Lazio - Amordivino

Lazio

Population: 5.242.709
Surface (Kmq): 17227
Density (Inhabitants/Kmq.): 304
Main city: Roma (ROMA)
Other towns: Frosinone (FR); Latina (LT); Rieti (RI); Viterbo (VT).

Lazio is on the central western coast, facing the Tyrrhenian Sea, and home to the nation's capital, Rome. Traces of Etruscan civilisation are remarkable and can be found at Veio, Vulci, Tarquinia and Cerveteri, while evidence of the power base of the great Roman Empire remain everywhere. The region has long been the centre of a vibrant artistic community centred, since the Middle Ages, around the presence of the Roman Catholic Church. The Vatican City, seat of the papacy, is in the heart of Rome. The imposing complex of the Vatican Museums contains numberless outstanding masterpieces. The National Museum houses the most important archaeologic collections in the world, while the Capitoline Museum holds the oldest classic sculptures. Lazio also offers the tourist varied oeno-gastronomic itineraries which show the unique traditions and peculiarities of the Lazio cooking style.

Humans have inhabited the riverside and hilly zones of Lazio since early Paleolithic times. In the 9th century B.C. the Etruscans, who shared the area with the Latins and several other Italic tribes, founded the first settlements and city centres, also cultivating the land and introducing new agricultural plants.

Little by little, the influence of Rome grew until the 3rd century B.C. when it subdued all of Lazio. With the growth of Roman power, the peopled areas of Lazio also grew. The Romans improved the farming systems and built impressive civil structures such as aqueducts, many of which still partially stand today. They also built new roads such as those to Salaria, Appia (left), Aurelia, Flaminia, Cassia, Nomentana, Tiburtina-Valeria, Prenestina, Casilina, etc. that opened the way to the widespread colonisation and expansion of the Empire. This was an Empire which, at its zenith, extended from the British Isles in the north to the African coast of the Mediterranean in the south and all the way to the Middle East.

The fertile coastal plain of Lazio became a malaria-infested and impoverished marsh during the late Roman Empire, through the anarchic barbaric invasions to the early rule of the papal state. After the fall of Rome, Lazio was invaded in turn by the Visigoths, the Vandals and the Lombards. From the 8th century, the duchy of Rome, including most of modern Lazio, belonged to the Pope. Papal authority was not always recognised in the towns, which were ruled at times as free communes or by local feudal lords. Apart from the area south of Terracina, which belonged to the kingdom of Naples, Lazio remained a part of the Papal States until 1870.

During the Renaissance, Rome was the seat of a splendid pontific court, commissioning art and architecture from the greatest artists of the time, changing the face and map of Rome in the process. Another period of great transformation in the region was started in 1871 when Rome became the capital city of the newly united Italy under the rule of the house of Savoy. The Pontine marshes were reclaimed and transformed into an exceptionally rich agricultural territory; new industrial plants were installed in the provinces of Latina and Frosinone; and a grandiose business centre and Metro system were built in Rome.