For a Caravaggio without the crowds, make a beeline to this early Renaissance church, which harbors some magnificent art behind its restrained white facade. Its most famous work is Caravaggio's Madonna dei Pellegrini (Madonna of the Pilgrims; 1604–06), in the first chapel on the left. This celebrated masterpiece caused uproar when it was unveiled in 1604 due to its depiction of the Virgin Mary's two devoted pilgrims as filthy, badly dressed beggars.
Raphael, painting almost a century before, provoked no such scandal with his fresco of Isaiah, visible on the third pillar on the left side of the nave.
Also in the basilica is Sansovino's 1521 Madonna del Parto (Madonna of Childbirth). Portraying the Virgin Mary with baby Jesus, this sculpture is a favorite with expectant mums who traditionally pray to it for a safe pregnancy.