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Abstract: This paper traces the evolution of urban planning in Rome from the ‘Sangiust plan’, through the 1925-1926 variant, up to the plan of 1931 and beyond, highlighting the traditional weaknesses and contradictions of urban planning in Rome; the confused and unstable ‘bourgeois’ method, and that of the fascist regime, which was strong in theory and yet tended to waver between opposing ideas and was constantly influenced by the interests of private property developers who tended to inflate the proposals of the plan: with more homes, which extended beyond the original boundaries, creating a patchwork of residential islands throughout the area, especially in the eastern sector. The period was also typified by the birth of ‘official suburbs’, as well as ‘spontaneous’ ones, created to accommodate those who had lost their homes to the recent ‘urban disembowelment’, which was designed to raise Mussolini’s Rome to the splendors of the city’s ancient past, placing the principle government structures at the centre of the city and surpassing the population milestone of one million, in line with the great European capitals. An alternative plan for the Ostiense area, which was never approved, involved new industrial zones and a river port, projects which would later become part of the 1931 plan. The relationship between the centre and the periphery remained nonetheless a crucial point, on which there was disagreement between different generations of urbanists. The Commission for the New Regulatory Plan began business on the 18th of March 1930, and had the task of balancing the design of an efficient traffic flow system with the preservation of historic monuments. The Commission had only six months to return it’s conclusions, a deadline which was respected.