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Did you know ...

• the 12th-century guide to Rome's wonders, De mirabilibus urbis Romae, survived in a single copy?
• the 1st century Greek historian Nicolaus of Damascus reported the embassy of holy men from India to the Levant, Athens and Rome during the time of Jesus?
• the church of Santa Caterina a Magnanapoli in Rome, along with the adjacent tower, is all that remains today of a Dominican convent dedicated to Catherine of Siena?
• only two of the fourteen French cardinals were in Italy at the start of the papal conclave, 1549-1550 because a clause of the Concordat of Bologna allowed the pope to redistribute their benefices if they died in Rome?
• on December 17, 1973 Pan Am Flight 110 was attacked by six gunmen of the Abu Nidal Organization at Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport in Rome?
• in constructing the Via della Conciliazione (pictured), Benito Mussolini ordered the demolition of an entire Roman neighborhood, and the forcible eviction of its residents to settlements outside the city?
• in the papal Rome each fish monger had to give to the city councillors the heads of the fishes longer than a marble plaque which had been hung on a wall of the fish market, in Sant'Angelo?
• nineteenth-century Irish portrait painter Richard Rothwell is buried next to the Romantic poet John Keats in the Protestant cemetery in Rome?
• the Russian painter Grigory Gagarin was also a military leader and a diplomat in Paris, Rome, and Istanbul?
• the Capitoline Museums are housed in a complex of palazzi surrounding a piazza in Rome, designed by Michelangelo in 1536 but not fully completed until Mussolini ordered it in 1940?
• the relics of St. Florian (pictured) kept in St. Florian's Church were brought to Kraków from Rome for political reasons?
• when the Sudanese Boeing 737 Air West Flight 612 was hijacked, the hijacker originally wanted to fly to Rome or London but was forced to settle for Chad due to a lack of fuel?
• when the Transylvanian shepherd Badea Cârţan was found sleeping at the base of Trajan's Column in Rome in 1896, he was at first jokingly referred to as a Dacian who had fallen off a sculpted panel on the column and come to life?
• the fiscus Iudaicus was a tax imposed on all Jewish subjects of the Roman Empire after the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, the proceeds of which were used to fund a temple of Jupiter in Rome?
• the Temple of Harmony, built in the grounds of Halsworth House in Goathurst, Somerset, England in 1767, is a replica of the Temple of Fortuna Virilis in Rome?
• the Marian column on which Our Lady stands on Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome originally supported the vault of the Basilica of Constantine at the Roman Forum and was the only one such column to survive the Basilica's destruction in an earthquake?
• the obelisk in Rome's Piazza Montecitorio (pictured) was erected in 10 BC as a giant sundial gnomon, but stopped keeping accurate time within 30 years?
• the Pons Neronianus ('Bridge of Nero') over the Tiber in Rome may actually have been built by Caligula?
• after concluding his participation in the Second Schleswig War, priest and educator Christopher Bruun walked from Denmark to Rome?
• a colony of the crab species Potamon fluviatile (pictured) may have lived in Rome since before the Romans?
• Jakub Uchański, a 16th-century primate of Poland, was suspected of heresy and summoned to appear before the inquisition in Rome?
• John Devitt was awarded a gold medal in the 100m freestyle at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome despite all three timekeepers awarding a faster time to the silver medallist?
• Michael Stern was one of two journalists to enter Rome on June 3, 1944, one day ahead of American forces?
• Flaithbertach Ua Néill, king of Ailech in Ireland, was called Flaithbertach an Trostáin, Flaithbertach of the Pilgrim's staff, as a result of his pilgrimage to Rome in 1030?
• Ethelbert of York's 8th century library was probably the largest book collection of its day outside of Rome?
• British athlete Don Thompson was nicknamed "Il Topolino" (Italian for "Little Mouse") when he raced to victory in the 50km walk at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome while wearing a képi and sunglasses ?
• Alan de St Edmund, while in Rome as chaplain to Cardinal Hugh of Evesham, was made Bishop of Caithness after its previous bishop-elect died there while seeking consecration?
• Eddisbury hill fort, the largest and most complex Iron Age hill fort in Cheshire, was destroyed by the Romans to prevent it being used against them?
• Monte Testaccio (pictured) in Rome is an artificial hill, 35 m (115 ft) high and 1 km (3,300 ft) in circumference, consisting entirely of the fragments of 53 million ancient Roman amphorae?
• Paul Hofmann, who served as an interpreter for the Germans in WWII, passed information to the anti-fascist resistance in Rome?
• via Giulia, projected for Pope Julius II, was the first attempt since antiquity to pierce a new thoroughfare through the heart of Rome?
• A Cat in the Brain is based on the reactions of its writer and director, Lucio Fulci, to real-life murders in Rome?
• Caeca et Obdurata, promulgated by Pope Clement VIII (pictured) in 1593, ordered that Jews be expelled from the Papal States except Rome, Ancona, and the Comtat Venaissin, within three months?
• Toto's seizure of power in Rome, Italy, in 767 is one of the first indications that the military aristocracy believed that supreme power in Rome rested with the papal office?
• Thomas Patch, who painted men on their Grand Tours, had to leave Rome after a homosexual act?
• Roman trade with India was so large as to drain gold resources from Rome and involved the despatch of 120 ships every year?
• Santa Maria sopra Minerva is the only Gothic church in Rome and holds the body of Saint Catherine of Siena, but not her head?
• Yohannan Sulaqa, to oppose the hereditary patriarchal succession, took a step unprecedented in the Church of the East: traveled to Rome and was there consecrated patriarch in 1553?
• Kermit Roosevelt's co-brother-in-law Mervyn Herbert played first-class cricket for Somerset County Cricket Club and died in the British Embassy in Rome, Italy?

More interesting facts on Rome

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