Piazza del Campidoglio

This guide to Piazza del Campidoglio in Rome opens with the bronze rider at its center, Marcus Aurelius, and the case of mistaken identity that let him survive centuries of melted-down Roman statues. It traces how Pope Paul III, embarrassed by Emperor Charles V's procession up this hill, summoned Michelangelo to turn two awkwardly angled buildings into one trapezoidal piazza. You'll hear about the goats that once grazed this slope. Stand at the center of the star-patterned oval to take in all three palaces at once.