[Roman pride mode ON] Sorry but they are not. There are similar pavements all over the world but the one in Rome are different:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampietrini [Roman pride mode OFF]
Then...I agree with the rest of your sentence. From the same wikipedia page:
But are so beautiful, and so part of the unique historic environment that everybody protested, so they are still covering most of the historic centre and some of the rest of the town.
And by the way: the name sampietrini comes from "San Pietro" aka St. Peter. The first documented use in Rome of "
sampietrini" stones was during the reign of
Pope Pius V (1566–72) (again from wikipedia)
p.s. btw, I am an atheist
, just to avoid misunderstandings...
I know that this will not make me more popular with the American audience here
, but this is it.