Metropolitan City of Rome

Rome is the capital’s metropolitan area, a large government district in central Lazio. It covers the city itself plus 120 nearby towns and villages. The landscape stretches from the flat Roman plain and Tiber Valley to the Aniene and Lucretili mountains. Volcanic lakes dot the north-west near the Sabatini hills, while the Colli Albani hills rise in the south-east. The Tyrrhenian coast runs for about 130 kilometres from Civitavecchia down to Torre Astura. The area has the biggest population of any metropolitan city in Italy. Almost one in seven residents is under age eighteen, and nearly one in four is over sixty-five. Foreign-born residents make up about fourteen per cent of the total, mainly from Romania, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Ukraine and Egypt. The metropolitan mayor, Roberto Gualtieri, leads the city’s government from Rome. A council of local mayors and councillors meets five years to plan shared services such as transport and schools. Inside the city, Termini station handles around four hundred thousand travellers each day. The metro network has three lines, with the C line now running automated trains east of the centre. Rome’s main cruise port sits at Civitavecchia, sixty-two kilometres north-west, while the Lido di Ostia quarter offers a sandy beach on the Mediterranean. Ancient roads still shape the modern ring-road, the Grande Raccordo Anulare, fifteen kilometres from the Capitol.