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The American writer (1835–1910) spent little time in the Eternal City during his Grand Tour, but his satirical impressions in The Innocents Abroad have become among the most quoted and memorable of any visitor.

Antonioni (b.1912) helped create the Italian New Wave (Red Desert ) and has enjoyed Hollywood success (Blow Up ).

This wall monument is a pale shadow of the elaborate tomb for Julius II that Michelangelo first envisaged and for which he carved this figure. Some claim there is a self-portrait hidden in the flowing beard. Moses is currently undergoing a long restoration but remains visible (see San Pietro in Vincoli).

The Renaissance is known for naturalism, but Michelangelo warped this for artistic effect. Here, Mary is too young, her dead son, achingly thin and small, laid across her voluminous lap. Hearing the work being attributed to better known sculptors, the artist crept into the chapel of St Peter’s one night and carved his name in the band across the Virgin’s chest (see Pietà).

Although he considered himself a sculptor first, Michelangelo managed to turn this almost flat ceiling into a soaring vault peopled with Old Testament prophets and ignudi (nude men). He did it virtually alone, firing all assistants save one to help grind pigments (see Sistine Chapel Works).

Under this church lies a 2nd-century AD shrine to Mithraism, a popular religion among Rome’s soldiers and lower classes while Christianity was gaining with patricians (see Santo Stefano Rotondo).

Rome’s very first power station has been transformed into a remarkable showcase for Greek and Roman statues - parts of the Musei Capitolini collection (see Musei Capitolini) that, until now, were kept in storage. The effect is extraordinary, playing the monolithic might of modern technology off against the noble, human vulnerability of these ancient masterpieces.

Notwithstanding their great beauty, the original motivation for these museums was purely political. When the popes started the first museum here in 1471, it laid claim to Rome’s hopes for civic autonomy – the Palazzo dei Conservatori was the seat of hated papal counsellors, who ran the city by “advising” the Senators. Today the museums are home to a spectacular collection of art.

A bird’s-eye sweep over the archaeological park at Rome’s heart can be seen from here (see Musei Capitolini).

This select collection traces the development of sculptural art in the ancient world. Assyrian and Egyptian works are highlighted, along with Etruscan, Roman and paleo-Christian art. Its original Greek sculpture is second only to the Vatican’s.