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Mausoleo di Augusto
What was once one of the most imposing monuments in ancient Rome is now an unkempt mound of earth, overgrown with weeds and covered with litter. Built by Augustus in 28 BC, the mausoleum originally measured 87m in diameter and had two obelisks either side of the entrance. Although designed for Augustus, it was the emperor's favourite nephew and heir Marcellus who was first interred here in 23 BC. Augustus joined him 37 years later in AD 14.
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Mausoleo di Cecilia Metella
Difficult to miss, this massive drum of a mausoleum, measuring 11m in height and 30m in diameter, encloses a burial chamber (built for the daughter of Quintus Metellus Creticus) that is now roofless. The walls are made of travertine and the rather sorry-looking interior is decorated with a sculpted frieze featuring Gaelic shields, ox skulls and festoons. In the 14th century it was converted into a fort by the Caetani family, who used to threaten passing traffic into paying a toll.
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Maxxi
Sporting concrete curves from Anglo-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, this much anticipated, much delayed museum of 21st-century art and architecture is now scheduled to officially open in summer 2009. When the doors do finally open, you can expect exhibitions spanning anything from urban architecture to the cyborg body.
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Mercati di Traiano & Museo dei Fori Imperiali
Incorporating the Great Hall of the 2nd-century Trajan markets (an ancient three-level shopping mall), the striking new Museum of the Imperial Fora showcases ancient artefacts found in Trajan's Forum and the surrounding fora of Cesare (Caesar), Nerva and Augusto (Augustus). In its heyday, Trajan's Forum boasted libraries, a temple, a triumphal arch, Rome's largest basilica, the Colonna di Traiano and the impressive market complex.
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Mosque
To the northwest of Villa Ada, Paolo Portoghesi's vast postmodernist mosque sits amid the greenery of the posh Parioli district. One of Europe's largest mosques - it extends for some 30,000 sq metres - it was inaugurated in 1995, 11 years after the first stone was laid in 1984. It's open daily for Muslims to pray and at the stated times for visitors.
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Museo Barracco di Scultura Antica
One for the specialists, this charming museum boasts a fascinating collection of early Mediterranean sculpture. You'll find Greek, Etruscan, Roman, Assyrian, Cypriot and Egyptian works, all of which were donated to the state by Baron Giovanni Barracco in 1902.
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Museo Carlo Bilotti
The art collection of billionaire business magnate Carlo Bilotti is housed here, in the Orangery of Villa Borghese. It's a small collection (only 22 pieces), but it's interesting and well-presented with explanatory panels in English and Italian. Paintings range from a Warhol portrait of Bilotti's wife and daughter to 18 works by Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978), one of Italy's most important 20th-century artists.
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Museo Criminologico
Boost your revenge fantasies at Rome's Criminology Museum, with its motley assortment of vintage torture devices, weapons and executioners' knives. Eye-up fake Picassos and confiscated smut, read about the gun-toting contessa and peek into the infamous trunk used in the 1964 kidnapping of Israeli spy Mordechai Louk.
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Museo d'Arte Contemporanea di Roma (Macro)
Contemporary art displays in a former brewery are what you pay for here. A slick, light-filled gallery, it was designed by Odile Decq to house an interesting collection of post-1960s art, including works by all of Italy's important post-WWII artists. Temporary exhibitions are also held here, many of which highlight the works of emerging international artists.
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Museo del Palazzo di Venezia
Designed by Francesco del Borgo in the 15th century, Rome's first great Renaissance palace is home to this museum, which holds an eclectic collection of Byzantine and early Renaissance paintings, camp ceramics, tapestries, arms and armour. Major exhibitions are often held in Sala del Mappamondo (Mussolini's ex-office).
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Museo dell'Ara Pacis
After years of controversy and on-off construction, architect Richard Meier's luminous glass-and-travertine pavilion was finally unveiled in 2006. The first modern construction in Rome's centro storico since WWII, it now threatens to upstage what it's meant to highlight - the Ara Pacis Augustae (Altar of Peace), Augustus' great monument to the peace he established at home and abroad.
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Museo della Civiltà Romana
A proven kid-pleaser, EUR's most impressive museum was founded by Mussolini in 1937 to glorify Imperial Rome. A hulking place with huge echoing halls, it contains a number of intriguing displays. The best is a giant scale recreation of 4th-century Rome, but there are also detailed models of the city's main buildings, an absorbing cross-section of the Colosseum and casts of the reliefs on the Colonna di Traiano.
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Museo delle Arti e Tradizioni Popolari
You might well have to wake up the ticket seller at this sleepy museum dedicated to folk art and rural tradition. Not one of Rome's great museums, it's nevertheless more interesting than it sounds, with an eclectic collection of agricultural and artisan tools, clothing, musical instruments and a room full of carnival costumes and artefacts.
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Museo delle Cere
Madame Tussaud's it ain't, but Rome's waxworks museum does at least provide some light-hearted relief from the highbrow culture all around you. Ranging from Francesco Totti to Snow White, the 250 wax figures include poets, politicians, murderers and priests.
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Museo di Roma
Housed in the 18th-century Palazzo Braschi, the Museo di Roma's eclectic collection of paintings, photographs, etchings, clothes and furniture charts the history of Rome from the Middle Ages to the first half of the 20th century. Of more interest than the collection, however, is the palazzo itself.
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Museo Di Roma In Trastevere
Trastevere's traditions and folklore are celebrated at this small museum. The 1st-floor permanent collection comprises several recreations of everyday scenes from 19th-century Trastevere and a small selection of watercolours depicting communal life. It's all very kitsch but the kids might enjoy it and it's been done well. The downstairs rooms are often used to stage temporary exhibitions.
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Museo e Galleria Borghese
This 'queen of all private collections' was formed by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the most passionate and knowledgeable art collector of his day. The collection - including works by Caravaggio, Bernini, Botticelli and Raphael - and the mansion were acquired by the Italian state in 1902; a lengthy restoration took place in the 1990s.
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Museo Ebraico di Roma
The historical, cultural and artistic heritage of Rome's Jewish community is chronicled in this small but engrossing museum. Housed in the city's early-20th-century synagogue which, since a terrorist attack in 1982, has a permanent carabinieri guard stationed outside, it presents harrowing reminders of the hardships experienced by Europe's oldest Jewish community.
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Museo Nazionale d'Arte Orientale
Swap continents at Rome's little-known but impressive National Museum of Oriental Art. Set in a fabulously camp palazzo (palace), its collection of near- and far-Eastern treasures includes carved ancient Afghani marble, richly hued 15th-century Kubachi ceramics, painted Tibetan fans from the 11th to 18th centuries and intricate Nepalese textiles. English-language information is wanting, but the pieces speak for themselves.
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Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo (Maxxi)
Housed in a former army barracks and built to an avant-garde design by Anglo-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, MAXXI is one of two modern art galleries the city authorities hoped would electrify Rome's contemporary art scene (the other being MACRO). Unfortunately, it's not yet running at full tilt, opening only for temporary exhibitions by contemporary Italian and international artists.
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Museo Nazionale delle Paste Alimentari
Pasta is celebrated in all its fascinating glory at this wonderfully straight-faced museum. It's the only museum in the world dedicated to more than two millennia of pasta and it takes its responsibilities seriously - there are exhibitions explaining the production process, the differences between various pastas and how best to cook them. A highlight is the Neapolitan Room, with its photos of film stars tucking into plateloads of the stuff.
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Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia
This is the ideal place to bone up on Etruscan history. Italy's finest collection of pre-Roman treasures is bilingually labelled in Pope Julius III's 16th-century pleasure palace. The impressive villa and gardens were mostly the work of Vignola, Vasari and the artist Ammannat. Michelangelo also chipped in before getting on the wrong side of the irascible pope. It has pretty frescoed loggias and a much-imitated nymphaeum .
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Museo Nazionale Romano: Crypta Balbi
This, the latest addition to the Museo Nazionale Romano's stable of museums, provides a fascinating illustration of the city's multilayered history. More than the exhibits, it's the building's structure that's the main point of interest.
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Museo Nazionale Romano: Palazzo Altemps
Palazzo Altemps dates to the late 15th century but takes its name from the Altemps family who purchased it in 1568. A beautiful building in its own right, it was given a major makeover in the 1990s and today houses the best of the Museo Nazionale Romano's formidable collection of classical sculpture.
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Museo Nazionale Romano: Terme di Diocleziano
The ruins over the road from Piazza dei Cinquecento, outside Termini, are the remains of the Terme di Diocleziano (Diocletian's Baths), the largest baths complex in ancient Rome. Covering about 13 hectares and with a capacity of 3000 people, the complex comprised baths, libraries, concert halls and gardens. It was completed in the early 4th century but fell into disrepair after invaders destroyed the aqueduct that fed the baths in about AD 536.
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