Here's one of the few photos from Rome I have access to (most are locked up in an ancient laptop with a cracked screen--getting them off there has been on my to-do list for a while). This is taken from the Piazza del Campidoglio, possibly the most architecturally pleasing piazza in the world. That's the horrible Vittorio Emannuele monument on the far left (it's just behind the piazza), the extremely ancient church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli in the middle, and Palazzo Nuovo on the right. (You can also see the back of one of the statues of the Dioscuri.)

Palazzo Nuovo is one of three buildings around the square that house the Capitoline Museums, which is worth a visit if you are at all interested in ancient sculpture. They own well-known pieces like the Dying Gaul (if you duck you can see his cheesy mustache) and the Colossus of Constantine. However, I was most charmed by a room full of anonymous busts of men and women. Detached from any sort of pressure to appreciate historical and aesthetic significance, the life of a young woman with a gravity-defying hairdo seems much less remote.