The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour returns to Italy on June 7-11 for the double-gender FIVB Rome 5-Star event. The Rome event will mark the 20th time for a men’s competition in Italy and 11th women’s tournament held in the country. It will also be the sixth men’s tournament in Rome and fifth women’s tournament in Rome.

 

There have been 29 previous FIVB World Tour events in Italy (19 men and 10 women) held in nine different cities. Besides Rome, other Italian venues for men’s events have been Cattolica, Jesi, Lignano and Roseto degli Abruzzi for men and besides Rome, other Italian venues for women’s events have been Milan, Modena, Pescara and Vesto. Italy has also hosted numerous FIVB satellite events as well as FIVB Age-Group World Championships.

 

Brazil has more than double the number of medals of any other country in events played in Italy.

 

Through the 2013 events in Rome,  in the men’s totals after 19 events, Brazil has 28 medals, followed  by the USA with 11, Argentina and Switzerland with four each, Germany with three, Norway with two and with one men’s medal each in Italy are Canada, Italy, Latvia, Russia and Spain.

 

After 10 FIVB World Tour women’s events held in Italy through the 2013 events in Italy, Brazil leads the medal parade with 14 total medals followed by the USA with seven, China and Germany with three each and with one women’s medal each in Italy are Czech Republic, Greece and Switzerland.

 

Men’s gold medal-winning team at the 2013 FIVB Rome Grand Slam was USA’s Phil Dalhausser/Sean Rosenthal while winning the women’s gold medal in Rome in 2013 was Brazil’s Talita Antunes/Taiana Lima.

 

Rome is a city and special comune (named Roma Capitale) in Italy. Rome is the capital of Italy and of the Lazio region. With 2.9 million residents in 1,285 km (496.1 sq mi), it is also the country's largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. The Metropolitan City of Rome has a population of 4.3 million residents. The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio (Latium), along the shores of the Tiber River river.

 

The Vatican City is an independent country geographically located within the city boundaries of Rome, the only existing example of a country within a city: for this reason Rome has been often defined as capital of two states.

 

The city successively became the capital of the Roman Kingdom, the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire and is regarded as one of the birthplaces of Western civilization and by many as the first ever metropolis. It is referred to as "Roma Aeterna" (The Eternal City) and "Caput Mundi" (Capital of the World), two central notions in ancient Roman culture.