war reconstruction and modernisation. It became a fashionable city in the 1950s and early 1960s, the years of la dolce vita ("the sweet life"), and a new rising trend in population continued till the mid-1980s.
Good to know
Languages
Italian is the national language but some speak English. Those involved in the tourist industry will have impeccable English and are likely to speak French and German as well. English is the language of choice for establishments serving the international and cosmopolitan visitors.
English-Italian-English online dictionary >>
Italy is a member of the Euro zone. The seven euro notes come in denominations of EUR500, EUR200, EUR100, EUR50, EUR20, EUR10 and EUR5. The eight Euro coins are in denominations of EUR2 and EUR1, and 50, 20, 10, five, two and one cents.
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Visas
You do NOT need a visa for Italy for business, personal visits or tourism if you are:
- a citizen of an EU country
- a citizen of Norway, Switzerland, Iceland
- from a country listed on the Foreign Ministry list
- not staying more than 90 days
In this case, a passport or ID Card valid for the duration of your stay is sufficient.
Citizens of other countries may need a visa. Please contact your travel agent or the nearest Italian diplomatic authorities for further information. If you should need a visa, please apply early enough to allow sufficient handling time to the authorities. You may ask the EULAR Organising Secretariat for an official letter of invitation (proof of registration required).
Climate and Clothing
Rome enjoys a typically Mediterranean climate. Summers (from June to September) are hot and dry with temperatures often soaring to 37°C.
The weather in Rome right now >>
Electricity
Italy, like most other European countries, uses
220 Volt/50 Hz AC current. Plugs are European standard. Plan to bring an adapter plug and even a transformer for your personal appliances.
Telephones
For calls to Italy, use the international code +39. The regional code for Rome is 06. Calls from Italy follow international standard dialling rules.
Insurance and Liability
It is recommended that participants obtain adequate cover for travel, health and accident insurance before they depart from their countries. EULAR and MCI as organisers cannot accept responsibility for personal injuries, or loss of, or damage to, private property belonging to the congress participants and accompanying persons.
Shopping
Shops in Rome are usually open from
09:00-13:00 and 15:30-19:30 (16:00-20:00 in summer), except on Sundays and Monday mornings. Grocery shops also close on Thursday afternoons. Some bookshops (where people often meet) and some clothes shops (around Campo dei Fiori, for example) open on Sundays, 10:00 or 15:00-19:00. August is traditionally the month when small business take their annual holiday. Most shops and restaurants in Rome close for about two weeks around 15 August.
Time
Italy follows Central European Time (CET) which is
GMT +1 hour in winter and GMT + 2 in summer.
Tipping
You are not expected to tip on top of restaurant service charges but you can leave a little extra if you feel service warrants it. If there is no service charge, the customer should consider leaving a 10% tip, but this is not obligatory. In bars, Italians often leave small change as a tip, maybe only EUR 0.10. Tipping taxi drivers is not common practice, but you are expected to tip the porter at top-end hotels.
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