Rome

Before the small village of Rome became “Rome” with a capital R, a brilliant civilization once controlled almost the entire peninsula we now call Italy. This was the Etruscan civilization, a vanished culture whose achievements set the stage not only for the development of ancient Roman art and culture but for the Italian Renaissance as well.

A rock sarcophagus unearthed in the Italian capital is believed to have once held the remains of the city's first king after his death in the 6th century BC.