Famous people who grew up or lived in and around Rome
7 notable people grew up or lived in and around Rome. Each listing explores the home and neighbourhood, and how the place shaped the person they became.
Augustus36 BC–14
📍 House of Augustus, Palatine Hill, 00186 Rome, Italy
I was born Gaius Octavius into a well-to-do family from Velletri, and my great-uncle Julius Caesar made me his heir in his will. After his murder I fought my way to power and became Rome's…
Caravaggio1604–1605
📍 Vicolo del Divino Amore 19, 00186 Rome, Italy
I was born Michelangelo Merisi and grew up in Milan and the small town of Caravaggio nearby; plague took my father when I was a child, and my mother died when I was a young man. I came to…
Enrico Fermi1901–1908
📍 Via Gaeta 19, 00185 Rome, Italy
I was born in September 1901 in a building on Via Gaeta, near Termini station in Rome, where my father, Alberto, worked as an administrator for the state railways. My mother, Ida, was a…
Francesco Totti1976–1993
📍 Via Vetulonia, Rome, Italy
Francesco Totti was born in Rome in September 1976 and grew up in an apartment at Via Vetulonia 18, in Porta Metronia, a lively working-class neighbourhood just inside the ancient Aurelian…
Julius Caesar
📍 Domus Publica, Roman Forum, Rome, Italy
As Pontifex Maximus I lived in the Domus Publica — the official residence that stood at the edge of the Roman Forum, between the temple of Vesta and the Sacred Way. To walk out my front…
Marcus Aurelius121–138
📍 Caelian Hill, 00184 Rome, Italy
I was born in my family's house on the Caelian Hill in Rome in 121, a quiet district of aristocratic villas and gardens, with few public buildings and fine views across the city. My father…
Nero64–68
📍 Domus Aurea, Via della Domus Aurea 1, 00184 Rome, Italy
My father died when I was very small, and my mother Agrippina schemed tirelessly until I became emperor at sixteen. In the year 64 a great fire destroyed two-thirds of Rome, and on the…