Rome's city council on Thursday voted overwhelmingly to approve the Italian capital bidding to host the 2024 summer Olympic and Paralympics Games.
The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) welcomed Thursday's vote.
"Rome 2024 we can do it! The Olympic flag flies high on the Capitoline Hill!" it wrote on Twitter after the vote.
Rome's centre-left mayor Ignazio Marino said hosting the Olympics would "renew" the city as they had Barcelona in 1992 and London in 2012.
"We'll get ready for a difficult and ambitious challenge, but one that this city has every chance of winning," Marino said.
"The 2024 Olympics in Rome will give a renewed, modern and sustainable identity to our city, which must manage them completely legally and transparently," he added.
Rome's Olympic bid is controversial because the city is mired in a major anti-mafia corruption probe that has led to the arrest of scores of people including local politicians, officials and businessmen.
Marino is under pressure to resign over the affair, although he is not suspected of personal wrongdoing.
Paris, Boston and Hamburg have already announced they are in the running and Istanbul, Doha and Budapest may also join the race.
Bids to host the Olympics have to be presented by 15 September and the International Olympic Committee is due to pick a winner in 2017.
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