Centro Storico
A busy transport hub, Largo di Torre Argentina is set around the sunken Area Sacra, and the remains of four Republican-era temples, all built between the…
Must-see attractions in Rome
Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia
Rome
Pope Julius III’s 16th-century villa provides the often-overlooked but charming setting for Italy’s finest collection of Etruscan and pre-Roman treasures…
Rome
Housed in a vast belle époque palace, this oft-overlooked modern-art gallery, known locally as GNAM, is an unsung gem. Its superlative collection runs the…
Rome
The compact Quartiere Coppedè, centering around the magnificent Piazza Mincio, is one of Rome's most extraordinary neighbourhoods. Conceived and built by…
Trastevere & Gianicolo
Once home to Queen Christina of Sweden, whose bedroom reputedly witnessed a steady stream of male and female lovers, the 16th-century Palazzo Corsini was…
Basilica di Santa Cecilia in Trastevere
Trastevere & Gianicolo
The last resting place of the patron saint of music features Pietro Cavallini's exquisite 13th-century fresco in the nuns' choir of the hushed convent…
Cimitero Acattolico per gli Stranieri
San Giovanni & Testaccio
Despite the roads that surround it, Rome’s 'non-Catholic' cemetery is a verdant oasis of peace. An air of Grand Tour romance hangs over the site where up…
Centro Storico
This sunken area in the Largo di Torre Argentina, reckoned to be the site of Julius Caesar's murder, contains the remains of four Republican-era temples,…
Monti, Esquilino & San Lorenzo
Nero had his Domus Aurea constructed after the fire of AD 64 (which he is rumoured to have started to clear the area). Named after the gold that lined its…
Basilica di San Paolo Fuori le Mura
Southern Rome
The largest church in Rome after St Peter’s (and the world’s third-largest), this vast basilica stands on the site where St Paul was buried after being…
Tridente, Trevi & the Quirinale
The first modern construction in Rome's historic centre since WWII, Richard Meier's glass-and-marble pavilion houses the remnants of the Ara Pacis…
Basilica di Santa Maria del Popolo
Tridente, Trevi & the Quirinale
This is one of Rome’s richest Renaissance churches, with a particularly impressive collection of art, including two Caravaggios: the Conversion of St Paul…
San Giovanni & Testaccio
This solemn basilica, one of Rome's most beautiful early Christian churches, was founded by Peter of Illyria around AD 422. It was enlarged in the 9th…
Basilica di San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura
Monti, Esquilino & San Lorenzo
One of Rome’s four patriarchal basilicas, San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura (St Lawrence Outside the Walls) has an unusually restrained interior. It was the only…
Vatican City, Borgo & Prati
Overlooked by St Peter's Basilica, the Vatican’s central square was laid out between 1656 and 1667 to a design by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Seen from above,…
Tridente, Trevi & the Quirinale
Built for Cardinal Ricci da Montepulciano in 1540, this sumptuous Renaissance palace was purchased by Ferdinando de' Medici in 1576 and remained in Medici…
Chiesa di Santa Maria in Aracoeli
Ancient Rome
Atop the steep 124-step Aracoeli staircase, this 6th-century Romanesque church sits on the highest point of the Campidoglio. Its richly decorated interior…
Centro Storico
Designed by Bramante in 1508 as part of an urban development program ordered by Pope Julius II, Via Giulia is one of Rome's most charming streets, an…
Southern Rome
This Orwellian quarter of wide boulevards and linear buildings was built for an international exhibition in 1942, and although war intervened and the…
Museo Nazionale Romano: Palazzo Altemps
Centro Storico
Just north of Piazza Navona, Palazzo Altemps is a beautiful late-15th-century palazzo housing the best of the Museo Nazionale Romano’s formidable…
Rome
Designed by starchitect Renzo Piano and inaugurated in 2002, Rome's flagship cultural centre is an audacious work of architecture consisting of three…
Centro Storico
An imposing example of Counter-Reformation architecture, Rome's most important Jesuit church is a fabulous treasure trove of baroque art. Headline works…
Trastevere & Gianicolo
Lorded over by the 17th-century Villa Doria Pamphilj is Rome’s largest landscaped park – many a Roman's favourite place to escape the city noise and…
Museo Capitoline Centrale Montemartini
Southern Rome
Housed in a former power station, this bold outpost of the Capitoline Museums (Musei Capitolini) juxtaposes classical sculpture with diesel engines and…
Ancient Rome
The forums of Trajan, Augustus, Nerva and Caesar are known collectively as the Imperial Forums. They were largely buried when Mussolini bulldozed Via dei…
Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere
Trastevere & Gianicolo
Trastevere’s focal square is a prime people-watching spot. By day it’s full of chatting locals and guidebook-toting tourists; by night it’s the domain...
San Giovanni & Testaccio
With its grassy banks and colourful flower beds, this leafy park is a wonderful place to escape the crowds and enjoy a summer picnic. At its centre is a…
Tridente, Trevi & the Quirinale
The guided tours of this opulent palace are among the city's best, introducing visitors to the residence and art collection of the patrician Colonna…
Museo Nazionale Romano: Terme di Diocleziano
Monti, Esquilino & San Lorenzo
Able to accommodate some 3000 people, the Terme di Diocleziano was ancient Rome's largest bath complex. Now an epigraphic museum, its exhibits provide a…
Vatican City, Borgo & Prati
Entry to the dome is to the far right of the basilica's main portico, where you also buy your ticket. A small lift can take you halfway up, but it’s still…
Monti, Esquilino & San Lorenzo
The city’s largest cemetery dates from the Napoleonic occupation of Rome (1804–14), when an edict ordered that the city’s dead must be buried outside...
Centro Storico
Towering over Piazza Colonna, the 30m-high Colonna di Marco Aurelio was completed in AD 193 to honour Marcus Aurelius’ military victories. Its vivid…
Southern Rome
°ä¾±²Ô±ð³¦¾±³Ù³Ùà is Italy's foremost film studio, founded in 1937 by Mussolini and used for many iconic Italian and international films. It's possible to take a…
Centro Storico
The brainchild of Irish gallerist Lorcan O'Neill, this contemporary art gallery calls the former 17th-century stables of Palazzo Santacroce home. It…
San Giovanni & Testaccio
Built after the barbarians’ invasion of Rome, the remarkably well-preserved Porta San Paolo once served as a southern gate in the 3rd-century Aurelian…
Centro Storico
For one of Rome’s most picture-perfect scenes, head to this dark archway just off Campo de’ Fiori. The arch in itself isn’t especially memorable...
Vatican City, Borgo & Prati
The emperor Hadrian built the Ponte Sant’Angelo in 136 to provide an approach to his mausoleum, but it was Bernini who brought it to life, designing the…
Ancient Rome
Said to be the inspiration for the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, this triumphal arch was built by the emperor Domitian in AD 81 to celebrate his brother Titus…
Ancient Rome
Now incorporated into Palazzo Venezia, the early-4th-century Basilica di San Marco stands over the house where St Mark the Evangelist is said to have…
San Giovanni & Testaccio
Stretched out on the slopes of the Aventine Hill, this idyllic garden boasts more than 1100 of the rarest roses, coaxed into life each spring by a team of…
