Rome gets rare snowfall, and it's an ancient winter wonderland

Rome was greeted on Monday morning by its first snowfall in six years.

With 1.2 to 1.6 inches on the ground, the mayor of the Italian capital, Virginia Raggi, ordered public schools closed and many private schools followed suit. Authorities opened several train stations as emergency shelters for the homeless.

The uncharacteristic weather for the city stems from a massive cold front moving over Europe, dubbed by much of British media as “The Beast From the East.” The chilly temperatures span from the U.K. to Moscow, and nearly five feet of snow has fallen in areas of Croatia.

A car carrying Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven skidded into a guardrail north of Stockholm during a blizzard, but no one was hurt.

The cold snap is expected to continue for the next few days, peaking on Thursday, U.K. Met Office meteorologist Becky Mitchell told CNN.

The wintery scenes in Rome have made for gorgeous pictures in photos and videos that have been cropping up all over, with the city’s most scenic and historical locales ― the Colosseum, the Vatican, etc. ― often serving as the backdrop.

See more for yourself below:

• This article originally appeared on HuffPost.