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The water spouting from Bernini’s Triton is puny compared to the gushes rising from Glaucus in this huge fountain and traffic circle. The fountain is surrounded by naiads and horses in this 1888 confection by Mario Rutelli (grandfather of Francesco, the city’s mayor from 1993 to 2001).

The statues ringing Bernini’s theatrical 1651 centrepiece symbolize four rivers representing the continents: the Ganges (Asia, relaxing), Danube (Europe, turning to steady the obelisk), Rio de la Plata (the Americas, bald and reeling), and the Nile (Africa, whose head is hidden since the river’s source was then unknown). The obelisk, balancing over a sculptural void, is a Roman-era fake, its Egyptian granite carved with the hieroglyphic names of Vespasian, Titus and Domitian.

One of Europe’s greatest small museums, worth seeing for its setting alone, is home to Rome’s best collection of early Bernini sculptures.

The best of the private collection galleries in Rome. In addition to paintings by Rubens, Correggio, Tintoretto, Carracci and Brueghel, star works include Caravaggio’s Mary Magdalene , Rest on the Flight into Egypt , and Young St John the Baptist (a copy he made of his Capitoline version); Titian’s Salome with the Head of John the Baptist ; and Bernini’s bust of Pope Innocent X.

Hollywood director Martin Scorsese spent $100 million to recreate 1840s New York and an ocean liner at the Cinecittà studios for his 2002 film.

A windy piazza hosts the prototype Counter-Reformation church. Enormous and ornate, it’s meant to convince the wayward of the pre-eminence of the Jesuit faith. The façade is elegant, but the interior is the major dazzler – first impressions are of vibrant gold, bathed in sunlight. Then there’s the vision of angels and saints being sucked into heaven through a miraculous hole in the roof. The tomb of Ignatius, the order’s founder, is adorned with the world’s largest chunk of lapis lazuli.

This long ridge separating Trastevere from the Vatican offers some of the best views of Rome (see Romantic Spots). Its two equestrian monuments celebrate Garibaldi and his wife Anita, who is buried underneath.

The Eternal City is laid out at your feet from a lover’s lane perch across the Tiber.

The prolific American writer (b.1925) has been a resident of Rome and Ravello, south of Naples, for decades. His Roman experiences have informed such books as The Judgment of Paris ,Julian and his memoir Palimpsest .

A great builder and traveller, Hadrian (117–38) revived Greek ideals, including the fashion of growing a beard.