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50 free Rome trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Rome has been continuously inhabited for three millennia, was capital of a kingdom, a republic, an empire and the Papal States, and since 1871 has been the capital of Italy. It is the only city on earth that contains another country, it counts two sovereign entities inside its ring road, and it still draws more than eight million tourists a year to a historic centre that is a single World Heritage Site. This quiz is about the city itself rather than just its ancient history: the region and river, the seven hills, the lowest and highest points, the Mediterranean climate, the 15 municipi and 22 rioni, the mayor's palace that has been a town hall since 1144, Porta Pia and 1870, the Treaty of Rome, the FAO, Fiumicino and Termini, the metro line held up by archaeology, the talking statues, the obelisks, Cinecittà, the Stadio Olimpico, Sapienza, the Jewish Ghetto, carbonara and cacio e pepe, and the city Rome is exclusively twinned with. Fifty questions with four options each and a short explanation after every answer. Play on your phone or print it for a travel quiz night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Rome is the capital of which Italian region?
Lazio
The region's Latin name, Latium, gave its name to the Latins who helped found the city.
Q 02Which river flows through the centre of Rome?
Tiber
The original settlement grew around the only natural ford in the area, beside the river's island.
Q 03Which second river crosses modern Rome before joining the main river north of the centre?
Aniene
The ancient Ponte Nomentano crosses it, making five surviving Roman bridges in the city.
Q 04Rome is nicknamed the 'City of' how many hills?
Seven
The Rome of the Kings stood on the Aventine, Caelian, Capitoline, Esquiline, Palatine, Quirinal and Viminal.
Q 05Which Roman poet first called the city the 'Eternal City' in the 1st century BC?
Tibullus
Ovid, Virgil and Livy picked the phrase up; the city is also called Caput Mundi, capital of the world.
Q 06On what date does Rome celebrate its legendary founding, the Natale di Roma?
21 April
Romulus is said to have founded the city on that day in 753 BC, the start of the 'ab urbe condita' calendar.
Q 07Which emperor briefly renamed Rome 'Colonia Lucia Annia Commodiana' after himself in 192?
Commodus
The name reverted after his assassination at the end of the same year.
Q 08Rome is the only place on earth where a whole country sits inside a municipality; which country?
Vatican City
The 1929 Lateran Treaty fixed its borders, largely along the old papal walls around St. Peter's.
Q 09Besides the Holy See, which other independent entity is based entirely within Rome?
Sovereign Military Order of Malta
That is why Rome is sometimes described as the capital of two states.
Q 10Roughly how far is Rome's city centre from the Tyrrhenian Sea?
24 km
The city territory still reaches the coast at the district of Ostia, which has a marina and a small fishing harbour.
Q 11Rome's lowest point, 13 m above sea level, lies at the base of which monument?
The Pantheon
The highest point in the central city is the 139 m peak of Monte Mario.
Q 12What is the Köppen classification of Rome's climate?
Mediterranean (Csa)
Summers are hot and dry; the record high of 42.9 °C was set on 18 July 2023.
Q 13Which is the best-known large park in Rome, famous for its art galleries?
Villa Borghese
Villa Doria Pamphili, west of the Janiculum, is larger at about 1.8 square kilometres.
Q 21Which UN agency headquartered in Rome is one of the three making up the 'Polo Romano'?
Food and Agriculture Organization
The World Food Programme and the International Fund for Agricultural Development are the other two.
Q 22Since 1956 Rome has been exclusively and reciprocally twinned with which city?
Paris
The motto runs: 'Only Paris is worthy of Rome; only Rome is worthy of Paris.'
Q 23Which luxury fashion house is headquartered in EUR's Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana?
Fendi
EUR was planned for a 1942 world fair that never happened because of the war.
Q 14What was Rome's approximate population at the time of the Gothic War in the 6th century?
35,000
The city had passed a million around AD 210 before shrinking to pockets of housing among ruins and vineyards.
Q 15Which rione, next to the main railway station, is regarded as Rome's Chinatown?
Esquilino
Around 800 of its 1,300 commercial premises are Chinese-owned, and residents come from more than 100 countries.
Q 16Which church is the cathedral of Rome?
Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran
Built in 324, it is the seat of the Bishop of Rome; the city has around 900 churches in all.
Q 17The Palazzo Senatorio, seat of Rome's city government, stands on which hill?
Capitoline
It has been a town hall since 1144, the oldest in the world; the administration is nicknamed 'Campidoglio' after the hill.
Q 18Since 2013, into how many administrative municipi has Rome been divided?
15
They started at 20 in 1972; the historic centre is separately split into 22 non-administrative rioni.
Q 19Which palace is the official residence of the President of the Italian Republic?
Palazzo del Quirinale
It sits on the Quirinal, one of the seven hills.
Q 20The 1957 agreement signed in the city that created the EEC is known as what?
Treaty of Rome
The city also hosted the signing of the proposed European Constitution in 2004 and keeps the EU treaties at the Farnesina.
Q 24What is the common name of Rome's main intercontinental airport?
Fiumicino
Officially Leonardo da Vinci International, it handled over 49 million passengers in 2024, the most in Italy.
Q 25Which port, about 62 km north-west of the city, is Rome's main harbour?
Civitavecchia
Rome's own coastal quarter has only a marina and a small channel-harbour for fishing boats.
Q 26What is the name of Rome's main railway station, used by around 400,000 travellers a day?
Termini
Metro lines A and B intersect beneath it; Tiburtina has been redeveloped as the high-speed terminus.
Q 27What is the ring road that circles central Rome at about 10 km from the Capitol?
Grande Raccordo Anulare
The radial roads inside it follow the lines of ancient Roman roads, which is why traffic is so bad.
Q 28Which Rome metro line, begun in 2007, features fully automated driverless trains?
C
Archaeological finds kept delaying it; its first 15 stations opened in 2014 at a projected cost of €3 billion.
Q 29In which year did the first Rome metro line finally open?
1955
Construction began in the 1930s to link the station with the planned 1942 fair site; it is now the southern part of line B.
Q 30What is the 'Sapienza', founded in 1303?
Rome's first university
With more than 120,000 students it is the largest university in Europe; Tor Vergata and Roma Tre were founded to relieve it.