Rome is the capital city and a special comune of Italy (named Comune di Roma Capitale), as well as the capital of the Lazio region.
The city has been a major human settlement for almost three millennia. With 2,860,009 residents in 1,285 km2, it is also the country's most populated comune.
It is the third most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the centre of the Metropolitan City of Rome,
which has a population of 4,355,725 residents, thus making it the most populous metropolitan city in Italy.
Its metropolitan area is the third-most populous within Italy. Rome is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio (Latium),
along the shores of the Tiber. Vatican City, the smallest country in the world, is an independent country inside the city boundaries of Rome,
the only existing example of a country within a city; for this reason, Rome has sometimes been described as the capital of two states. Rome's history spans 28 centuries. While Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer,
making it one of the oldest continuously occupied cities in Europe. The city's early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans, and Sabines.
Eventually, the city successively became the capital of the Roman Kingdom, the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, and is regarded by many as the first-ever Imperial city and metropolis.
It was first called The Eternal City (Latin: Urbs Aeterna; Italian: La Città Eterna) by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid, Virgil, and Livy.
Rome is also called "Caput Mundi" - Capital of the World.

SPQR initially stood for Senatus Populusque Romanus - the Senate and Roman people, but a growing number of white supremacists have adopted the acronym to symbolize their movement. This is an ancient marble copy of a shield called the clipeus virtutis awarded to Augustus in 27 BCE and hung in the Senate House in Rome.
Capitoline Wolf (Italian: Lupa Capitolina) is a bronze sculpture depicting a scene from the legend of the founding of Rome. The sculpture shows a she-wolf suckling the mythical twin founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus. According to the legend, when King Numitor, grandfather of the twins, was overthrown by his brother Amulius in Alba Longa, the usurper ordered them to be cast into the Tiber River. They were rescued by a she-wolf that cared for them until a herdsman, Faustulus, found and raised them.