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Built over an ancient temple of wisdom, this is Rome’s only Florentine Gothic church, built around 1280. In the 16th century it was the stronghold of the Inquisition in Rome. Among its great art is Michelangelo’s Risen Christ , created nude but now sporting a skewed, gilt-bronze loincloth. The body of St Catherine of Siena, who convinced the papacy to return from France in 1377, reclines under the altar.

Most visitors seek out this church as the setting of the first act of Puccini’s opera Tosca , but the Counter-Reformation giant is also important in its own right. It has the city’s second-largest dome, a flamboyant Baroque façade and some wonderful frescoes by Domenichino inside.

Should the opportunity arise, don’t miss seeing the basilica’s cavernous interior when all the lights are on – only then can you fully appreciate this giant jewel-box of colour (see Features of St Peter’s Basilica).

St Peter’s colonnade and Castel Sant’Angelo can be seen from Michelangelo’s dome (see The Dome).

Views spill down the steps to the tourist-filled piazza (see The Spanish Steps and Piazza di Spagna).

The famous Red Wall behind which Peter was supposedly buried was discovered under the Vatican in the 1940s (see Crypt).

A little gem of gracious living, decorated by some of the greatest artists of the Renaissance, including Raphael. The loggias are now glassed in to protect the precious frescoes, but they were originally open, embodying the ideal of blending indoor and outdoor spaces – a concept borrowed from ancient Roman villa designers.

Intended for hedonistic pleasure, this was a perfect papal retreat where Pope Julius III could indulge his tastes for young boys and Classical statuary. Designed by Vignola, Ammannati and Vasari, this 16th-century marvel is all loggias, fountains and gardens.

A different panorama, near Rome’s observatory above Piazzale Clodio, taking in the city and hills beyond from the northwest.