Gazing upon the splendours of ancient Rome is no longer a luxury reserved for visitors to the Italian capital, as temples opened their doors internationally with a digital project launched on Wednesday after decades of planning. The Rome Reborn tour is the first to show users over 7,000 buildings and monuments from the year AD 320, allowing both those with virtual reality goggles or just a computer to explore over 14 square kilometres.

"I first came up with the idea in 1974. I was determined to find a way to bring these wonderful monuments to the world, but the technology didn't exist then," the project's director, digital archaeologist Bernard Frischer, told AFP. "We had to redesign the model three times as technology advanced, but 22 years after we began, and $3 million later, we're finally here," he said.