Talk:Rome

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A thousand roads lead men forever to Rome.

It has created nothing, only a spirit of greatness and order of beautiful things; but the most magnificent monuments on the earth have extended and were fixed in it with such energy to leave the most numerous and indelible tracks in it, more than in anywhere else on the globe. ~ Maurice Maeterlinck

• It is my sixth time in the Eternal City, but I'm deeply touched again. Being touched while coming to Rome is usual in sensitive people, so I'm almost ashamed of my writings.
  • Henri Beyle, alias Stendhal

• The light that reveals Rome's monuments is not that to which we are accustomed; it produces numerous optical effect plus a certain atmosphere, all impossible to put into words. The light strikes Rome in ways that I've never seen.
  • Henri Beyle, alias Stendhal

• In the world Rome is probably the place where most in beauty has been accumulated and subsists in span of twenty centuries. It has created nothing, only a spirit of greatness and order of beautiful things; but the most magnificent monuments on the earth have extended and were fixed in it with such energy to leave the most numerous and indelible tracks in it, more than in anywhere else on the globe.
  • Maurice Maeterlinck

• Rome makes fall in love with itself very slowly but forever.
  • Nikolaj Vasil'evic Gogol

• Rome is beautiful, so beautiful, I swear, all the other things seem nothing in front of it.
  • Charles de Brosses

• The Roman evening either keeps still or it sings. No one can behold it without growing dizzy, and time has filled it with eternity.
  • Jorge Luis Borges

• Rome so craved, in yourself you hold me, in yourself I'm, and you feel in myself! I expand or thin through streets and squares of the quarter where I live, near the river...
  • Rafael Alberti

• Rome is like a book of fables, on every page you meet up with a prodigy. And at the same time we live in dream and reality.
  • Hans Christian Andersen

• I wouldn't leave Rome to go to Heaven
  • Joie Davidow

• For me, Rome is the old center, with her narrow streets, in warm colours, orange,red and even gold. Here is Rome like a house. The alleys are passages, and in three minutes you are in the most beatiful squares of the City, Piazza della Rotonda with the monument, the Pantheon, and the Piazza Navona. These are my reading rooms, my refreshment rooms, my salons where I meet my guests.
  • Rosita Steenbeek She is a Dutch writer. (this text is literally translated).

• If Europe needs a Capital, when it is finally united. It should be Rome. Here was the creation of Europe, here you can feel Europe, and even feels live.

• For someone who has never seen Rome, it is hard to believe how beautiful life can be!
  • Italian proverb

• Methinks I will not die quite happy without having seen something of that Rome of which I have read so much.
  • Sir Walter Scott

Intro moved to the talk page

Rome (Italian and Latin: Roma) is a city and special comune (named "Roma Capitale") in Italy. Rome is the capital of Italy and also of the Province of Rome and of the region of Lazio. With 2.7 million residents in 1,285.3 sq km (496.3 sq mi), it is also the country's largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. The urban area of Rome extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of around 3.8 million. The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber within Lazio (Latium). The Vatican City is an independent country within the city boundaries of Rome, the only example of a country within a city existing.

Rome's history spans more than two and a half thousand years, since its legendary founding in 753 BC. Rome is one of the oldest continuously occupied cities in Europe. It is referred to as "The Eternal City", a notion expressed by ancient Roman poets and writers. In the ancient world it was successively the capital city of the Roman Kingdom, the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, and is regarded as one of the birthplaces of Western civilization. Since the 1st century AD, Rome has been considered the seat of the Papacy and in the 8th century it became the capital of the Papal States, which lasted until 1870. In 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic.

After the Middle Ages, Rome was ruled by popes such as Alexander VI and Leo X, who transformed the city into one of the major centers of the Italian Renaissance along with Florence. The current version of St Peter's Basilica was built and the Sistine Chapel was painted by Michelangelo. Famous artists and architects, such as Bramante, Bernini and Raphael, resided for some time in Rome, contributing to its Renaissance and Baroque architecture.

Further comment

Wikiquote is not Wikipedia, intro's should just mention the subject, not explain it. -- Mdd (talk) 23:44, 22 April 2014 (UTC)

I don't necessarily agree - merely mentioning a topic for a page is not a mandated limit that I am aware of. Yes, this is Wikiquote and not Wikipedia, but I would argue that there is some middle ground between the above intro and the bare bones stripped down one you left on the page. For most pages, I would actually agree that a sentence or two is sufficient, but in the case of a subject such as Rome (or other such pages for places) I do think having additional information is both helpful and appropriate. Yes, the above could be stripped down somewhat, but I fail to see the harm in including a description of the city, some history, and notable facts about it. Having only a single dry sentence about a place with such a rich history as Rome seems to me to not be enough - and I would hate to apply strict limits on the size of intros of such pages. It's different for a page about a single person but IMHO a page about a place with as much to be said about it deserves a bit more. ~ UDScott (talk) 00:21, 23 April 2014 (UTC)

I noticed this is not just about this page, but the current article's of Paris and London have similar long introductions. The mayor disadvantage of lemma's like that is, that they looks like a stub Wikipedia article with some quotes added to it. Especially on a tablet computer screen, but also on a laptop. Is this what we want here? -- Mdd (talk) 01:19, 23 April 2014 (UTC)

Well no, but the remedy is to add more quotes, not necessarily to cut the intro down to a single sentence. I still believe that some subjects of pages deserve longer intros, in particular cities that have a long history and offer many significant elements and landmarks. ~ UDScott (talk) 02:44, 23 April 2014 (UTC)

I admit that cutting it down to one line is too much, and agree this subject more than deserves a good coverage. Yet, I believe the focus should be on more and better quotes, and a better arrangement of those quotes ( for example chronologically). Independent from that, long intro's are just contra-productive. -- Mdd (talk) 15:33, 23 April 2014 (UTC)