Google has just pushed out more 3D buildings for Rome, Italy, and the result is a stunningly realistic 3D city. For a great example, here is St. Peter’s Basilica and Piazza in Vatican City:
You can also view historical landmarks such as the Colosseum, which is another amazingly detailed 3D model:
To see the buildings for yourself, simply search for “Rome, Italy” in Google Earth and make sure that you have the 3D Buildings layer turned on. You can also use this KML tour
that Google has created to show off some of the best landmarks.If you’re unable to view the buildings in Google Earth right now, here is a video to give you a sneak peek:
Lastly, don’t forget about the excellent Ancient Rome 3D layer that we told you about a few years ago. Look under the “Gallery” layer and choose “Ancient Rome 3D” to view 3D models of buildings that existed thousands of years ago.
About Mickey Mellen
Mickey has been using Google Earth since it was released in 2005, and has created a variety of geo-related sites including Google Earth Hacks. He runs a web design firm in Marietta, GA, where he lives with his wife and two kids.
We are very eager to use the Ancient Rome 3D layer with Latin students at our school. However, in 2008 we didn’t have the bandwidth to get it to load. Now in 2011 we are trying to find it, but the dropdown menu under Gallery>Ancient Rome 3D has disappeared, and we are finding the whole process less than intuitive. Are any step-by-step directions available? Is this layer and its features still supported? Any help you can offer us would be much appreciated! Thanks.
“Me too” 🙁
I remember seeing the Ancient Rome layer a few years ago, and having returned from a vacation in the city, I wanted anothr look. Yet I’m no longer seeing it in the ‘Gallery’ dropdown. Has it been withdrawn?
To obtain Ancient Rome 3D download and open this file with Google Earth: http://mw2.google.com/mw-earth-vectordb/gallery_layers/rome/en/ancient_rome_regions.kmz after having zoomed into Rome. Click on a yellow icon and download Ancient Terrain and Ancient Roman Buildings to your Temporary Places.