ABSTRACT
Rome is located in central Italy, not far from the sea, in the centre of a vast territory, mainly characterized by agricultural and urban uses, with several groups of hills and mountains all around. Rome, as the capital of Italy and of Christianity, presents many main central functions and is part of a global network, with international flows of tourists and migrants. The processes of transformation of the 'urban' in Rome, then, emerges against the background of a profound change in the economy in a neoliberal sense. The vast 'metropolitan' area of Rome is primarily an extension of the capital. It is Rome's way of projecting itself outward, as a city that spills beyond its traditionally consolidated borders. The 'peripheralization' of the territories, generated by the processes of urbanization under way, is 'democratic' in nature, and it makes no social distinctions: all varying social categories, even if with different motivations, choose to move beyond the Municipality of Rome.
