182 Best Sights in Rome, Italy

When Pope Sixtus V (Felice Peretti) completed the restoration of the Acqua Felice aqueduct toward the end of the 16th century, Domenico Fontana was commissioned to design its monumental fountain. Sculptors Leonardo Sormani and Prospero da Brescia had the unhappy task of executing the central figure of Moses; the comparison with Michelangelo's magnificent Moses in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli was inevitable, and the giant sculpture was widely criticized. But the new fountain served to position the formerly rustic Quirinale neighborhood as a thriving urban center.

At the foot of the Spanish Steps, this curious, leaky boat fountain is fed by Rome's only surviving ancient aqueduct, the Acqua Vergine. The sinking ship design is a clever solution to low water pressure and was created by Pietro Bernini, with the help of his son, the prolific sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The project was commissioned by Barberini Pope Urban VIII, and the bees and suns on the boat are symbols of the Barberini family. Looking for more symbolism, some insist that the Berninis intended the fountain to be a reminder that this part of town was often flooded by the Tiber; others claim that it represents the Ship of the Church; and still others think that it marks the presumed site of the emperor Domitian's water stadium in which sea battles were reenacted in the glory days of the Roman Empire.

The upper shell and inscription of this fountain, which is decorated with the famous heraldic bees of the Barberini family, are from a fountain that Bernini designed for Pope Urban VIII; the rest was lost when the fountain was moved to make way for a new street. The inscription caused considerable uproar when the fountain was first built in 1644. It said that the fountain had been erected in the 22nd year of the pontiff's reign, although, in fact, the 21st anniversary of Urban's election to the papacy was still some weeks away. The last numeral was hurriedly erased, but to no avail—Urban died eight days before the beginning of his 22nd year as pope. The superstitious Romans, who had regarded the inscription as a foolhardy tempting of fate, were vindicated.

Designed by Giacomo della Porta in 1581 and sculpted by Taddeo Landini, this fountain, set in pretty Piazza Mattei, is one of Rome's most charming. Its focal point consists of four bronze boys, each grasping a dolphin spouting water into a marble shell. Bronze turtles just out of reach of the boys' hands drink from the upper basin. The turtles were added in the 17th century by Bernini.

These ruins, along with those of the Foro di Nerva, on the northeast side of Via dei Fori Imperiali, give only a hint of what must have been impressive edifices. The three columns are all that remain of the Temple of Mars Ultor.

In an attempt to rival the Roman Forum, Julius Caesar had this extension built in the middle of the 1st century BC. Each year without fail, on the Ides of March, flowers are laid at the foot of Caesar's statue.

Of all the Fori Imperiali, Trajan's was the grandest and most imposing, a veritable city unto itself. Designed by architect Apollodorus of Damascus, it comprised a vast basilica, two libraries, and a colonnade laid out around the square—all at one time covered with rich marble ornamentation. Adjoining the forum were the Mercati di Traiano (Trajan's Markets), a huge multilevel brick complex of shops, taverns, walkways, and terraces, as well as administrative offices involved in the mammoth task of feeding the city.

The Museo dei Fori Imperiali (Imperial Forums Museum) takes advantage of the Forum's soaring vaulted spaces to showcase archaeological fragments and sculptures while presenting a video re-creation of the original complex. In addition, the series of terraced rooms offers an impressive overview of the entire forum. A pedestrian walkway, the Via Alessandrina, also allows for an excellent (and free) view of Trajan's Forum.

To build a complex of this magnitude, Apollodorus and his patrons clearly had great confidence, not to mention almost unlimited means and cheap labor at their disposal (readily provided by slaves captured in Trajan's Dacian Wars). The complex also contained two semicircular lecture halls, one at either end, which are thought to have been associated with the libraries in Trajan's Forum. The markets' architectural centerpiece is the enormous curved wall, or exedra, that shores up the side of the Quirinal Hill excavated by Apollodorus's gangs of laborers. Covered galleries and streets were constructed at various levels, following the exedra's curves and giving the complex a strikingly modern appearance.

As you enter the markets, a large vaulted hall stands in front of you. Two stories of shops and offices rise up on either side. Head for the flight of steps at the far end that leads down to Via Biberatica. (Bibere is Latin for "to drink," and the shops that open onto the street are believed to have been taverns.) Then head back to the three retail and administrative tiers that line the upper levels of the great exedra and look out over the remains of the Forum. Empty and bare today, the cubicles were once ancient Rome's busiest market stalls. Though it seems to be part of the market, the Torre delle Milizie (Tower of the Militia), the tall brick tower that is a prominent feature of Rome's skyline, was actually built in the early 1200s.

This is the Roman outpost of Larry Gagosian’s global art empire. Taking residence in a 1920s bank building, Gagosian brings an international crowd with highly anticipated exhibitions and blockbuster showcases of megastars such as Cy Twombly, Damien Hirst, and Jeff Koons.

Located in a former monastery, this small museum displays a capsule collection of modern art, with an emphasis on Italian artists. The permanent collection is too large to be displayed at once, so exhibitions rotate, displaying paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures by artists of the 19th and 20th centuries, including Giorgio de Chirico, Mario Mafai, Scipione, Gino Severini, and Giorgio Morandi.

In this neighborhood of huge, austere palaces, Palazzo Spada strikes an almost frivolous note, with its pretty ornament-encrusted courtyard and its upper stories covered with stuccoes and statues. Although the palazzo houses an impressive collection of Old Master paintings, it's most famous for its trompe-l'oeil garden gallery, a delightful example of the sort of architectural games that rich Romans of the 17th century found irresistible.

Even if you don't go into the gallery, step into the courtyard and look through the glass window of the library to the colonnaded corridor in the adjacent courtyard. You'll see—or seem to see—a statue at the end of a 26-foot-long gallery, seemingly quadrupled in depth in a sort of optical telescope that takes Renaissance's art of perspective to another level. In fact the distance is an illusion: the corridor grows progressively narrower and the columns progressively smaller as they near a statue, which is just 2 feet tall. The Baroque period is known for its special effects, and this is rightly one of the most famous. Borromini was responsible for the ruse, but it was only made possible thanks to the careful mathematical calculations completed by a science-minded Augustinian priest Giovanni Maria da Bitonto.

Upstairs is a seignorial picture gallery with the paintings shown as they would have been: hung one over the next clear to the ceiling. Outstanding works include Brueghel's Landscape with Windmills, Titian's Musician, and Andrea del Sarto's Visitation. Look for the fact sheets that have descriptive notes about the objects in each room.

The Gianicolo is famous for its peaceful and pastel panoramic views of the city, a noontime cannon shot, the Fontana dell'Acqua Paola (affectionately termed "the big fountain" by Romans), and a monument dedicated to Giuseppe and Anita Garibaldi (the guiding spirit behind the unification of Italy in the 19th century, and his long-suffering wife). The view from the terrace, with the foothills of the Appennini in the background, is especially breathtaking at dusk. It's also a great view for dome-spotting along the city skyline, from the Pantheon to the myriad city churches.

Neatly trimmed lawns and flower beds extend over the hills behind St. Peter's Basilica, an area dotted with some interesting structures and other, duller ones that serve as office buildings. The Vatican Gardens occupy almost 40 acres and include a formal Italian garden, a flowering French garden, a romantic English landscape, and a small forest.

There's also the little-used Vatican railroad station, which now houses a museum of coins and stamps made in the Vatican, and the Torre di San Giovanni (Tower of St. John), restored by Pope John XXIII as a retreat for work and now used as a residence for distinguished guests. To visit the gardens, join a three-hour walking tour that also includes the Sistine Chapel. Garden visits must be booked online.

The Pantheon area is ice-cream heaven, with some of Rome's best gelaterias within a few steps of each other. But for many Romans, a scoop at Giolitti, which opened in 1900, is tradition. The scene at the counter often looks like the storming of the Bastille; remember to pay the cashier first, and hand the stub to the counter-person when you order your cone.

A complex of five grandly conceived complexes flanked with colonnades, the Fori Imperiali contain monuments of triumph, law courts, and temples. The complexes were tacked on to the Roman Forum, from the time of Julius Caesar in the 1st century BC until Trajan in the very early 2nd century AD, to accommodate the ever-growing need for buildings of administration and grand monuments.

From Piazza del Colosseo, head northwest on Via dei Fori Imperiali toward Piazza Venezia. Now that the road has been closed to private traffic, it's more pleasant for pedestrians (it's closed to all traffic on Sunday). On the walls to your left, maps in marble and bronze, put up by Benito Mussolini, show the extent of the Roman Republic and Empire (at the time of writing, these were partially obstructed by work on Rome's new subway line, Metro C). The dictator's own dreams of empire led him to construct this avenue, cutting brutally through the Fori Imperiali, and the medieval and Renaissance buildings that had grown upon the ruins, so that he would have a suitable venue for parades celebrating his expected military triumphs. Among the Fori Imperiali along the avenue, you can see the Foro di Cesare (Forum of Caesar) and the Foro di Augusto (Forum of Augustus). The grandest was the Foro di Traiano (Forum of Trajan), with its huge semicircular Mercati di Traiano and the Colonna Traiana (Trajan's Column). You can walk through part of Trajan's Markets on the Via Alessandrina and visit the Museo dei Fori Imperiali, which presents the Imperial Forums and shows how they would have been used through ancient fragments, artifacts, and modern multimedia.

It's easy to overlook this tiny island in the Tiber, but you shouldn't. In terms of history and sheer loveliness, charming Isola Tiberina—shaped like a boat about to set sail—gets high marks. Cross onto the island via Ponte Fabricio, Rome's oldest remaining bridge, constructed in 62 BC. On the north side of the island crumbles the romantic ruin of the Ponte Rotto (Broken Bridge), which dates from 179 BC. Descend the steps to the lovely river embankment to see a Roman relief of the intertwined-snakes symbol of Aesculapius, the great god of healing.

In imperial times, Romans sheathed the entire island with marble to make it look like Aesculapius's ship, replete with a towering obelisk as a mast. Amazingly, a fragment of the ancient sculpted ship's prow still exists. You can marvel at it on the downstream end of the embankment. Today, medicine still reigns here. The island is home to the hospital of Fatebenefratelli (literally, "Do good, brothers"). Nearby is San Bartolomeo, built at the end of the 10th century by the Holy Roman Emperor Otto III and restored in the 18th century.

During summer, the island hosts an outdoor cinema, while its walkway is dotted with white tented bars and pop-up eateries.

Sent to Rome in a last-ditch attempt to treat his consumptive condition, English Romantic poet John Keats—celebrated for such poems as "Ode to a Nightingale" and "Endymion"—lived in this house at the foot of the Spanish Steps. At the time, this was the heart of Rome's colorful bohemian quarter, an area favored by English expats. He took his last breath here on February 23, 1821, and is now buried in the Non-Catholic Cemetery in Testaccio. On a visit to his final home, you can see his death mask, though local authorities had all his furnishings burned after his death as a sanitary measure. You'll also find a quaint collection of memorabilia of other English literary figures of the period—Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Joseph Severn, and Leigh Hun—and an exhaustive library of works on the Romantics.

If you find your imagination stretching to picture Rome as it was two millennia ago, then check out this "new" ancient site just a stone's throw from Piazza Venezia. As was common practice in Renaissance-era Rome, 16th-century builders simply filled in ancient structures with landfill, using them as part of the foundation for Palazzo Valentini. In doing so, the builders also unwittingly preserved the ruins beneath, which archaeologists rediscovered during excavations in 2007. It took another three years for the two opulent, imperial-era domus (upscale urban houses) to open to the public.

Descending below Palazzo Valentini is like walking into another world. Not only are the houses luxurious and well preserved—retaining their beautiful mosaics, inlaid marble floors, and staircases—but the ruins have been made to "come alive" through multimedia. Sophisticated light shows recreate what it all would have looked like, while a dramatic, automated voice-over accompanies you as you walk through the rooms, pointing out cool finds: the heating system for the private baths, the mysterious fragment of a statue, the marks left by wooden beams used to fill in the foundations of Palazzo Valentini during the Renaissance, and a WWII bunker and escape tunnel connected to the domus. If it sounds corny, hold your skepticism: it's an effective, excellent way to actually "experience" the houses as ancient Romans would have—and to learn a lot about ancient Rome in the process. To see a multimedia presentation about the detailed battle scenes sculpted onto Trajan's Column above the site, book the "Percorso Domus + Colonna Traiana" option.

The multimedia tour takes about an hour. There are limited spots, so book in advance over the phone, online, or in person; make sure you book one of the English tours.

If you're keen to delve deeper into Rome's contemporary art scene, come to this stark-white gallery, which represents local and international artists whose work gets shown at international art fairs and prestigious museums like MAXXI and MACRO. The gallery has four exhibitions per year.

Unlike the other mausoleums in the area, this one is much more recent: buried here are the 335 victims of a massacre ordered by the Nazis as retribution for a partisan attack that killed 33 Nazis in March 1944. The tombs are labeled with the names, ages, and occupations of the victims, most of whom had nothing to do with the attack. As you enter the complex and walk through the caves, note the sculpture at the entrance and the bronze gates inside the tunnels. The statue, called The Three Ages of Man, represents the age range of the victims, from the youngest (15 years old) to the oldest (74 years old), while the bronze gates represent the horrific tangle of tortured bodies. A small museum with artifacts from the war sheds some light on the tragedy that took place here.

Rome's first walls were erected in the 6th century BC, but the ancient city greatly expanded over the next few centuries, and when Rome was at its peak, it didn't need walls. In the 3rd century AD, however, Emperor Aurelian commissioned a 12-mile wall to protect the city. Although many considered this a sign of weakness, it was more than a century before those walls were first breached in a siege that would herald the end of the empire. The ancient walls eventually became the fortifications of the papal city and remained in use for 16 centuries until the unification of Italy in 1870. Studding the Aurelian Walls were 18 main gates, the best preserved of which is the Porta di San Sebastiano at the entrance to the Via Appia Antica. This gate is also home to a small museum that allows you to walk a section of the ancient ramparts and take in some truly wonderful views. Note that the museum closes relatively early, at 2 pm.

Though part of this ancient bath complex (the largest in the Roman world) is now the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, and other parts were transformed into a Carthusian monastery or razed to make room for later urban development, a visit still gives you a sense of the scale and grandeur of this complex, which included a gymnasium, library, and public baths. Upon entering the church, you see the major structures of the baths, partly covered by 16th- and 17th-century overlay, some of which is by Michelangelo. The calm monastery cloister is filled with the Museo Nazionale Romano's collection of inscriptions; other rooms have pieces associated especially with remote Roman antiquity (think: huts), as well as archaeological finds from Rome's Republican and imperial periods, including a rare painted relief of the god Mithras.

On the top floor of the Palazzo Primoli—the same building (separate entrance) that houses the Museo Napoleonico—is one of Rome's most unusual museums. As if preserved in amber, the apartment in which the famous Italian essayist Mario Praz lived survives intact, decorated with a lifetime's accumulation of delightful Baroque and neoclassical art and antiques, arranged and rearranged to create symmetries that take the visitor by surprise like the best trompe-l'oeil. As author of The Romantic Sensibility and A History of Interior Decoration, Praz was fabled for his taste for the arcane and the bizarre; here his reputation for the same lives on. You are obliged to follow a custodian through the museum; the visit starts on the hour and takes about 50 minutes.

Opulent, velvet-and-crystal salons in the Palazzo Primoli hauntingly capture the fragile charm of early-19th-century Rome and contain a specialized and rich collection of Napoléon memorabilia, including a bust by Canova of the general's sister, Pauline Borghese. You may well ask why this outpost of Napoléon is in Rome, but in 1798 the French emperor sent his troops to Rome, kidnapping Pope Pius VII and proclaiming his young son the King of Rome—though it all ultimately came to naught.

The Palatine Museum charts the history of the hill from Archaic times, with quaint models of early villages (on the ground floor), to Roman times (on the ground and upper floors). There is a good video reconstruction of the hill in Room V on the ground floor, as well as a collection of colored stones used in the decorations of the palace, with a map showing the distant imperial regions whence they came. Upstairs, the room dedicated to Augustus houses painted terra-cotta moldings and sculptural decorations from various temples—notably the Temple of Apollo Actiacus, whose name derives from the god to whom Octavian attributed his victory at Actium (the severed heads of the Medusa in the terra-cotta panels symbolize the defeated Queen of Egypt). There is also a selection of imperial portraits on the upper floor, including a rare surviving image of Nero. The museum closes early, at 3:30 pm.

There are few places dedicated to Second World War history in Rome, but this small museum inside the infamous prison on Via Tasso serves as a poignant reminder of the horrors that conspired here under the Nazi-Fascist regime. In cells where the S.S. tortured partisans and other prisoners, artifacts such as wartime bulletins, letters written by the prisoners, and even bloody garments are displayed as moving testaments to a dark period in history.

With advance notice you can take a one-hour guided tour in English of the Vatican Necropolis, under the Basilica di San Pietro, which gives a rare glimpse of early Christian Roman burial customs and a closer look at the tomb of St. Peter. Apply via the contact form online, specifying the number of people in the group (all must be age 10 or older), preferred language, preferred time, available dates, and your contact information in Rome. Each group will have about 12 participants. Visits are not recommended for those with mobility issues or who are claustrophobic.

Housed in a Baroque masterwork by Borromini, this former religious residence named for Saint Philip Neri, founder in 1551 of the Congregation of the Oratorians, now contains Rome's Archivio Storico. Like the Jesuits, the Oratorians—or Filippini, as they were commonly known—were one of the religious orders established in the mid-16th century as part of the Counter-Reformation. Neri, a man of rare charm and wit, insisted that the members of the order—most of them young noblemen whom he had recruited personally—not only renounce their worldly goods, but also work as common laborers in the construction of Neri's great church of Santa Maria in Vallicella.

The Oratory itself, built between 1637 and 1662, has a gently curving facade that is typical of Borromini, who insisted on introducing movement into everything he designed. The inspiration here is that of arms extended in welcome to the poor. The building houses the Vallicelliana Library founded by Philip Neri, and the courtyard is usually accessible during the library's opening hours. Otherwise, guided visits, usually in the mornings, can be booked by email.

Alessandro Farnese, a nephew of Pope Paul III, commissioned the 16th-century architect Vignola to lay out this archetypal Italian garden over the ruins of the Palace of Tiberius, on the northern side of the Palatine, with a spectacular view over the Forum. This was yet another example of the Renaissance renewing an ancient Roman tradition. To paraphrase the poet Martial, the statue-studded gardens of the Flavian Palace were such as to make even an Egyptian potentate turn green with envy.

First designed by Giovanni Antonio De' Rossi for the Marquis of Aste in the 17th century, this Renaissance palace is better known as the home of Letizia Bonaparte, who purchased the elegant building in 1818. Napoleon's mother, who lived here until her death in 1836, was fond of sitting on the curious covered green balcony that wraps around a corner of the first floor. The stately home overlooks the Vittoriano and Palazzo Venezia, as well as the nonstop motion of Rome's busiest piazza. Palazzo Bonaparte is open for temporary exhibits and has hosted the works of blockbuster artists like Vincent Van Gogh and M. C. Escher, among others.

A brooding example of Baroque style, the palace (once home to Queen Christina of Sweden) is across the road from the Villa Farnesina and houses part of the 16th- and 17th-century sections of the collection of the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica. Among the star paintings in this manageably sized collection are Rubens's St. Sebastian Healed by Angels and Caravaggio's St. John the Baptist. Stop in if only to climb the 17th-century stone staircase, itself a drama of architectural shadows and sculptural voids. Behind, but separate from, the palazzo is the University of Rome's Orto Botanico, home to 3,500 species of plants, with various greenhouses around a stairway/fountain with 11 jets.