Musei Capitolini

Surpassed in sheer size and richness only by the Musei Vaticani, this immense collection is a greatest hits collection of Roman art through the ages, from the ancients to the Baroque. Housed in the twin Museo Capitolino and Palazzo dei Conservatori that bookend Michelangelo's piazza, you'll find some of antiquity's most famous sculptures here, such as the poignant Dying Gaul, the regal Capitoline Venus, and the Exquiline Venus (identified as another Mediterranean beauty, Cleopatra herself). Although some pieces in the collection -- first assembled by Sixtus IV (1414-84), one of the earliest of the Renaissance popes -- may excite only archaeologists and art historians, others are unforgettable, including the original bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius whose copy sits in the piazza.

Although many ancient Roman treasures were merely copies of Greek originals, portraiture was one area in which the Romans took precedence. In the Museo Capitolino, the hundreds of Roman busts of emperors in the Sala degli Imperatori and of philosophers in the Sala dei Filosofi are a fascinating Who's Who of the ancient world, and a major highlight of the museum. Within these serried ranks are 48 Roman emperors, ranging from Augustus to Theodosius (AD 346-395). On one console, you'll see the handsomely austere Augustus, who "found Rome a city of brick and left it one of marble." On another rests Claudius "the stutterer," an indefatigable builder brought vividly to life in the history-based novel I, Claudius by Robert Graves. Also in this company is Nero, one of the most notorious emperors -- though by no means the worst -- who built for himself the fabled Domus Aurea. And, of course, there are the standout baddies: cruel Caligula (AD 12-41) and Caracalla (AD 186-217), and the dissolute, eerily modern boy-emperor, Heliogabalus (AD 203-222).

Unlike the Greeks, whose portraits were idealized, the Romans preferred the "warts and all" school of representation. Many of the busts that have come down to us, notably that of Commodus (AD 161-192), the emperor-gladiator, are almost brutally realistic. Movie-lovers will want to search out this bust of the man who added nothing to the Roman way of life except new ways of dying -- this was the original of the man portrayed by Christopher Plummer in The Fall of the Roman Empire and by Joquin Phoenix in Gladiator. As you leave the museum, be sure to stop in the courtyard. To the right is the original equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius that once stood in the piazza outside, now restored and safely kept behind glass. At the center of the courtyard is the gigantic, reclining figure of Oceanus, found in the Roman Forum and later dubbed Marforio, one of Rome's famous "talking statues" to which citizens from the 1500s to the 1900s affixed anonymous satirical verses and notes of political protest. (Another talking statue still in use today sits at Piazza Pasquino, near Piazza Navona.)

The Palazzo dei Conservatori is a trove of ancient and Baroque treasures. Lining the courtyard are the colossal fragments of a head, leg, foot, and hand -- remains of the famous statue of the emperor Constantine the Great, who believed that Rome's future lay with Christianity. These immense effigies were much in vogue in the latter days of the Roman Empire. The resplendent Salone dei Orazi e Curiazi (Salon of Horatii and Curatii) on the first floor is a ceremonial hall with a magnificent gilt ceiling, carved wooden doors, and 16th-century frescoes. At both ends of the hall are statues of the Baroque era's most charismatic popes: a marble Urban VIII (1568-1644) by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) and a bronze Innocent X (1574-1655) by Bernini's rival, Algardi (1595-1654). The renowned symbol of Rome, the Capitoline Wolf, a 6th-century BC Etruscan bronze, holds a place of honor in the museum; the suckling twins were added during the Renaissance to adapt the statue to the legend of Romulus and Remus. The museum's pinacoteca, or painting gallery, holds some noted Baroque masterpieces, including Caravaggio's La Buona Ventura (1595) and San Giovanni Battista (1602), Peter Paul Rubens's (1577-1640) Romulus and Remus (1614), and Pietro da Cortona's (1627) sumptuous portrait of Pope Urban VIII. The Capitoline Museum includes the adjacent Palazzo Caffarelli, where temporary exhibitions are mounted and where you can enjoy both the view and refreshments on a large open terrace.