Begun by Emperor Hadrian in AD 135 as his own mausoleum, Castel Sant'Angelo has variously been a fortress, prison and papal residence. It now plays host to temporary art shows,...

Urbino-born architect Donato Bramante is credited with kick-starting the Roman High Renaissance. He began with the beautiful Chiostro del Bramante in 1500-4.

Favoured by 'alternative' youth on summer evenings, the Circus Maximus seen up close is a scrubby dog park littered with broken glass and cigarette butts. However, from the...

A stone's throw from the Trevi fountain are the excavations that came to light during the remodeling of the ex-Cinema Trevi (now a Mondadori bookstore, retail outlet of a...

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...

Part of the Museo Nazionale Romana, the Crypta Balbi is often overlooked on travellers' itineraries. It's a pity: not only does it display one of Rome's more interesting recent...

In the summer of AD 64 fire devastated a large part of central Rome. (Some blame Nero for setting the blaze intentionally, but fire was a real risk and a common occurrence.)...

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...

For recent generations, it was Anita Ekberg who made this fountain famous when she plunged in wearing a strapless black evening dress (and a pair of waders… but you don't...

This grandiose fountain, which sends lavishly splashy cascades into an equally grand pool, is fed by water that has travelled 35km (22 miles) through a Trajan-era aqueduct from...

On the north-east side of via dei Fori Imperiali are the extensive remains of Trajan's forum, the last of the fora, laid out in the early second century AD. At the northern...

To the south of the House of the Knights of Rhodes is the Forum of Augustus, the second of the Imperial Fora chronologically (inaugurated in 2 BC). The dominant feature here...

The earliest of the Fori imperiali, the Forum of Caesar lies on the south-west side of via dei Fori Imperiali, closest to the Foro romano. Begun by Julius Caesar in 51 BC after...