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Raphael frescoed the prophet Isaiah (1512) on the third pillar on the right, and Jacopo Sansovino provided the pregnant and venerated Madonna del Parto ; but Sant’Agostino’s pride and joy is Caravaggio’s Madonna del Loreto (1603–1606). The master’s strict realism balked at the tradition of depicting Mary riding atop her miraculous flying house (which landed in Loreto). The house is merely suggested by a travertine doorway and flaking stucco wall where Mary, supporting her overly large Christ child, is venerated by a pair of scandalously scruffy pilgrims.

This may represent Bernini’s architectural peak, built between 1658 and 1670, the only construction over which he was able to exercise total artistic control. The wide, shallow space needed an oval plan, counterpoised in the concave curving entrance. The eye is masterfully drawn around the elliptical interior, where canonical elements are blended with sculptural decoration to produce an elegant harmony. For so small a church, the impact is surprisingly grand, made richer by the columns of red marble from Sicily.

How could one of the most impressive 17th-century Baroque churches have been left with an asymmetrical façade? The answer is artistic temperament. Looking at the grandiose pile, it is quickly apparent that only one angel, on the left, supports the upper tier. Upon its completion, Pope Alexander VII dared to criticize the work, and sculptor Cosimo Fancelli refused to produce an angel for the right side. “If he wants another he can make it himself!” was his rejoinder to His Holiness.

When the Jesuits’s new Baroque church was finished in 1685, it still lacked a dome. Master of trompe-l’oeil Andrea Pozzo used his flawless technique to create the illusion of an airy dome on the flat circle of ceiling over the church’s crossing; stand on the yellow marble disc for the full effect, then walk directly under the “dome” to see how skewed the painting actually is. Pozzo also painted the nave vault with the lovely Glory of Sant’Ignazio .

Giacomo della Porta’s Renaissance façade for the 1303 Palazzo della Sapienza, the original seat of Rome’s university, hides the city’s most gorgeous courtyard. The double arcade is closed at the far end by Sant’ Ivo’s highly original façade, an intricate Borromini interplay of concave and convex curves. The crowning glory is the upward spiralling ellipse of the dome. The interior is disappointing, despite its Pietro da Cortona altarpiece. When the courtyard is closed, you can see the dome from Piazza Sant’ Eustachio.

Brought order after civil war, promoted cultural life and left an important architectural legacy (193–211).

Leone (1929–89) turned Italy into America’s Wild West and Clint Eastwood into a star with “spaghetti westerns” such as A Fistful of Dollars .

Cleansed Papal States of corruption (1585–90) and masterminded a Baroque overhaul of Rome.

Affirmed the papacy as the western secular leader and converted England to Christianity (590–604).

Rome’s bishop (440–61) made himself pontifex maximus of the Christian church.