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Piazza del Campidoglio
The magnificent centrepiece of the Campidoglio, Michelangelo's 16th-century piazza is considered by many Rome's most beautiful square. Commissioned by Pope Paul III and designed by Michelangelo in 1538, it took more than a 100 years to build and was completed in the late 17th century. There are various ways to reach it but the most dramatic is via the Cordonata, the graceful staircase that leads up from Piazza d'Aracoeli.
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Piazza del Popolo
Perch yourself on a bench in this vast, vibrant square and you'll see all of Rome pass by: commuters rushing to the metro, excitable adolescents, dressed-to-kill shoppers, flagging tourists, buskers and black-clad carabinieri (police).
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Piazza del Quirinale
A wonderful spot to enjoy a glowing Roman sunset, this bare and uneven piazza sits on the summit of the Quirinale hill. The obelisk in the centre was moved here from the Mausoleo di Augusto in 1786 and is flanked by 5.5m statues of Castor and Pollux reining in a couple of huge rearing horses. Roman copies of 5th-century-BC Greek originals, they were moved from the Baths of Constantine in the 16th century by Pope Sixtus V.
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Piazza della Repubblica
Flanked by grand neoclassical colonnades, Piazza della Repubblica was laid out as part of Rome's postunification makeover. It follows the lines of the semicircular exedra (benched portico) of Diocletian's baths complex and was, in fact, originally known as Piazza Esedra. The Fontana delle Naiadi, in its centre, was designed by Mario Rutelli and features a central figure of Glaucus wrestling a fish, surrounded by four naiads or water nymphs.
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Piazza di Spagna & The Spanish Steps
The favourite flirting ground of Roman teenagers, Piazza di Spagna and the famous Spanish Steps (Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti) have been a magnet for foreigners since the 18th century. In the late 1700s the area was much loved by English on the Grand Tour and was known to locals as er ghetto de l'inglesi (the English ghetto). It's busy from early morning until the small hours.
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Piazza Navona
Lined with Baroque palaces, this vast, beautiful piazza was laid out on the ruins of a stadium built by Domitian. In Renaissance times, it would be flooded on festive occasions so mock naval battles could be staged. Used for festivals and sport, including jousts, until the late 15th century, it was then paved over and turned into a marketplace and public square.
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Piazza Sant'Ignazio
When we say that Filippo Raguzzini's 18th-century square steals the stage, we're serious. Resembling a theatrical set, complete with exits into 'the wings' at either end of its northern side, it's also home to 17th-century Chiesa di Sant'Ignazio di Loyola (h - & - ) and its deceptive trompe l'oeil ceiling perspective by Andrea Pozzo in the 'dome'.
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Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere
Trastevere's focal square is a prime people-watching spot. By day it's full of mums with strollers, chatting locals and guidebook-toting tourists; by night it's the domain of foreign students getting their first taste of la dolce vita and young Romans out for a good time.
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Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II
Rome's biggest square (Piazza San Pietro is in the Vatican and so doesn't count as Rome), Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II was laid out in the late 19th century, shortly after Italian unification. Originally an upmarket residential district, it's now the noisy centre of Rome's most multiethnic district.
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Pincio Hill
The view of St Peter's from the Pincio just has to be seen to be believed. This elegant park with its avenues of shady trees gets its name from the Pinci famaily, who owned it in the 4th century. It's a popular place for a weekend passagiata .
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Piramide di Caio Cestio
Sticking out like, well, an Egyptian pyramid, this distinctive landmark stands in the Aurelian Wall at the side of a massive traffic junction. A 36m-high marble-and-brick tomb, it was built for Gaius Cestius, a 1st-century-BC magistrate, and some 200 years later was incorporated into the Aurelian fortification near Porta San Paolo. The surrounding area is today known as Piramide.
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Ponte Milvio
A pretty footbridge with a colourful market on its northern side, Ponte Milvio was the scene of one of the great events in Roman history: Constantine's defeat of Maxentius in AD 312. It was first built in 109 BC to carry Via Flaminia over the Tiber and survived intact until 1849, when Garibaldi's troops blew it up to stop advancing French soldiers. Pope Pius IX had it rebuilt a year later.
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Ponte Sant'Angelo
Hadrian built the Ponte Sant'Angelo across the Tiber in AD 136 to provide an approach to his mausoleum, but it was Bernini who managed to bring it to life. In the 17th century he and his pupils sculpted the figures of angels that now line this pedestrian-only bridge. The three central arches of the bridge are part of the original structure; the end arches were restored and enlarged in 1892-94 during the construction of the Lungotevere embankments.
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Porta Maggiore
Porta Maggiore, also known as Porta Prenestina, was built by Claudius in AD 52. Then, as now, it was a major road junction under which passed the two main southbound roads, Via Prenestina and Via Labicana (modern-day Via Casilina).
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Porta Pia
Porta Pia was Michelangelo's last architectural work, commissioned by Pius IV in 1561. Three centuries later, in 1870, it was the scene of fighting as Italian troops breached the surrounding walls to wrest the city from the pope and incorporate it into a unified Italy.
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Porta San Sebastiano
Marking the start of Via Appia Antica, the 5th-century Porta San Sebastiano is the largest of the city gates in the Aurelian Wall. Originally it was known as Porta Appia but took on its current name in honour of the thousands of pilgrims who passed under it on their way to the Catacombe di San Sebastiano. Inside is a little museum illustrating the history of the wall.
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Porta Settimiana
Marking the start of Via della Lungara, the 16th-century road that connects Trastevere with the Borgo, Porta Settimiana was built in 1498 by Pope Alexander VI over a small passageway in the Aurelian Wall. It was later rebuilt by Pope Pius VI in 1798.
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Portico d'Ottavia
You'll need to set your imagination working to turn the columns and fragmented pediment you see today into the enormous square colonnade that the Portico d'Ottavia once was. Originally erected by a builder called Octavius in 146 BC, the portico was rebuilt in 23 BC by Augustus who, surprisingly, kept the name in honour of his sister Octavia.
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Quartiere Coppedè
If Gaudí and the Grimm Brothers had gone into town-planning together, suburbia would probably look like this. Best entered from the corner of Via Tagliamento and Via Dora, this compact quarter is a mesmerising mishmash of Tuscan turrets, Liberty sculptures, Moorish arches, Gothic gargoyles, frescoed façades, and palm-fringed gardens - all designed by little-known Florentine architect Gino Coppedè in the 1920s.
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Roman Forum
Built over the course of 900 years, the Roman Forum (Foro Romano) was the commercial, political and religious centre of ancient Rome from the Republican era until the 4th century AD. During medieval times the area was used to graze cattle and it was plundered for its precious marble.
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Roman Insula
At the bottom of the Campidoglio, next to the Aracoeli staircase, are the ruins of a Roman apartment block or insula , typically used to house the poor. The unexcavated ground-floor shops of this building are now 9m below the current road level.
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Scala Santa & Sancta Sanctorum
Over the road from the Basilica di San Giovanni, this is one of the few religious sites in the city with a genuinely spiritual atmosphere. The staircase is said to be the one Jesus walked up in Pontius Pilate's palace in Jerusalem. Brought to Rome by St Helena in the 4th century, it is considered so sacred that you can only climb it on your knees, saying a prayer on each of the 28 steps. Indulgence is granted to pilgrims on Fridays in Lent.
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Scavi Archeologici di Ostia Antica
Rome's answer to Pompeii, Scavi Archeologici di Ostia Antica offers a well-preserved insight into ancient Rome's once-thriving port, an easy 25km southwest of the city. You could happily spend a few hours here, snooping around the ancient restaurants, shops, laundries and houses. Highlights include mosaic-laced merchant guilds' offices on Piazzale delle Corporazioni, an uncannily hip-looking Thermopolium (bar), and the Terme di Foro, with its roomful of ancient toilets.
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Scuderie Papali al Quirinale
Across the Piazza del Quirinale, Italian architect Gae Aulenti (of Musée d'Orsay fame) reworked the palace's former stables. The resulting Scuderie Papali al Quirinale is one of Rome's slickest exhibition venues, host to shows spanning pop art to Renaissance retrospectives.
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Spanish Steps
Designed by Italian Francesco De Sanctis, financed by a French diplomat, and named after the nearby Spanish Embassy, Rome's most famous staircase (completed in 1725) keeps it global with daily hordes of camera-clicking tourists, migrant hawkers and crush-struck local teens. Head to the top for Chiesa della Trinità dei Monti, or to the bottom for the boat-shaped Barcaccia (1627) fountain on Piazza di Spagna, attributed to Pietro Bernini (father of the famous Gian Lorenzo).
