Sights of Rome

Musei Vaticani and Ca****la Sistina
One of the world’s largest museums is a sometimes overwhelming maze incorporating areas, like the incomparable Sistine Chapel, which were here long before you could buy a ticket. The museum began as a collection of ancient sculpture begun by Pope Julius II in his private summer palace in 1503, and it’s been added to ever since. The immense collection represents the accumulated fancies and obsessions of a long line of strong, often contradictory personalities. As well as the celebrated work of Michelangelo and Raphael, the collections include Etruscan grave goods, cut outs by Matisse, a piece of the moon donated by Nixon, and a 120m-long (390ft) gallery painted with the most accurate maps in the world from the late 16th century.

Fontana di Trevi
For recent generations, it was Anita Ekberg who made this fountain famous when she plunged in wearing a strapless black evening dress in Federico Fellini’s classic film La Dolce Vita. Don’t even think about trying it yourself – wading, washing and splashing in fountains are strictly against local by-laws. And unlike the Grand Tourists, you don’t want to drink from it either: channelled from the ancient acqua vergine spring – legend says the source was revealed to the troops of Agrippa by a virgin – the sparkling water of the fountain is full of chlorine (though there’s a chlorine-free spout hidden in a bird-bath-shaped affair at the back of the fountain to the right).

Ponte Milvio
Little known among foreigners until the Italian writer Federico Moccia made it fashionable after publishing A 3 meters above the sky and I’m looking forward to you. In 2012 the council decided to remove the locks that hundreds of couples had hung, after throwing the key to the river Tiber so that that love would last forever.

Maxxi Museum
The National Museum of the Arts of the 21st Century, designed by the renowned architect Zaha Hadid and inaugurated in 2010, is the first in Italy dedicated not only to contemporary art but also to architecture and photography. It has a file of more than 50,000 projects and 25,000 images. Close on Mondays.

The Pantheon – the best-preserved monument of Roman antiquity – is remarkably intact for its 2000 years. This is despite the fact that Pope Gregory III removed the gilded bronze roof tiles, and Pope Urban VIII ordered its bronze roof stripped and melted down to cast the canopy over the altar in St. Peter's and cannons for Castel Sant'Angelo

Vatican City

Roman forum
The best attractions in Rome include, no doubt, the Roman Forum. Walk, of course, along the central city square with the buildings adjacent to it. This is the Roman Forum. This attraction was once a city market, then the functions of this place expanded. There was a need to build churches, houses, arches here. Of course, not everything has been preserved now, but you will see a lot of interesting things. The Roman Forum is next to the Colosseum.