Auditorium Parco della Musica

Architect Renzo Piano’s auditorium is just as audacious as his Pompidou centre in Paris. Three scarab-shaped buildings squat around a 3000-capacity amphitheatre, looking like alien spaceships landed in a northern Rome suburb. An amazing 2.5 million spectators flocked here annually, making it Europe’s most popular arts centre. It’s super-sleek and uber-chic, yet the excited throng is as wide a cross-section as you’d see on the Metro, a reflection of the democratic pricing (tickets cost from €5), and the programme, which encompasses anything from PJ Harvey to Puccini. Enter any of the halls (the largest is Sala Santa Cecilia, with 2756 seats), with their lipstick-red seating and billowing wooden interiors, and you’re sold before anyone plays a note. The acoustics are amazing: Piano studied the interiors of lutes and violins as part of his design process. To get to the auditorium take tram 2 from Piazzale Flaminio or bus M from Stazione Termini, which departs every 15 minutes between 5pm and the end of the last performance.