Did you know ? Rome was founded in 753 BC and the Roman Empire was born in 27 BC. The Empire ruled Europe and parts of North Africa right up until 476 AD. (Historians have chosen this date because this is when the western faction of the Roman Empire was destroyed, thus ending its reign over the world). The Eastern Roman Empire was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1453. After the fall of Rome in AD 476, Italy was fragmented into numerous city-states and regional polities, a situation that would remain until the complete unification of the country in 1871. This long history is why today Italy has such a wide range of cultural variations https://www.livescience.com/roman-empire