Things to see in Rome

A glimpse of Michelangelo's depiction of The Creation is worth the queues you have to negotiate to visit the Vatican Museums. Built as a private chapel for the popes, Pope Julius II commissioned the precocious artist to paint the ceiling frescoes and work was completed in October 1512. Although eclipsed by Michelangelo's artistry, the Renaissance paintings that line the walls are also masterful works, including some by Michelangelo's own teacher, Ghirlandaio. Highlights of the vast museum include Raphael's Rooms, the Etruscan Museum and the Pio-Clementino Museum, which includes the classical masterpieces Laocoön and the Apollo Belvedere.

It is said that a virgin discovered a three-way (tre-vie) spring here, causing the Trevi fountain to be built. The baroque extravaganza was designed by Nicolò Salvi for Pope Clement XII and completed in 1762. It's pure melodrama, with statues (representing Abundance, Agrippa, Salubrity, the Virgin and Neptune) with a Renaissance palace for their backdrop and craggy rocks in the foreground. Later the extraordinary, foaming fountain achieved iconic status when Anita Ekberg frolicked here in Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1959). Try and come here early in the morning or late at night to avoid the crowds.

The Pantheon is the best-preserved of Rome's ancient monuments. Thought to have been built by Hadrian between AD119 and AD128, this was once a Roman temple. It was converted to a Christian church in AD608. The radius of the dome is exactly equivalent to the height and a 9m (30ft) hole, known as the oculus, allows light into the building. Once the interior would have been decorated by statues of deities - now it houses the tombs of kings Vittorio Emmanuele II and Umberto I, and the painter Raphael. The vast brass doors belonged to the original Roman building.

Inaugurated in AD112-113, Trajan's Forum was the last built and most impressive of the Fora. The complex contained a main square, a basilica and two libraries, and was completed by the markets of the same name, a sort of Roman, and remarkably well-preserved, equivalent of a shopping mall. The markets contained about 150 small shops spread over six storeys. The building now houses the impressive new Museum of the Imperial Fora, containing ancient artefacts discovered in the surrounding forums. Trajan's column (which stands 38m/125ft high) is a remarkable example of Roman art, and was probably set between the two libraries on a base containing the burial urns of the Emperor and his wife. Its beautifully carved reliefs tell the tale of Trajan's war campaigns in Dacia (now Romania). On the top of the column stood a statue of the emperor. This was removed by Pope Sixtus V in 1585 and replaced with a statue of St Peter that faced in the direction of the basilica dedicated to the saint that was being built at the time. The Imperial Fora (the forums of Caesar, August, Nerva and Vespasian) can be seen from the Via dei Fori Imperiali for free.

Just to the east of the Spanish Steps lies an unexpected expanse of bucolic tranquillity - the sculpture-scattered parklands landscaped in the 17th century for Cardinal Scipione Borghese (nephew of Pope Paul V). Villa Borghese includes the city zoo, Piazza di Siena horse-jumping arena, mock ancient temples, and an artificial lake. The park also harbours Rome's most glorious gallery, the Casino Borghese, a treasure trove of sculpture and antiquities, with breathtaking Roman mosaics and masterpieces by Caravaggio, Titian and more, all housed in rococo splendour.

From Monday to Saturday, each day at dawn, stall holders at Rome's best-known and most picturesque fruit and vegetable market set up their wares at Campo de' Fiori. This down-to-earth square is surrounded by tumbledown orange-ochre facades, and is the only major piazza in Rome that is not overlooked by a church. It's a very different proposition to the more grandiose piazzas in other parts of the centro storico (historic centre), and is one of Rome's liveliest nightlife haunts (avoid after big football games). Come sunset, some of the city's liveliest wine bars and trattorie spill their tables out onto the cobbles, as locals and visitors alike flock here to eat and drink beneath the stars.

Rome's municipal museum of modern and contemporary art is located not far from Piazza Fiume north of the city centre in a converted former Peroni brewery. The venue has recently had an extension of 10,000 sq m (107,639 sq ft) designed by French architect Odile Decq, with the courtyard between the brewery buildings topped by a graceful modernist glass pagoda. The venue pulls in big international names as well as young and local artists. Some shows are also displayed at another venue in the former slaughterhouse in Testaccio, MACRO Futura.