“We didn’t plan to come to Rome for the city’s birthday but seeing all this is a great way to spend part of a day, taking it all in,” Loria told Xinhua. “I especially enjoyed seeing the contrasts, the period costumes in a modern city.”
Though the origins of Sunday’s celebrations date back centuries, the events have caught on with travellers as tourism in Italy has recovered from the setbacks of the coronavirus pandemic.
There are no official estimates for the number of people who participated in Sunday’s activities, media reports said the city had deployed extra police for security and traffic control. Hotel bookings were higher than usual for the weekend, media reports said.