Filippo Neri (1515-95) was a wealthy Florentine who abandoned the cut and thrust of the business world to live and work among the poor in Rome. He experienced an 'ecstasy' of...

To the left of the 15th-century church of San Giovanni dei Genovesi is a wooden door (ring the bell marked 'Sposito' to get in) that opens into a glorious flower-filled...

This heavenly oasis of calm in the midst of a ruckus of traffic has been the resting place for foreigners who have passed on to a better world since 1784. Verdant and...

The 30m (100ft) column of Marcus Aurelius was built between AD 180 and 196 to commemorate the victories on the battlefield of that most intellectual of Roman emperors. Author...

Four ephebes (adolescent boys) cavort around the base of one of Rome's loveliest fountains, gently hoisting tortoises up to the waters above them. According to legend, Giacomo...

The huge Gesù is the flagship church of the Jesuits, the order founded by Basque soldier Ignatius Loyola in the 1530s. Realising the power of a direct appeal to the emotions,...

It's worth climbing to the top of this monument, not only to appreciate the enormity of the thing, but also to see the charmingly kitsch art nouveau propaganda mosaics in the...

Since 1871 this has been the Lower House of Italy's parliament, which is why police and barricades sometimes prevent you from getting near its elegantly curving façade. (It's...

This palazzo has housed the French embassy since the 1870s. Considered by many to be the finest Renaissance palace in Rome, the huge building - recently and dramatically...

The Pantheon is the best-preserved ancient building in Rome. It was built (and possibly designed) by Hadrian in AD 119-128 as a temple to the 12 most important classical...

The Ponte Rotto - literally, 'Broken Bridge' - stands on the site of the Pons aemilius, Rome's first stone bridge, built in 142 BC. It was rebuilt many times - even...

Great ancient columns and a marble frontispiece, held together with rusting iron braces, now form part of the church of Sant'Angelo in Pescheria. They were originally the...

A favourite with kids for its dungeon-like underground level, this 12th-century basilica is a three-dimensional Roman time-line, a church above a church above an even older...