5+1 Fun Facts – Rome

Last semester I had to do a presentation on Rome for one of my University classes. Besides the usual stuff (meaning geography, history, getting around and sites to see), we had to look up some fun facts about our chosen cities. I found out some interesting things about Rome, and thought I’d share it with you guys.

1. If you’ve been in Rome, you’ve probably noticed that cats are almost everywhere. They roam the city day and night, stay and eat wherever they want. Well that’s because there’s an actual law that says you can’t remove or chase away any cats, because the street is their natural habitat.

image via obeythekitty.com

2. It is said that every year there are more than 700,000 Euros thrown into the Trevi Fountain, one of the most famous fountains in the World, and a true symbol for the Italian capital. That’s a lot, right? But the money is for a good cause (unless they steal it, of course..). There’s a Roman Catholic Charity (namely Caritas), that gathers the coins every week and gives shelter from it to the needy and helps AIDS-infected patients.

3. It was awesome to find out that there’s an actual Pasta Museum in Rome (you might say: well of course, there is!), which takes the tourists through 8 centuries of pasta-making. Impressive, isn’t it?

4. It seems that the Vatican is actually the World’s largest Museum-complex, and it actually hosts more than 100 museums and galleries.

5. More than 2000 years ago, the Romans didn’t have any soap or shampoo, so they bathed using different types of oils, which not only had a nice smell, but made their skin even silkier.

+1. The “Beware of Dog” signs supposedly originated from Rome! The oldest sign they found was in the city, is more than 2000 years old, and says “CAVE CANEM”. Who knew that these signs had such a history behind them? 🙂