Lazio

Latium, the plain south of the Tiber, was the land of the Latins, whose towns on the Alban Hills formed a league long before Rome dominated them. North of the river the Etruscans built cities such as Tarquinia, Cerveteri, Veio and Vulci, while Sabines, Volsci and Hernici held the hills to the east and south. Rome, founded by tradition in 753 BC, absorbed them all by the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, and the countryside filled with villas, from Hadrian's at Tivoli to Tiberius's at Sperlonga, while Ostia served as the capital's port.

After the empire, the papacy became the real power in the region. The Patrimony of St Peter grew into the Papal States, and Lazio's towns were ruled from Rome, contested by baronial families such as the Colonna, Orsini and Caetani. In the 13th century the popes lived for decades at Viterbo, where the marathon election of 1268–71 led to cardinals being locked in — the origin of the conclave. St Benedict founded his first monasteries at Subiaco and then Montecassino.

Rome fell to Italian troops in September 1870 and became the capital of the kingdom in 1871, and the rest of Lazio was joined to it. Under Fascism the Pontine Marshes south of Rome were drained and new towns founded, including Latina and Sabaudia. The Allied landings at Anzio and the battle of Monte Cassino, which destroyed the abbey, brought the Second World War to the region in 1944. Post-war Rome grew rapidly with migrants from the south, and in 2016 an earthquake destroyed the town of Amatrice in the northern Apennines.

Lazio is dominated by Rome, and the Roman temperament — ironic, unhurried, quick to mock pretension — is the best known of the region. Romanesco, the Roman dialect, has a long literary tradition, from the sonnets of Giuseppe Gioachino Belli to the films of Alberto Sordi, and Rome's cinema industry at Cinecittà, founded in 1937, has made the city part of the world's film imagination. Outside the capital, the provinces of Viterbo, Rieti, Frosinone and Latina have strong local identities of their own; the Tuscia of the north feels close to Tuscany and Umbria, the Ciociaria of the south to Campania.

Religious life is shaped by the presence of the papacy and by great pilgrimage years such as the Jubilee. Viterbo's Macchina di Santa Rosa, a lit tower about 30 metres high carried through the streets on 3 September by a team of porters, is recognised by UNESCO as intangible heritage along with similar processions elsewhere in Italy. Genzano lays a carpet of flowers along its main street for Corpus Domini, and Marino's grape festival in October has fountains running with wine.

Football divides Rome between Roma and Lazio, and their derby is one of the most intense in the country. Crafts include ceramics at Civita Castellana and Vasanello, and the Castelli Romani keep the tradition of the fraschette, simple taverns serving the local wine.

About 5.7 million people live in Lazio, and roughly half of them in the city of Rome, which has about 2.75 million residents and a wider metropolitan area of around four million. The other provincial capitals — Latina, Viterbo, Frosinone and Rieti — are small in comparison, and many people commute into Rome from the Castelli Romani, the coast and the Sabine hills.

The economy rests on public administration and the national government, tourism and pilgrimage, services, film and television production, and pharmaceuticals and chemicals in the Latina and Frosinone areas. Fiumicino is Italy's busiest airport, and Civitavecchia is one of the Mediterranean's main cruise ports. The Pontine plain grows vegetables and kiwifruit, and water buffalo are raised for mozzarella on the southern plains.

Daily life in Rome means long commutes, traffic and a late rhythm: lunch around 1.30, dinner rarely before nine. The region's current issues include Rome's problems with rubbish collection and public transport, pressure from mass tourism and short-term lets on the historic centre, and the depopulation of the inland mountain villages.

Roman cooking is working-class and bold. The four classic pastas are carbonara, made with eggs, guanciale and pecorino; cacio e pepe, just cheese and pepper; gricia, guanciale and pecorino; and amatriciana, which adds tomato and takes its name from Amatrice. The quinto quarto, the offal once paid to slaughterhouse workers in Testaccio, gives coda alla vaccinara, braised oxtail, and pajata. Supplì are fried rice balls with a mozzarella centre, carciofi alla romana and carciofi alla giudia are braised and deep-fried artichokes, the latter from the Jewish Ghetto, and abbacchio is roast milk-fed lamb.

Beyond Rome, porchetta from Ariccia is whole roast pork with herbs, sold in thick slices, Nemi is known for its wild strawberries, and the lakes and coast supply eel, lake fish and seafood. Pecorino Romano is the classic sheep's cheese, and buffalo mozzarella is made on the southern plains. Maritozzi, soft buns split and filled with whipped cream, are the Roman breakfast treat.

Frascati is the famous white wine of the Castelli Romani, and the hills around Montefiascone produce Est! Est!! Est!!!, a white with a legend about a thirsty bishop's servant. Cesanese del Piglio, from the province of Frosinone, is a leading red.

Rome's ancient sites include the Palatine and Forum, the Capitoline Museums, the Baths of Caracalla and the Appian Way with its catacombs; later layers bring the Borghese Gallery, Baroque piazzas such as Navona, and the neighbourhoods of Trastevere and Testaccio. Vatican City sits inside Rome but is a separate state. Ostia Antica, near the coast, preserves streets, apartment blocks, baths and a theatre of Rome's port town.

East of Rome, Tivoli has Hadrian's Villa, with its pools and colonnades, and the Villa d'Este, whose gardens of fountains and water organs descend a hillside, both UNESCO World Heritage Sites; further on are the monasteries of Subiaco. To the south-east, the Castelli Romani include Frascati and its villas, Castel Gandolfo above Lake Albano, Nemi above its crater lake, and Ariccia. Further south lie Montecassino's rebuilt abbey, the Circeo National Park, the coastal towns of Sperlonga and Gaeta, and the Pontine Islands of Ponza and Ventotene.

North of Rome, the Etruscan necropolises of Cerveteri and Tarquinia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, have painted and carved tombs. Viterbo's Palazzo dei Papi and medieval quarter lead on to Villa Lante at Bagnaia, the Farnese palace at Caprarola, the Monster Park at Bomarzo, the volcanic lakes of Bolsena, Vico and Bracciano, and Civita di Bagnoregio on its eroding tuff spur.