Curated category
World Heritage Sites in Italy
- Syracuse, SicilyIn 733 BC, a group of colonists from the Greek city-state of Corinth landed on the island of Ortygia. Their leader was Archias, who expelled the Sicels, the…
- HerculaneumThe Greek hero Heracles founded the city according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Strabo claimed that Oscans established the first settlement instead.
- VeniceThe traditional founding of Venice is identified with the dedication of the first church, that of San Giacomo on the islet of Rialto.
- PompeiiThe first stable settlements on the site date to the 8th century BC when the Oscans, a population of central Italy, founded five villages in the area.
- RavennaThe Umbri people settled the marshy islands of what is now Ravenna by the 5th century BC. These early inhabitants built houses on wooden piles within a…
- GenoaIn July 1097, twelve galleys and one ship carrying 1,200 soldiers set sail from Genoa to join the First Crusade. These Genoese troops, led by noblemen de…
- Mount EtnaVolcanic activity first took place at Mount Etna about 500,000 years ago. Eruptions occurred beneath the sea off the ancient coastline of Sicily.
- TarquiniaThe ancient city of Tarchuna rose from the long plateau known as La Civita, towering above the Marta valley and standing about 6 kilometers from the sea.
- Villa Romana del CasaleIn 1929, archaeologist Paolo Orsi began digging into the Sicilian soil near Piazza Armerina. He uncovered a Roman villa that had been buried for over eight…
- VicenzaThe year 157 BC marked a turning point when the settlement known as Vicetia became a de facto Roman center. Before this date, the area had been home to the…
- ColosseumEmperor Vespasian ordered the construction of a new amphitheater in 72 AD. The project began on land that had once been Nero's private lake and palace…
- Appian WayIn 312 BC, the Roman censor Appius Claudius Caecus made a decision that would outlast his own blindness. He did not wait for Senate approval to begin…
- RomeArchaeological evidence places human presence in the Rome area approximately 14,000 years ago. Stone tools and pottery fragments found at the site attest to…