If you’re looking for Rome quotes for Instagram, then you’ve found the right post. I’ve gathered dozens of inspiring phrases about the Italian city, to match your travel photos! And if you haven’t visited Rome yet, don’t worry. I’m sure these Rome quotes will ignite your wanderlust!

Rome is not only one of the best places to visit in Italy but also a perfect destination for all history, culture, art, architecture, and gastronomy lovers. After all, the so-called “Eternal City” was once the capital of the greatest and most powerful empire of ancient civilizations!

Over its many centuries of history, Rome has inspired thousands of famous artists and personalities to express their feelings for it. And today it continues to delight tourists and travelers, who come from all over the world to explore the beautiful capital of Italy.

So, do you want to learn 50+ Best Rome Quotes (For Your Instagram Captions)? Keep reading!

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Best Rome Quotes by Famous Artists

More than half of the Rome quotes that I found were from artists. Which is no surprise at all, right? Painters, sculptors, architects, writers, poets, actors, directors, screenwriters, singers, musicians, fashion designers… the list goes on when the common subject is Rome!

Best Rome Quotes by Italian Artists

1. “Rome is not like any other city. It’s a big museum, a living room that shall be crossed on one’s toes.” – Alberto Sordi (actor, voice actor, singer, composer, comedian, director, and screenwriter)

2. “I spend a lot of time in Paris, in Milan, and in New York, and Rome is a little bit different. There is something in Rome, incredible, like in a Fellini movie. Everybody’s screaming and laughing very loud. It’s something that can give me more energy in terms of freedom.” – Alessandro Michele (fashion designer)

3. “In ‘Roma’, I wanted to get across the idea that underneath Rome today is ancient Rome. So close. I am always conscious of that, and it thrills me. Imagine being in a traffic jam at the Coliseum! Rome is the most wonderful movie set in the world… As was the case with many of my film ideas, it was inspired by a dream.” – Federico Fellini (film director and screenwriter)

4. “A fool is one who admires other cities without visiting Rome.” – Francesco Petrarca (scholar and poet)

5. “I like things that are kind of eclectic, when one thing doesn’t go with another. That’s why I love Rome. The town itself is that way. It’s where Fascist architecture meets classic Renaissance, where the ancient bangs up against the contemporary. It has a touch of everything. That’s my style, and that’s what my work is about.” – Giambattista Valli (fashion designer)

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6. “Rome holds my psyche in balance. Whenever I’m there, it’s like a holiday.” – Giambattista Valli (fashion designer)

7. “Rome is the city of echoes, the city of illusions, and the city of yearning.” – Giotto di Bondone (painter and architect)

8. “Rome is magic, it’s like being in Hollywood. But the difference between Hollywood and Rome is that here you don’t have just the movie business. The movie business is so little, so you also have the choice to hang out with people who do different kinds of business.” – Maria Grazia Cucinotta (actress)

9. “Going around Rome, you can find beauty because, quite simply, Rome is very beautiful. But the beauty of the people is sometimes harder to discover.” – Paolo Sorrentino (film director, screenwriter, and writer)

10. “Rome is a city where in every corner you have a reminder of the sacred world. That’s why I have sacred music, minimalist sacred music, which is also music I like, because at the end of the day, that’s what I want to do.” – Paolo Sorrentino (film director, screenwriter, and writer)

11. “There’s one thing that I like about Rome that was stated by Napoleon: that from sublime to pathetic is only one step away. And in Rome there’s a constant shifting between sublime and pathetic.” – Paolo Sorrentino (film director, screenwriter, and writer)

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Best Rome Quotes by Other Artists

12. “Rome was a poem pressed into service as a city.” – Anatole Broyard (American writer, literary critic, and editor)

13. “Rome is a broken mirror, the falling straps of a dress, a puzzle of astonishing complexity. It is an iceberg floating below our terrace, all its ballasts hidden beneath the surface.” – Anthony Doerr (American novelist and author)

14. “Ancient Rome was as confident of the immutability of its world and the continual expansion and improvement of the human lot as we are today.” – Arthur Erickson (Canadian architect and urban planner)

15. “I thought I knew everything when I came to Rome, but I soon found I had everything to learn.” – Edmonia Lewis (American sculptor)

16. “The beauty of Rome is that you can wander into a pizzeria just about anywhere and get a real Italian pizza that’s thankfully worlds away from the Super Supreme I used to order at Pizza Hut as a kid.” – Ed Stoppard (English actor)

17. “Rome, the city where memories were chiselled in marble.” – Elif Shafak (Turkish-British novelist, essayist, academic, public speaker, political scientist, and women’s rights activist)

18. “In Rome one had simply to sit still and feel.” – E. M. Forster (English fiction writer, essayist, and librettist)

19. “If we could be reborn wherever we chose, how crowded Rome would be, populated by souls who had spent their previous lives longing to inhabit a villa on the Janiculum Hill.” – Francine Prose (American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and critic)

20. “I think there are two cities in the world – New York and Rome.” – Frank McCourt (American memoirist, writer, and teacher)

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21. “Rome – the city of visible history, where the past of a whole hemisphere seems moving in funeral procession with strange ancestral images and trophies gathered from afar.” – George Eliot (English novelist, poet, journalist, and translator)

22. “Rome is a place almost worn out by being looked at, a city collapsing under the weight of reference.” – Graham Joyce (British writer)

23. “Yes, I have finally arrived to this Capital of the World! I now see all the dreams of my youth coming to life… Only in Rome is it possible to understand Rome.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic)

24. “For Rome is sometimes cold and rainy in the winter in spite of all the naked statues.” – John Cheever (American novelist and short-story writer)

25. “Oddly enough, I’m not religious but I’m also very fond of St Peter’s in Rome. When I’m there, I always know there’s a good meal not far away.” – Jonathan Pryce (Welsh actor)

26. “Oh Rome! My country! City of the soul!” – Lord Byron (English poet and peer)

27. “Rome is possibly my favorite city in the world. I have such fond memories there – most of them food related.” – Mallory Jansen (Australian actress)

28. “From the dome of St. Peter’s one can see every notable object in Rome… He can see a panorama that is varied, extensive, beautiful to the eye, and more illustrious in history than any other in Europe.” – Mark Twain (American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer)

29. “When thou art at Rome, do as they do at Rome.” – Miguel de Cervantes (Spanish writer)

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30. “How is it possible to say an unkind or reverential word of Rome? The city of all time, and of all the world!” – Nathaniel Hawthorne (American novelist and short-story writer)

31. “In Rome, I particularly love the history, churches, sculptures and architecture and the fact that you can walk along a tiny cobbled street and turn the corner to find the Trevi Fountain. London is evocative of other eras and full of history.” – Philip Treacy (Irish haute couture milliner, ie hat designer)

32. “All roads indeed lead to Rome, but theirs also is a more mystical destination, some bourne of which no traveller knows the name, some city, they all seem to hint, even more eternal.” – Richard Le Gallienne (English author and poet)

33. “Rome has not seen a modern building in more than half a century. It is a city frozen in time.” – Richard Meier (American abstract artist and architect)

34. “Everyone soon or late comes round by Rome.” – Robert Browning (English poet and playwright)

35. “Italy has changed. But Rome is Rome.” – Robert DeNiro (American actor, producer, and director)

36. “Rome is one enormous mausoleum. There, the Past lies visibly stretched upon his bier. There is no today or tomorrow in Rome; it is perpetual yesterday.” – Thomas Bailey Aldrich (American writer, poet, critic, and editor)

37. “Methinks I will not die quite happy without having seen something of that Rome of which I have read so much.” – Walter Scott (Scottish historical novelist, poet, playwright, and historian)

38. “Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.” – William Shakespeare (English playwright, poet, and actor)

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Best Rome Quotes by Famous Personalities

If you think that only artists express how they feel about this city – which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site – think again! There are countless Rome quotes written or uttered by politicians, heads of state, chefs, theologians, historians, sportsmen, and journalists!

Best Rome Quotes by Italian Personalities

39. “I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.” – Caesar Augustus (first Roman Emperor)

40. “Rome is the capital of Europe; it’s as simple as that. You need to see what the Romans did 2,000 years ago. They were so advanced compared to the rest of the world. They showed us how to make roads, toilet seats, how to do irrigation, and more. When you see the Colosseum you won’t believe it was built so long ago.” – Gino D’Acampo (Italian-British celebrity chef and media personality)

41. “I had rather be first in a village than second at Rome.” – Julius Caesar (Roman general and statesman)

42. “Italy will never be a normal country. Because Italy is Italy. If we were a normal country, we wouldn’t have Rome. We wouldn’t have Florence. We wouldn’t have the marvel that is Venice.” – Matteo Renzi (politician and former Prime Minister of Italy)

43. “When in Rome, live as the Romans do; when elsewhere, live as they live elsewhere.” – Saint Ambrose (Roman theologian and Bishop of Milan)

44. “Rome has grown since its humble beginnings that it is now overwhelmed by its own greatness.” – Titus Livius (or Livy, Roman historian)

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Best Rome Quotes by Other Personalities

45. “If I’m in Rome for only 48 hours, I would consider it a sin against God to not eat cacio e pepe, the most uniquely Roman of pastas, in some crummy little joint where Romans eat. I’d much rather do that than go to the Vatican. That’s Rome to me.” – Anthony Bourdain (American celebrity chef, author, and travel documentarian)

46. “They say Rome wasn’t built in a day, but I wasn’t on that particular job.” – Brian Clough (English football player and manager)

47. “The thing I love about Rome is that is has so many layers. In it, you can follow anything that interests you: town planning, architecture, churches or culture. It’s a city rich in antiquity and early Christian treasures, and just endlessly fascinating. There’s nowhere else like it.” – Claire Tomalin (English journalist and biographer)

48. “Rome was great in arms, in government, in law.” – Goldwin Smith (British historian and journalist)

49. “I love Rome and the way that you can wander around and find something interesting around every street corner. You can smell the history.” – Jonathan Agnew (English cricket broadcaster and a former professional cricketer)

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50. “The fall of Rome seemed unthinkable to people at the time but inevitable to historians reflecting upon it with the benefit of context.” – Mary Pilon (American journalist)

51. “Anywhere I go, there is always an incredible crowd that follows me. In Rome, as I land at the airport, even the men kiss me. I love Rome.” – Muhammad Ali (American professional boxer, activist, entertainer, poet, and philanthropist)

52. “I am a sucker for those old traditional places, and Rome is as good as it gets, particularly when you throw in Italian food.” – Roger Federer (Swiss professional tennis player)

53. “Rome will exist as long as the Coliseum does; when the Coliseum falls, so will Rome; when Rome falls, so will the world.” – Saint Bede, the Venerable (English Benedictine monk)

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