another bookmark...

A stone's throw from Santa Maria Maggiore is Santa Pressede. A jewel box of a church with glimmering mosaics and ancient frescoes that will take your breath away. Don't miss it!

I also love wandering into Santa Maria in Vallicella, or The Chiesa Nuova, as it is known, on Corso Vittorio Emanuele II. There are two lovely paintings by Peter Paul Rubens in there that fly way under the radar of most visitors to Rome.

faredolce, great recommendation, just checked out the church online and looks amazing!
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/i...or-wp-gfdl.JPG


This site has excellant information and photo's about sacred destinations

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/italy/

One you *must* see is the Mother Church: Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano. It's the largest baroque monument in Rome.
As the cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, containing the papal throne (Cathedra Romana), it ranks above all other churches in the Catholic Church, even above St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.
San Giovanni in Laterano is located south of the Collosseum, at the end of via San Giovanni in Laterano (metro San Giovanni).

A church I am very sorry to have missed on a recent trip to Rome which is right near the Pantheon and Piazza navonna is Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza. I just read a book about Borromini and Bernini (and their rivalry) and this is considered one of Borromini's masterpieces.

this is one thing a comprehensive guide book or walk book is good for. There are SO MANY terrific churches in Rome a lot of which have been mentioned here - all embedded in neighborhoods that have many other things to see as well - a 10 best sights approach doesnt even begin to scratch the surface in Rome.
San Ivo, toward the end of the thread and San Carlo Quattro Fontane, the two best Borromini churches are just fascinating for their quirky architecture, ditto San Andea Quirinale, just down the street from San Carlo, and across from the Quirinal Palace.
The great Michelangeo redo of the gigantic baths of diocletian near the station - Santa Maria degli Angeli - I like this much better than the Vatican
The Early Christian and medieval churches are wonderful - if you take a walk up on the Caelian you can see San Clemente as well as the Vallicella, Santi Quattro Coronati and San Giovanni e Paulo wih its excavations of a roman house.
Santa Sabina on the Aventine is beautiful and very old (the Aventine is wonderful and quiet, too); one of the churches with a perfectly matched set of classical columns
The churches outide the walls - Santa Agnese, the ancient Santa Costanza, a byzantine round church/baptistery adjoining, as well as San Lorenzo and Saint Paul outside the walls -
as a matter of principal, just about any church that sits below street level is ancient and most are very much worth visiting for mosaics and ancient holy atmosphere, such as Santa Prassede and "sister" church Santa Pudenziana
the churches with artistic and sculptural treasures Santa Maria Della Victoria, with the Bernini St. Theresa in Ecstacy, the major churches is Trastevere, the great baroque Chiesa Nuova,
the ancient church on the capitoline is magnificent its a recycled temple in part and looks it - magnificent -
There are a couple of small and lovely churches behind Navona, Santa Maria Della Pace is one, the other is german I think - but frequently not open,
Sta Maria in Cosmedin, the church with the mouth of truth in its porch, another ancient basilica just down the hill from Sta Sabina
there are many more. Do get a guide and you will discover lots of wonderful stuff.