Find a little European splendor in Rome, GA

Travel

A writer takes a trip to Georgia in search of European cities.

Why bother with planes and euros when you can travel to Rome without leaving Georgia? Built on seven hills, the modern city of Rome, Ga., appears ancient and peaceful from this aptly named section of historic Myrtle Hill Cemetery.

The Capitoline Wolf, presented to the city by order of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in 1929, is an exact replica of a piece of art on Capitoline Hill in Rome, Italy. Featuring Romulus and Remus, twin sons of god of war, Mars, it has its own war stories to tell. When Italy declared war on the Allies in 1940, threats led the Rome City Commission to order the statue stored for safety.

Nathan Bedford Forrest is another famous occupant of Veterans Plaza. The United Daughters of the Confederacy erected this monument to the Civil War general in honor of his role in capturing a Union raiding party in 1863.

The Tomb of the Known Soldier is the centerpiece of Veterans Plaza in Myrtle Hill Cemetery, but this monument to Women of the Confederacy tells an equally intriguing story. Dedicated by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1910, it honors the women of Rome who served as nurses to both Union and Confederate soldiers in local hospitals.

The Desoto Theater was new when it showed Rome's first "talking motion picture, " 1929's "The Rainbow Man." A decade later, it was the site of the fifth showing of "Gone With the Wind." It's now a home to live theater, with the Rome Little Theater's production of "Cats" playing on the weekend of June 21.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Clocktower has stood on one of the city's seven hills for 125 years, welcoming visitors and keeping watch over the downtown area.

Conveniently located on Broad Street, the Rome Area History Museum is home to permanent exhibits covering the area's Native American roots, the Civil War and the city's cultural and industrial development.

Et tu, Rome? The north Georgia city has its own Forum, just like its ancient antecedent in Europe. This one is used for trade shows, meetings and concerts.

A view from the pedestrian bridge not far from the Forum provides a Panorama of Rome, which is nestled between three major rivers.

This bridge not far from Myrtle Hill Cemetery is named for Charles Graves, buried nearby as the country's "Known Soldier." Four years after Graves perished in World War I and was buried in France, he returned home to burial in the Antioch Church cemetery - but first, his flag-draped coffin was paraded down New York's Fifth Avenue. Graves was moved to a more prominent spot at Myrtle Hill in 1923 - after his mother died and over protests by some Romans who thought it went against her wishes.

A pedestrian bridge over the Oostanaula River, with the Forum in the background.

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Why bother with planes and euros when you can travel to Rome without leaving Georgia? Built on seven hills, the modern city of Rome, Ga., appears ancient and peaceful from this aptly named section of historic Myrtle Hill Cemetery.

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