ROME, the capital of the Roman republic and empire, the Holy See, and of the kingdom of Italy since 1871, is in 41° 53' 54" N. latitude (more than a degree further north than New York City) and 12° 28' 50" E. longitude from Greenwich. Pop. about 539,000. Its nearness to the Mediterranean on the south and the Apennines on the east strongly influence its climate. The average temperature in winter is F. and in summer F. Snow, ite and frost are infrequent. Foreigners regard the summer as rather oppressive, but as there is both a mountain and a sea breeze the nights are reasonably comfortable except in July. The Tramontana wind from the Alps is bracing but menacing to those not warmly clad. The sirocco from the African desert is enervating and productive of nervous disorders — a fact recognized by the old law in Rome and held "an attending circumstance" in cases of crimes of blood. The city is efficiently drained by means of some of the ancient and by modern culverts; intramural burial is no longer practised; the streets are well cleaned; the plumbing is of the best type; slaughter-houses have been abolished and the abattoir substi tuted ; meat, fruit and vegetables are rigidly inspected, and in all respects the sanitation has been so careful that the death rate has been reduced from 30 to 19 in the thousand. The Acqua Marcia (built 140 ac.; restored 1869) brings water from the Sabine Mountains, a dis tance of 56 miles. AlthOugh strongly impreg nated with lime, the water is pure and excellent.
The city is situated on both skies of the Tiber about 16 miles from its contact with the sea, surrounded by the Campagna, the vast prairie stretching from the Mediterranean to the Alban Mountains and the Sabine Hills, the granary of Rome and the grazing country from which are drawn, in tarp part, its supplies of meat, milk and butter. Measured by its extent, but a small part of the city is on the right bank of the river. This Transtiberine Part in two sections, the Borogo and the Trastevere extends over the low ground beneath the Vatican Hill, north of the ancient Janiculum. This eminence is crowned by the Vatican, the residence of the popes, the largest palace in the world, containing more than a thousand rooms, halls and chapels, and covering more than 13 acres. The Vatican, the Lateran and
the Castello Gandolfo are outside of civic jurisdiction.
South of the Vatican is Saint Peter's, on the site of Caligula's circus, the scene of the torture of Christians by Nero. This chief shrine of Roman Catholicism (described hereafter) is the largest church in the world and occupies nearly four acres. It had its beginning as a basilica erected by Constantine. In the course of its development it came under the creative genius of Michelangelo and received from him its most striking feature, the great dome. Saint Peter's tomb is under the high altar.
The Rome on the right bank of the Tiber is of modern development and is the home of the working class, by speech and appearance some what differentiated from the people of the Rome of the left bank. The Tiber enters the city from the north and issues from it at the southwestern base of the Aventine eminence. In its course of three or four miles it is spanned by 11 bridges.
Modern Rome on the left bank occupies the plain anciently known as the Campus Martins, north of the seven hills of the regal and re publican city. The Piazzo del Popolo is to ?tome, in a measure, what the•Place de rEtoile is to Paris. From it radiate great arteries of distribution of the city's out-door throng and traffic. The chief of these is the Corso Um berto I, called simply the Corso, leading, along the western base of the Pincio, to the Capitoline and to a panoramic view of ancient Rome be yond the hill. It is the successor of the ancient Via Late and is continued north of the city the Via Flaininia. The Via Fernanffino di Savoie runs due west from the piazza, crosses the Tiber at the Ponta Margherita (the north ermost bridge within the city) and is continued by the Cola di Rienzi to the Vatican. The Via di Ripetta, passing southward from the Piazza del Popolo, parallels the river and unites with the Via della Scrofa where the Senate sits, in the Palazzo Madame. The Via del Babuino leaves the Piazza del Popolo on the left or east side of the Corso and ends at the Piazza di Spagna and the English quarter, into which the Scala di Spagna descends (137 steps) from the SS. Triniti de' Monti. From this Piazza the Via del Babnirio continues to the Quirinal and thence, through a tunnel, to the Esquiline.