List of tourist attractions in Rome

Rome is regarded as one of the world's most beautiful ancient cities, and contains vast amounts of priceless works of art, palaces, museums, parks, churches, gardens, basilicas, temples, villas, piazzas, theatres, and other venues in general. As one of the world's most important and visited cities, there are numerous popular tourist attractions. In 2005, the city received 19.5 million global visitors, up of 22.1% from 2001.

Churches, Cathedrals and Basilicas

Main article: Churches of Rome

There are over 900 churches in Rome. Here is a list of some of the four most popular and famous:

St Peter's Basilica and Vatican City, in Rome are where the bishop of Rome (pope) resides. The Vatican City is in Italy, however is not part of the country, as it is an independant nation.

Alessandro Galilei's façade for the Basilica of St. John Lateran.

• St Peter's Basilica (Latin: Basilica Sancti Petri), officially known in Italian as the Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano and commonly known as St. Peter's Basilica, is located within the Vatican City. It is found in the Vatican City and a very popular and iconic tourist attraction in Rome. Since the Pope resides there, it is one of the most important centres for Christian pilgrimage, and is commonly regarded as the "home of the Roman Catholic Church", since it is where St Peter set up the first Christian Church. St. Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world, holding 60,000 people. It is also the symbolic "Mother church" of the Catholic Church and is regarded as one of the holiest Christian sites. It has been described as "holding a unique position in the Christian world" and as "the greatest of all churches of Christendom". In Catholic tradition, it is the burial site of its namesake Saint Peter, who was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus and, according to tradition, first Bishop of Rome and therefore first in the line of the papal succession.

• The Basilica of St. John Lateran (Italian: Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano) is the cathedral of the Church of Rome, Italy, and the official ecclesiastical seat of the Bishop of Rome, who is the Pope. Officially named Archibasilica Sanctissimi Salvatoris et Sancti Iohannes Baptista et Evangelista in Laterano (English: Archbasilica of the Most Holy Saviour and Sts. John the Baptist and the Evangelist at the Lateran", Italian: Arcibasilica del Santissimo Salvatore e Santi Giovanni Battista ed Evangelista in Laterano), it is the oldest and ranks first (being the cathedral of Rome) among the four major basilicas of Rome, and holds the title of ecumenical mother church (mother church of the whole inhabited world) among Catholics. The current archpriest of St. John Lateran is Agostino Vallini, Cardinal Vicar General for the Diocese of Rome. The President of the French Republic is ex officio the "first and only honorary canon" of the basilica, a title inherited from the Kings of France who held it since Henry IV.

• The Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore (Italian: Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore, Latin: Basilica Sanctae Mariae Majoris ad Nives), is an ancient Roman Catholic Marian basilica of Rome. It is one of the four major or four papal basilicas, which, together with St. Lawrence outside the Walls, were formerly referred to as the five "patriarchal basilicas" of Rome , associated with the five ancient patriarchal sees of Christendom (see Pentarchy). The other three papal or major basilicas are St. John Lateran, St. Peter and St. Paul outside the Walls. The Liberian Basilica (another title for the church) is one of the tituli, presided over by a patron—in this case Pope Liberius—that housed the major congregations of early Christians in Rome. Santa Maria Maggiore is the only Roman basilica that retained the core of its original structure, left intact despite several additional construction projects and damage from the earthquake of 1348.

• The Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls or St Paul-without-the-Walls (Italian: Basilica Papale di San Paolo fuori le Mura) is one of four churches considered to be the great ancient basilicas of Rome. As well as St Paul's, the Roman Catholic church counts among the four papal basilicas or major basilicas of Rome: the basilicas of St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, and St. Peter's. Archbishop Francesco Monterisi, named in 2009, is the current archpriest of this basilica.

Palaces, Museums, Fountains, Piazzas, Parks, Villas, Monuments and Buildings

A list of popular monuments in Rome:

The interior of the Vatican Museums.

The Trevi Fountain.

The Spanish Steps, seen from Piazza di Spagna

• The Vatican Museums (Italian: Musei Vaticani), in Viale Vaticano in Rome, inside the Vatican City, are among the greatest museums in the world, since they display works from the immense collection built up by the Roman Catholic Church throughout the centuries. Pope Julius II founded the museums in the 16th century. The Sistine Chapel and the Stanze della Segnatura decorated by Raphael are on the visitor route through the Vatican Museums. As of 2007, they were visited by 4,310,083 people for the year, making the Vatican Museums the world's 37th most visited tourist destination.

• The Trevi Fountain (Italian: Fontana di Trevi) is a fountain in the Trevi rione in the city, Italy. Standing 25.9 meters (85 feet) high and 19.8 meters (65 feet) wide, it is the largest Baroque fountain in the city. Approximately 3,000 euros are thrown into the fountain each day. The money has been used to subsidize a supermarket for Rome's needy. However, there are regular attempts to steal coins from the fountain.

• The Spanish Steps (Italian: Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti) are a set of steps in Rome, Italy, climbing a steep slope between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated by the church of Trinità dei Monti. The Scalinata is the longest and widest staircase in Europe. The monumental stairway of 138 steps was built with French diplomat Étienne Gueffier’s bequeathed funds of 20,000 scudi, in 1723–1725, linking the Bourbon Spanish Embassy to the Holy See, today still located in Palazzo Monaldeschi in the piazza below, with the Trinità dei Monti above.

• Piazza Navona is a city square in Rome, Italy. It follows the plan of an ancient Roman circus, the 1st century Stadium of Domitian, where the Romans came to watch the agones ("games"): It was known as 'Circus Agonalis' (competition arena). It is believed that over time the name changed to 'in agone' to 'navone' and eventually to 'navona'.

• Villa Borghese gardens is a large landscape garden in the naturalistic English manner in Rome, containing a number of buildings, museums (see Galleria Borghese) and attractions. It is the second largest public park in Rome (80 hectares or 148 acres) after that of the Villa Doria Pamphili. The gardens were developed for the Villa Borghese Pinciana ("Borghese villa on the Pincian Hill"), built by the architect Flaminio Ponzio, developing sketches by Scipione Borghese, who used it as a villa suburbana, a party villa, at the edge of Rome, and to house his art collection. The gardens as they are now were remade in the early nineteenth century.

• The Capitoline Museums (Italian Musei Capitolini) are a group of art and archeological museums in Piazza del Campidoglio, on top of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, Italy. The museums are contained in three palazzi surrounding a central trapezoidal piazza in a plan conceived by Michelangelo Buonarroti in 1536 and executed over a period of over 400 years. The history of the museums can be traced to 1471, when Pope Sixtus IV donated a collection of important ancient bronzes to the people of Rome and located them on Capitoline Hill. Since then, the museums' collection has grown to include a large number of ancient Roman statues, inscriptions, and other artifacts; a collection of medieval and Renaissance art; and collections of jewels, coins, and other items. The museums are owned and operated by the municipality of Rome.

Ancient Roman sites

List of principal Roman archaeological sites:

The Colosseum, Rome's second and the world's 39th most popular tourist attraction, with 4 million tourists a year.

The interior of the Pantheon in the 18th century, painted by Giovanni Paolo Panini.

• The Colosseum or Roman Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre (Latin: Amphitheatrum Flavium, Italian Anfiteatro Flavio or Colosseo), is an elliptical amphitheatre in the center of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire. It is one of the greatest works of Roman architecture and Roman engineering. It is a wonder of the medieval world a UNESCO World Heritage Site), and Rome's second and the world's 39th most popular tourist attraction, with 4 million tourists a year..

• The Pantheon (Template:Pron-en or /ˈpænθi.ən/, Latin: Pantheon, from Greek: Πάνθεον, meaning "Every god") is a building in Rome, originally built by Marcus Agrippa as a temple to all the gods of Ancient Rome, and rebuilt in the early 2nd century AD. A near-contemporary writer, Cassius Dio, speculates that the name comes from the statues of many gods placed around the building, or from the resemblance of the dome to the heavens. The intended degree of inclusiveness of the dedication to "all" the gods is debated. Since the French Revolution, when the church of Sainte-Geneviève, Paris, was deconsecrated and turned into a secular monument, the Panthéon, the generic term pantheon may be applied to any building in which illustrious dead are honoured or buried. The building is circular with a portico of three ranks of huge granite Corinthian columns (eight in the first rank and two groups of four behind) under a pediment opening into the rotunda, under a coffered, concrete dome, with a central opening (oculus) open to the sky. Almost two thousand years after it was built, the Pantheon's dome is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome . The height to the oculus and the diameter of the interior circle are the same, 43.3 metres (142 ft). A rectangular structure links the portico with the rotunda. It is one of the best preserved of all Roman buildings. It has been in continuous use throughout its history, and since the 7th century, the Pantheon has been used as a Roman Catholic church dedicated to "St. Mary and the Martyrs" but informally known as "Santa Maria Rotonda."

• The Roman Forum (Latin: Forum Romanum), sometimes known by its original Latin name, is located between the Palatine hill and the Capitoline hill of the city of Rome. It is the central area around which the ancient Roman civilization developed. Citizens referred to the location as the "Forum Magnum" or just the "Forum". The oldest and most important structures of the ancient city are located in the forum, including its ancient former royal residency, the Regia, and the surrounding complex of the Vestal virgins. The Old Republic had its formal Comitium there where the senate, as well as Republican government began. The forum served as a city square and central hub where the people of Rome gathered for justice, and faith. The forum was also the economic hub of the city and considered to be the center of the Republic and Empire.