The best attractions, monuments, museums, archaeological sites, neighborhoods and experiences to enjoy in Rome.
Villa Gordiani is one of Rome’s most rewarding combinations of archaeology and everyday neighborhood life. Along Via Prenestina, a public park spreads across both sides of the road around the remains of a large Roman estate traditionally associated with the Gordian imperial family. It does not have the monumental staging of the Forum or the…
San Sebastiano fuori le Mura is one of the historic Seven Churches of Rome and a key stop on the Appian Way. The basilica stands above an area of early-Christian burial that helped give the word “catacomb” its wider meaning, while the present church also preserves an important late work by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and…
Santa Croce in Gerusalemme is one of Rome’s most important pilgrimage churches and one of the clearest places to see how imperial property became Christian sacred space. The basilica stands on the ancient Sessorian complex associated with Helena, mother of Constantine, and is famous for relics traditionally connected with the Passion of Christ. Even travelers…
St Paul Outside the Walls is one of Rome’s four papal basilicas and one of the city’s most impressive sacred interiors, yet it often feels calmer than St Peter’s. The enormous nave, portrait medallions of the popes, medieval mosaics, monumental quadriportico and the traditional tomb of Saint Paul create a visit that can stand beside…
Sant’Agnese fuori le Mura is one of the most rewarding early-Christian complexes in Rome because several layers of the city survive together on one site. The basilica descends below modern street level, the catacombs preserve the memory of the young martyr Agnes, and the nearby mausoleum of Santa Costanza adds one of Rome’s finest late-antique…
The Temple of Hadrian is one of central Rome’s most dramatic examples of ancient architecture embedded directly into a later building. Eleven enormous columns rise along Piazza di Pietra, their scale suddenly appearing between narrow streets only a few minutes from the Pantheon. The temple was completed around AD 145 under Antoninus Pius and dedicated…
Tiber Island is a small piece of Rome that works as both a destination and a bridge between neighborhoods. Set in the river between the Jewish Ghetto and Trastevere, it is only about 300 meters long and roughly 90 meters wide, yet it carries more than two thousand years of religious, medical and urban history….
San Giovanni a Porta Latina is one of Rome’s most atmospheric medieval churches and one of the easiest to miss. Set behind a quiet forecourt near the Aurelian Walls, it combines a Romanesque bell tower, an early medieval well, reused ancient columns and a remarkable twelfth-century fresco cycle inside the nave. The church is also…
Museo Carlo Bilotti is a compact modern-art museum inside Villa Borghese, best known for works by Giorgio de Chirico and for temporary exhibitions that give the park a contemporary cultural dimension. Housed in the former Orangery, the museum is easy to combine with a walk through the gardens and works particularly well for travelers who…
Museo Pietro Canonica is one of Villa Borghese’s most rewarding small museums, preserving the home, studio and works of a sculptor who moved between Rome, European courts and monumental public commissions. The museum occupies the Fortezzuola, a distinctive building near Piazza di Siena, and lets visitors see finished sculptures alongside the more personal spaces in…