The renovation of the city aimed at making its aspect monumental, with the construction of public buildings celebrating the so called fascist revolution. Explained as building and social reconditioning, entire internal areas of the historic city were ravaged (especially the medieval area).

The Campidoglio hill was isolated demolishing the constructions around it and at its foot up until Ostiense area where via del Mare was created. On the other slope of the hill, in order to link the Colosseum with Piazza Venezia, Via dell’Impero was opened, exposing part of the ruins from the Imperial Fora and creating a street for parades. Particular significance was given to the reconfiguration of the Ara Pacis and to the isolation of Mausoleum of Augustus, by demolishing the auditorium renowned in Europe for its perfect acoustics (it is important to notice that the delegates of the congress of the National Fascist Party had been besieged for several days by the Roman anti-fascists in 1921). Works of demolition and rebuilding (mainly left unfinished) were also undertaken in the areas near Corso Rinascimento and Piazza Navona. Via della Conciliazione and the new Termini train station were completed after the Second World War.

A demanding construction project was the setting up of the area at the bottom of Monte Mario and Tiber river, from the Tiber embankment named Lungotevere delle Armi to Farnesina, presenting at its centre a series of sports facilities dedicated to the celebration of the Giovinezza (youth) of the regime in Mussolini’s Forum. However the key fascist urban project was meant to be the E42 or EUR, which is to say the district dedicated to the universal exhibition for the twenty year anniversary of the march on Rome planned for 1942; project in small part realised and suspended because of the war. After the war the area became EUR, actualised thanks to Virgilio Testa’s obstinacy.

Fascism, as every totalitarian regime, showed- starting from its leader, an ex journalist - a particular sensitivity to the development of communications and propaganda. Information and entertainment institutions were centralised in the capital, although they had been previously developed elsewhere. In order to exercise a control system, fascists elaborated meticulous directives and strictly censored publications and representations: culminating in establishing the Ministry of the cultura popolare (Minculpop). The private news agency Stefani was turned into a semi-official public authority. Fascist newspapers- such as Tevere and Impero- added to the traditional newspapers of the capital – Il Messaggero, La Tribuna, Il Giornale d’Italia, etc. The radio went through a major development, whose key production was moved from Turin to Rome: the Italian institution for radio auditions had two offices in Rome, in via del Babuino and in via Asiago. However the biggest innovation was the development of the public cinematography, with the creation of Cinecittà, the Experimental Italian national film school (a top institution for professions in the cinema), LUCE Institute (The Educational Cinematographic Union), center of production of the propaganda cinema.

Based on the belief that a modern State could not deny promoting the scientific and technological development, fascism focused significantly on the development of the scientific institutions of the capital. As a demonstration, a new university town was built (known today by the name Sapienza) and-consequently - the National Research Committee, the health institute, the national mathematics institute were shaped around it (1939). Among the branch of the economic and statistics science it is important to remember the headquarters statistics institute and the national institute of agriculture. Renowned focal vanguard technology headquarters are also to be reminded: on the one hand a national Pool for naval architectural experiments was built in the bay of the Tiber in San Paolo area, where prototypes of hulls and propellers between 1927 and 1929 developed; on the other hand, between 1926 and 1935, aeronautical expertise and laboratories of experimentation- conducted at the recently built airport in Guidonia- gave life to the institution of an aeronautical experimentation institute (called Direzione Superiore Studi ed Esperienze). Both centres were the foundation of the international accomplishments the regime boasted about.

Bourgeois and lower-middle-class districts were built in the east and north-east internal areas of the city, from via Flaminia to via Nomentana and beyond the Aniene river, and were named as follows: Nomentano-Italia, Salario, Africano and Parioli. Once overcome the hypothesis of the city-garden of the immediate post-war period- that had been the starting point for the construction of Monte Sacro area and Garbatella district- social strata and classes that were expected to add some character to the city were relocated in different, but still green and with a variety of utilities, districts.

During 1930s Rome became the third Italian industrial city, lacking the factories present instead in Turin, Milan, Brescia and Genoa, but with significant participation in the chemical-pharmaceutical and mechanical industries and in military productions. To name a few: FATME (1918, telephony, located in via Appia Nuova), Serono (1907-08, pharmacology, in via Casilina), Polverificio Stacchini (gunpowders and explosives, in Tiburtina area), Fiorentini (1919, heavy engineering, heavy equipment, in Tiburtina area), Aerostatica Avorio (1936, parachute and aeronautics, in Ostiense-San Paolo area), Alfa Romeo (1935-36, fixing military vehicles and manufacturing engines, in Ostiense-San Paolo area), OMI-Ottico meccanica italiana (1936, precision arms), Breda (1938, army factory, in Casilina-Torre Gaia area). Many other names could be cited regarding the production and manufacturing of public services (gas, energy, transportation). Moreover, a new industrial area was built just before the Second World War at Tor Sapienza (an area on the Prenestina road, a civilian suburb reclaimed in the Agro Romano). At Colleferro, a new factory-town south of Rome, founded in 1939, was seated the BPD- Bombrini Parodi Delfino, an important factory of explosives and propellents.

Artigiani e piccoli commercianti del centro storico furono spostati in maniera coatta verso ed oltre i quartieri più periferici, nelle zone sud e sud-est (dall’Appia alla Tiburtina) e nord-ovest (Valle d’Inferno, Primavalle), dove già erano stati realizzati gli insediamenti di abitazioni popolari e che avevano assorbito la maggior parte dell’incremento di popolazione: con case realizzate con materiali scadenti e prive di acqua corrente e wc all’interno (fontanelle e latrine comuni) e insediamenti privi di minime condizioni civili (strade non asfaltate e senza fognature, scarsa illuminazione pubblica, poche e rare corse di autobus) si popolarono zone lontane dagli sguardi dei visitatori della città aggiungendo nuove borgate a quelle già esistenti (rurali o civili), frutto, invece, di un coerente ed efficiente piano d’insediamento perseguito dallo Stato liberale con le leggi della bonifica dell’Agro Romano.

Artisans and small entrepreneurs were forced to move from the historic city centre to and beyond the outskirts, the southern and south-eastern areas (from Appia to Tiburtina) and north-western (Valle d’Inferno, Primavalle), where council housing had already been built absorbing the majority of the growth of the population: houses built with poor quality materials, lacking running water and bathrooms, with shared drinking fountains and communal latrines. These council housings deprived of the minimum civilized conditions
(unpaved streets without sewers, poor public lighting, few and rare public transports)- far away from the view of the visitors coming to the city- got populated creating new suburbs adding to the existing ones (civil and rurals) resulting from the efficient program developed by the liberal State through the laws to reclaim the Agro Romano.