Centro Storico
With its revolutionary design, this awe-inspiring temple has served as an architectural blueprint for millennia.
Must-see attractions in Centro Storico
Centro Storico
With its showy fountains, baroque palazzi and colorful cast of street artists, hawkers and tourists, Piazza Navona is central Rome’s elegant showcase…
Chiesa di San Luigi dei Francesi
Centro Storico
This opulent baroque church is home to a celebrated trio of Caravaggio paintings.
Centro Storico
Visit the atmospheric Jewish Ghetto neighborhood for art studios, kosher food and Rome's main synagogue.
Centro Storico
Il Campo is a major focus of Roman life: by day it hosts one of the city's best-known markets; by night, people come for its lively bars and restaurants.
Centro Storico
Hidden behind the grimy grey exterior of Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, this wonderful gallery boasts one of Rome’s richest private art collections, with works…
Chiesa di Sant’Ignazio di Loyola
Centro Storico
Flanking a delightful rococo piazza, this important Jesuit church boasts some celebrated artworks.
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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...
Centro Storico
A stark contrast to the ancient and stoic city around it, Dorothy Circus Gallery is devoted entirely to pop surrealism, a punchy art movement that draws…
Basilica di Santa Maria Sopra Minerva
Centro Storico
Built on the site of three pagan temples, including one dedicated to the goddess Minerva, the Dominican Basilica di Santa Maria Sopra Minerva is Rome’s…
Centro Storico
The plain white facade of this early Renaissance church, built in the 15th century and renovated in the late 1700s, gives no indication of the impressive…
Chiesa di Santa Maria della Pace & Chiostro del Bramante
Centro Storico
Tucked away in the back streets behind Piazza Navona, this small baroque church boasts a columned semicircular facade by Pietro da Cortona and a…
Centro Storico
With its stuccoed ornamental facade and handsome courtyard, this grand palazzo is a fine example of 16th-century mannerist architecture. Upstairs, a small…
Centro Storico
Home to the French embassy, this towering Renaissance palazzo, one of Rome's finest, was started in 1514 by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, continued by…
Centro Storico
Hardly new as its name would suggest, this imposing landmark church boasts a distinguished 17th-century facade and a vast baroque interior. Of particular…
Centro Storico
One of the world’s smallest inhabited islands, the boat-shaped Isola Tiberina has been associated with healing since the 3rd century BC when the Romans…
Centro Storico
The historical, cultural and artistic heritage of Rome’s Jewish community is chronicled in this small but engrossing museum. Housed in a building attached…
Centro Storico
One of Rome's most imposing Renaissance buildings, this huge palazzo was built for Cardinal Raffaele Riario between 1483 and 1513. It was later acquired…
Centro Storico
This playful, much-loved fountain features four boys gently hoisting tortoises up into a bowl of water. Created by Giacomo della Porta and Taddeo Landini…
Chiesa di Sant’Andrea della Valle
Centro Storico
A must for opera fans, this towering 17th-century church is where Giacomo Puccini set the first act of Tosca. Its most obvious feature is Carlo Maderno’s…
Centro Storico
Together with the adjacent Piazza di Montecitorio, this stylish piazza is Rome’s political nerve centre. On its northern flank, the 16th-century Palazzo…
Centro Storico
Piazza Navona's flamboyant centrepiece, Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi is an ornate, showy work. Completed in 1651, it features a…
Chiesa di Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza
Centro Storico
Hidden in the porticoed courtyard of Palazzo della Sapienza, this extraordinary church is a masterpiece of baroque architecture. Built by Francesco…
Centro Storico
The baroque Palazzo Braschi houses the Museo di Roma’s eclectic collection of paintings, photographs, etchings, clothes and furniture, charting the…
Centro Storico
This battered, armless figure is Rome’s most famous ‘talking statue’. During the 16th century, when there were no safe outlets for dissent, a Vatican…
Basilica di San Nicola in Carcere
Centro Storico
This innocuous-looking 11th-century basilica, hidden behind scaffolding when we last visited, harbours some fascinating underground ruins. Beneath the…
Centro Storico
Home to Italy’s Chamber of Deputies, this baroque palazzo was built by Bernini in 1653, expanded by Carlo Fontana in the late 17th century, and given an…
Basilica di San Lorenzo in Lucina
Centro Storico
Little remains of the 5th-century church that was originally built here atop a well sacred to Juno. But that shouldn’t detract from what is a very pretty…
Centro Storico
Striking off west from Piazza Pasquino, Via del Governo Vecchio is an atmospheric cobbled lane full of boutiques, lively restaurants and vintage clothes…
Centro Storico
Resembling a mini Colosseum, the Teatro di Marcello is the star turn of the dusty Area Archeologica del Teatro di Marcello e del Portico di Ottavia, a…
Centro Storico
A real-life house of horrors, Palazzo Cenci was the scene of one of the 16th century’s most infamous crimes, the murder of Francesco Cenci by his long…
Centro Storico
The columns, arches and fragmented pediment of this quadriporto (four-sided porch), which dates from 23 BC, once formed part of a vast rectangular portico…
Centro Storico
Nicknamed the pulcino della Minerva ('Minerva's chick'), the Elefantino is a curious and much-loved statue of a puzzled-looking elephant carrying a 6th…
