Curiosities and particularities of Rome
Best Western Plus Hotel Spring House prepared a series of curiosities to discover all particularities of Rome and make more interesting the stay of its guests.
- There is a law in Rome that allows cats to live without disruption in the place where they were born. If you look carefully, you will see hundreds of wild cats climbing the walls of the Colosseum and sleeping among the ruins of the Forum.
- Rome is the city with most fountains in the world, with 280 fountains. The second is... Kansans City (more than 200). Rome has also 900 churches.
- The Colosseum was not only famous for its gladiators’ battles. Sometimes the Romans would flood the whole Colosseum or the Circus Maximus for boat battles. In fact, there were 36 trap doors in Arena allowing elaborate special effects.
- In Rome, the Emperor Tarajan built the first-ever shopping mall between 107 and 110 a.D. The Trajan’s Market was a multi-level building and sold a wide range of goods and grocery items.
- According to the City of Rome, it is nearly 700.000 € the total value of euro coins thrown into the Trevi Fountain each year. The proceeds are donated to the Caritas association to help people in need.
- Sextilis (from sextus) was the original name of the month of August but was renamed in honor of the Roman Emperor Augustus. Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, gave his name to the month of January.
- The mouth of Truth is a sort of ancient lie detector. It is said that, if a person told a lie while keeping the hand inside the mouth, it would be cut off. During the Middle Age, the priests of Santa Maria in Cosmedin put scorpions into it to help perpetuate the myth.
- The Pantheon’s dome is the world’s largest unreinforced concrete dome. It was built during the reign of Augustus (27 b.C.-14 a.D.) and it is one of the best preserved Ancient Roman buildings. It measures 43.2 m of diameter, more that St. Peter’s dome.