(lively acoustic music)
- I love pizza, but,
it's not Italian, it's not Roman.
Alright, so Rome is full of secrets.
If you're planning your trip to this place
there's 10 things that you don't know
and probably you should.
(upbeat music)
The tradition here is to toss a coin
into the Fontana, into the fountain.
Now, my question is, did you know
that they actually take all the money from here
every single day?
- Oh, every day? I thought once a year or so.
- No, every day, and guess how much?
- [Kris] 300 Euros?
- No, it's actually over $3,000 every day.
- Oh my God.
- So they come at the end of the day,
they get all the money and this goes to charity.
Over a year it's around a million dollars,
which is insane, a million dollars!
Because tourists, obviously we think
toss a coin into the fountain
and that means a return visit to Rome.
It's nice to believe that's true.
On the other hand, it's a lot of money
but I'm glad that at least it goes to charity.
To help people. - Yeah, it's used
for a nice purpose.
- Yeah. - But imagine
if they didn't clean every day,
so you wouldn't even see the water.
- Exactly.
And also the reason we are filming from here
is that when we go down, it's just madness.
- Yeah, we were walking on the silent roads,
it's like, oh, this looks very quiet.
And then the closer you get to the fountain
then you see the reality.
- Yeah. It's one of those places, packed.
So the next thing you probably didn't know is cats.
They rule the city.
Approximately Rome has over 300,000 cats.
There's actually a law, a Roman law
saying that if five cats or more
are living sort of together, you cannot separate them,
which means they have legal rights, actually,
to stay in that place.
- Passaporto Italiano!
- Passaporto Italiano.
If you're a cat lover, this is probably the place
to come and see them all.
Probably the next thing you didn't know
is that this place is almost 2000 years old
and has been in continuous operations since then.
At the beginning, it was a Roman temple.
And then I think it was a Catholic church.
If you go inside, you will see the monuments.
What's crazy is that the dome is still original.
The largest dome
made out of un-reinforced concrete in the world.
Still after 2,000 years.
This is one of the things in Rome,
that everything is so old
and you cannot really believe houses still standing here.
Of course there's always maintenance changes and stuff,
but everything's such an old thing.
- Plus lots of buildings
are built on old ruins as well
so you cannot really even see what was before.
So it's a kind of lost city in a way.
(relaxed music)
- So the one thing probably you don't know, either,
Rome has over 2,500 fountains.
And it's drinkable water.
People are scared to drink here, I don't know why.
It's okay.
It tastes like seagull water.
But it's still very nice when you're thirsty.
So the other thing that you probably didn't know
is that these Spanish Steps are actually not Spanish.
Well, long story short, funded by French,
crafted by two Italian architects.
So the only reason they are called Spanish Steps
is just because the old embassy from Spain was here.
That's the truth.
Not a single Spanish peseta.
Zero, niente. No Spanish money.
Just French money and Italian architects
For the next thing that you probably didn't know,
I wanna play a game.
How old is Rome?
- More than 2,000 years old.
- You were actually very close.
Italy back in the days was a bunch of different cities
and they didn't really have a common ruler
'til late 19th century.
And that's when they annexed Rome to the country.
Of course, Rome was completely independent
back in the day which means 2,500 years old.
Making the city older than the country itself.
Okay, so there's one other thing
that you probably didn't know,
but only 10% of Rome has been excavated.
Which means there must be a lost city underground
and we don't know.
And this makes sense when you think
that over 2,000 years there has been so many people here
and things have been developed, buildings and houses.
From my perspective it's very unlikely
that there will be a moment
when the city will be fully excavated,
which is crazy, seriously.
There must be something going on underground
and we need to find out.
Okay, so let's see now if we can do a time lapse,
and if it's good and if we are lucky,
you're gonna see this.
(sweeping classical music)
I love pizza, but,
it's not Italian, it's not Roman.
Back in the days, it was more similar
to flatbreads and the Ancient Greeks
were already topping this with herbs,
cheese, garlic, and so on.
And the tomato sauce
was not actually in the original pizza,
it only appeared in Europe
at the end of the 18th century.
Tomato sauce was not there because it was believed
that the tomato back in the days was a poisonous thing.
People were not willing to eat tomatoes.
But then, you know, after decades,
the pizza came with the tomato sauce
and it's more similar to the pizza we know today.
Let me tell you, I love pizza, I love Rome,
but this is not from here.
Sorry.
I know you didn't know either.
(gentle music)
The other thing you didn't know, San Pietro Basilica
used to be the largest church in the world for 300 years
but they lost the title to Ivory Coast
because in 1985 the president
decided to begin a construction
of a basilica over there.
In any case, San Pietro can accommodate
up to 60,000 people.
Versus I think 18,000 or so in Ivory Coast,
so still the largest in a way.
But in terms of square foot,
no longer the largest in the world.
The other thing you didn't know is that Rome
is the number one in the world
in terms of Catholic churches.
They have over 900 Catholic churches.
So if this place, San Pietro, is too much for you
because it's super, super crowded
you can always go to Rome
and have a lot of other options.
- I mean, go to Rome, literally walk just 50 meters.
- Yeah, this is the thing, because the Vatican
in theory is like a state, independent state
which is considered a country if you want.
But yeah, you're literally seven minutes drive away
from the hassle in Rome.
And then probably the other thing.
Right now, if you wanna enter St. Peter's,
it's a nightmare.
- Yeah. I didn't even see the end of the queue.
I just see people coming from everywhere.
- My advice, our advice, I think,
is come at 7:00 a.m. when they open
and you are inside within five minutes.
- Yeah, getting the best pictures,
having time to enjoy.
Just wake up a little bit earlier.
The trips can be a bit hard, but.
- Because if you come around lunchtime like now,
you're gonna waste probably half an hour.
- Yeah, but don't take it negatively,
just be ready.
That it's a bit of long waiting time.
- If you're still here, you're a legend
so I'm pretty sure you won't be selfish
and you will be sharing this video with a friend.
Thank you so much for watching
and as always, see you next week.
(lively acoustic music)