The best attractions, monuments, museums, archaeological sites, neighborhoods and experiences to enjoy in Rome.
Sant’Eligio degli Orefici is one of the most important small Renaissance churches in Rome for anyone interested in Raphael as an architect. Hidden near Via Giulia, it was created for the goldsmiths and silversmiths’ guild and dedicated to Saint Eligius, their patron. Its compact Greek-cross plan and hemispherical dome make it feel more like an…
Santa Maria dell’Orazione e Morte is one of Rome’s most unusual churches, but it is not a casual walk-in attraction. On elegant Via Giulia, its Baroque façade is decorated with skulls, hourglasses and symbols of mortality. These are not theatrical additions for tourists: they reflect the mission of the confraternity that recovered and buried abandoned…
Santa Maria della Consolazione occupies one of the most historically charged corners of central Rome. It stands below the Capitoline Hill near the Tarpeian Rock and the edge of the Roman Forum, yet it receives only a fraction of the visitors who pass through the archaeological zone above. The church’s origin is linked to the…
San Marco Evangelista al Campidoglio is hidden in plain sight beside Piazza Venezia. Thousands of visitors pass between the Vittoriano, Palazzo Venezia and the Capitoline area every day, yet comparatively few enter this ancient basilica. That makes it one of the best high-value detours in central Rome: no cross-city journey is required, but inside you…
Santa Maria ai Monti sits at the center of one of Rome’s liveliest neighborhoods but remains easy to treat as background architecture. That is a mistake. Designed from 1580 by Giacomo Della Porta, the church marks an important moment between late Renaissance clarity and the theatrical Baroque language that would soon dominate the city. Its…
Santa Maria dell’Anima is one of the best places in Rome to see how international the city was long before mass tourism. A few steps from Piazza Navona, the church grew from a medieval hospice serving pilgrims from German-speaking and Low Countries communities and became an important national church. Its architecture and monuments connect Roman…
San Lorenzo in Damaso is a church you can almost walk past without realizing it is there. Unlike Rome’s theatrical façades, it is absorbed into the enormous Palazzo della Cancelleria near Campo de’ Fiori. The lack of a conventional exterior makes the discovery memorable: you enter a sacred space embedded inside one of the city’s…
Santa Maria dell’Orto is one of Trastevere’s richest churches and one of its least predictable discoveries. Away from the busiest restaurant streets, it preserves a dense interior shaped by confraternities, craft guilds, Renaissance architects and later Baroque decoration. Its name remembers the market gardens that once occupied this part of the district, while its history…
San Crisogono is one of the easiest ancient churches to overlook in Trastevere and one of the most rewarding to enter. Standing close to the busy Viale di Trastevere, the basilica looks monumental from outside, yet its real interest comes from the way several Roman eras sit one above another: an early Christian foundation, a…
Explora is Rome’s dedicated children’s museum and one of the most useful places to keep a family itinerary balanced. Instead of asking children to look quietly at objects, the museum is built around touching, experimenting, role play and discovery. It sits near Piazza del Popolo, so it can be combined with central sightseeing without turning…