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Before 2007 no maps were available of the Rome WHS but finally in 2007 a seemingly clear map appeared in the second "Evaluations of cultural properties" document of the 2007 WHC session http://whc.unesco.org/en/sessions/31COM/documents/. It shows the WHS boundaries defined exactly as one would have thought they would be, including the entire area within the city walls in the WHS. The only strange thing in this map is that the area in ha of San Paolo fuori le Mura is added to that of Vatican City WHS as if both were part of the same WHS, whereas in reality San Paolo fuori le Mura is part of the Rome WHS, but this may be only a matter of cartographic representation and it doesn't matter. However notice the size of the Rome WHS (1441 ha) and also the fact that the map was provided by Italy when it was proposing a buffer zone for the core area, which one would thing would be clearly and definetely defined when a buffer zone surrounding it is being proposed. And the buffer zone was also approved by the WHC!!!
Now here http://whc.unesco.org/en/sessions/33COM/documents/ on the "Clarifications of property boundaries..." document of the 2009 WHC session there is a clarification of the size of the Rome WHS. Strange in itself is that the size of a WHS that was extend two years before needs to be clarified, however at a first sight one would think that the sizes of the extraterritorial properties of the Holy See (strangely not of all of them) situated within the area of the Rome WHS just weren't measured before and were being specified on that occasion, because they are considered as serial components of the property (constituting part of the territory of another country). But inexplicably the size of the historic centre appears to be increased by 5 ha (1446 ha) when one would have expected that the ha would decrease by the area of the serial components (newly identified within the boundaries of the WHS) not previously calculated. What happened?????
Eventually here http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/91/multiple=1&unique_number=98 is the final map taken from the "Clarifications of property boundaries..." document of the 2010 WHC session. It finally shows the complete list of the serial components of the property, corresponding to that of the previous year, just completed. But notice that the map is completely different from that provided in 2007 and also very illogical: the boundary here excludes almost all the historic part of Rome centre being situated on the right bank of the river (apart from part of the Trastevere quarter) and even world famous monuments such as Castel Sant'Angelo and its bridge and the Villa Farnesina, even if situated within the city walls, also leaving some of the extraterritorial properties of the Holy See as exclaves of the WHS not within its boundaries.
Again what happened??? How it is possible that a WHS for which a buffer zone surrounding it was approved, two years later changes completely its boundaries in the "Clarifications of boundaries" documents (which have the purpose of clarifying "the original intention of the nominations" as is stated in the document itself!!! and not surely that of modify the boundaries of the WHS)??? And what about the buffer zone which was added to a different area than that of the final map? Which are in the end the real boundaries?!

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The mysterious case of Rome WHS boundaries

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	The mysterious case of Rome WHS boundaries

	david Partaker	#1 \| Posted: 21 Nov 2010 17:36
		Before 2007 no maps were available of the Rome WHS but finally in 2007 a seemingly clear map appeared in the second "Evaluations of cultural properties" document of the 2007 WHC session http://whc.unesco.org/en/sessions/31COM/documents/. It shows the WHS boundaries defined exactly as one would have thought they would be, including the entire area within the city walls in the WHS. The only strange thing in this map is that the area in ha of San Paolo fuori le Mura is added to that of Vatican City WHS as if both were part of the same WHS, whereas in reality San Paolo fuori le Mura is part of the Rome WHS, but this may be only a matter of cartographic representation and it doesn't matter. However notice the size of the Rome WHS (1441 ha) and also the fact that the map was provided by Italy when it was proposing a buffer zone for the core area, which one would thing would be clearly and definetely defined when a buffer zone surrounding it is being proposed. And the buffer zone was also approved by the WHC!!! Now here http://whc.unesco.org/en/sessions/33COM/documents/ on the "Clarifications of property boundaries..." document of the 2009 WHC session there is a clarification of the size of the Rome WHS. Strange in itself is that the size of a WHS that was extend two years before needs to be clarified, however at a first sight one would think that the sizes of the extraterritorial properties of the Holy See (strangely not of all of them) situated within the area of the Rome WHS just weren't measured before and were being specified on that occasion, because they are considered as serial components of the property (constituting part of the territory of another country). But inexplicably the size of the historic centre appears to be increased by 5 ha (1446 ha) when one would have expected that the ha would decrease by the area of the serial components (newly identified within the boundaries of the WHS) not previously calculated. What happened????? Eventually here http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/91/multiple=1&unique_number=98 is the final map taken from the "Clarifications of property boundaries..." document of the 2010 WHC session. It finally shows the complete list of the serial components of the property, corresponding to that of the previous year, just completed. But notice that the map is completely different from that provided in 2007 and also very illogical: the boundary here excludes almost all the historic part of Rome centre being situated on the right bank of the river (apart from part of the Trastevere quarter) and even world famous monuments such as Castel Sant'Angelo and its bridge and the Villa Farnesina, even if situated within the city walls, also leaving some of the extraterritorial properties of the Holy See as exclaves of the WHS not within its boundaries. Again what happened??? How it is possible that a WHS for which a buffer zone surrounding it was approved, two years later changes completely its boundaries in the "Clarifications of boundaries" documents (which have the purpose of clarifying "the original intention of the nominations" as is stated in the document itself!!! and not surely that of modify the boundaries of the WHS)??? And what about the buffer zone which was added to a different area than that of the final map? Which are in the end the real boundaries?!