Heritage Holidays

Heritage Holidays

Mid-October

The Heritage Holidays are a five-day celebration of the history of Rome, Ga., which, like its Italian namesake, was built on seven hills. There is also a bronze replica of the Capitoline Wolf outside City Hall. This Roman statue depicting a she-wolf nursing the legendary founders of Rome—Romulus and Remus—was given to the town in 1929 by Benito Mussolini.
Heritage Holidays, however, looks back to different times: it features a re-creation of the famous ride of John Wisdom, who has been called the Paul Revere of the South. During the Civil War, Rome was important to the Confederacy as a rail and manufacturing center. Wisdom, a native of the city who was living in Alabama, was delivering mail when he heard that Yankee soldiers were headed for his hometown. He rode the 67 miles to Rome in 11 hours, wearing out five horses and a mule. The men of Rome set up two old cannons, and the Yanks decided the town seemed too heavily fortified. They surrendered to a smaller Confederate force following them.
Features of the heritage days are a wagon train, parades, riverboat rides, concerts, and a major arts and crafts fair.

CONTACTS:
Greater Rome Convention and Visitors Bureau
601 Broad St.
P.O. Box 1433
Rome, GA 30162
800-444-1834 or 706-236-4400; fax: 706-236-4405
www.romega.us