The Rome Index
Walking the EUR district
A self-guided walk through Rome's strangest neighbourhood — rationalist Rome at full scale.
What you're looking at
EUR was designed as a showcase of Fascist-era Italian modernity for a 1942 world's fair that the Second World War cancelled. The result is a complete planned district of wide boulevards, symmetrical marble buildings and artificial lakes — never quite finished and never quite normal.
The Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana
The six-storey square Colosseum — nicknamed the "Square Colosseum" — is the district's defining image, now used as the Fendi headquarters. No interior access without a specific event, but the exterior is striking from any angle.
The lakes and walk
The artificial lakes at the southern end of the district are surrounded by parks — a calm, undervisited place for a walk that feels completely unlike the rest of Rome.
The lake as a genuine amenity
EUR's artificial lake, created as part of the original 1930s planning, today functions as a genuine local amenity — a running and walking path circles it, and paddleboat rental operates in warmer months, giving the district a recreational function its original Fascist-era planners likely didn't fully anticipate.
Business district by day, quiet by night
Much of EUR functions as a working business and government district on weekdays, meaning it can feel noticeably empty and quiet in the evenings and on weekends — worth knowing if you're expecting the same evening street life found in the historic centre or Trastevere.
