Eight elusive Roman treasures still haunting my bucket list

I know Rome well. From my first visit on a school trip, when I ditched classmates more interested in shopping to scramble over the Palatine Hill on my own, I've always wanted to scratch beneath the standard bus-tour itinerary and touch history. Back in the early '00s I spent a whole week there on my own, dedicating myself to niche sights and small attractions unlikely to captivate fellow travellers. 

But Rome is a big city, with prodigious layers of history. It would take a lifetime to see it all. Here's my "bucket list" of eight places I'm keen to go but haven't managed to see in the Eternal City. 

SANTA MARIA DEL POPOLO

From its fabulous Medieval origin story of the exorcism of Nero's ghost to a line of popes who decided to endow the place with masterpieces, this is one of Rome's blockbuster churches. But Rome has a lot of blockbuster churches. Santa Maria del Popolo is the only one with two big Caravaggios facing off in all their dramatic glory. The Cerasi chapel features the Conversion of St. Paul on one side and the Crucifixion of St. Peter on the other. The bad boy of Baroque art rolled out all of his dramatic tricks of lighting and perspective to dominate the small space and pull you into the scene. Presumably you hardly notice the knockout-in-any-other-space Assumption of the Virgin by Carracci over the altar, the frescoed ceiling, and the opulent, gilded plasterwork. But I can't tell you, because every time I have tried to visit the church it's been closed for renovation. Now it's closed for Covid safety. I live in hope.

THE DOMUS AUREA

I suspect the Emperor Nero would have had a soft spot for Caravaggio, given their shared reputations for wild excess, violence and love of art. The last Julio-Claudian emperor built a palace called the Domus Aurea for himself that he set out to make an architectural and artistic wonder of the world. Its marble walls were studded with gold and gemstones and it had a famous dining pavilion with open sides and a rotating dome. It was lost for centuries before being re-discovered in the Renaissance. Much of the classically-inspired style of the time comes from artists ... including Michelangelo and Raphael ,,, who lowered themselves into the underground chambers, copied the decorations they found there and used them prolifically in their work. It was only opened to the public in 1999, and then floods in 2006 closed it down for more years. It now appears to be re-opened, and is run as part of the archeological park that includes the colosseum, but the "buy tickets" link leads to a 404 message.

PALAZZO FARNESE

Many a visitor to Rome has stood in the Campo dei Fiori and looked up into the windows of the French Embassy ... aka the Palazzo Farnese ... slack jawed at the glittering interiors on display. It is a famous treasure house of art, particularly noted for its ceiling fresco cycle on the Loves of the Gods by Annibale Carracci. The facade has been copied repeatedly by architects around the world. And opera fans know it as the place where Scarpia attempted to seduce Tosca before she killed him. In recent years the French have started to offer guided tours, but they are extremely limited and must be booked in advance through the official web page. No options work for my next trip, so my wait continues.

THE MUSEUM OF ROMAN CIVILISATION IN EUR

EUR is a business and residential district built by Mussolini in anticipation of a World's Fair that never happened. Its collection of distinctive buildings in Fascist neo-classical style has always intrigued me and would definitely be worth a wander on a day when you didn't have other things on your Roman priority list. (I haven't had one of those yet.) The key reason to make the trip is a model. The most famous display in the Museo Della Civilta Romana shows the Rome of 300 AD in astonishing detail at 1/250 scale. Though few tourists make it to suburbia to see the physical model, they'll see it repeatedly throughout their visit. It is the source for all of those guidebooks and display panels that show you what the ruins you're looking at used to look like. Ridley Scott even used bits of it in Gladiator. Sadly, the museum has been closed for renovation since 2014, though news reports say the work itself didn't start for another three years, and no date has been announced for re-opening. (I suspect you're noticing a pattern of inaccessibility here.)  

VIA APPIA

The Appian Way connected Rome to the port of Brindisi, jumping off point for the Eastern Mediterranean. It was one of multiple major arteries leading in and out of the city, but a quirk of history means this is the only one that still exists for picturesque stretches as Roman road bordered by Roman monuments. Those monuments are often impressive tombs. Romans forbid burial inside their cities, tending to commemorate their dead along the roads just outside city gates. What was then on the outskirts of the city is now a regional park ... the second-largest urban park in Europe ... that protects landscape and ruins around the road up to the 10th Roman milestone. It's a well-known though rarely crowded spot for a walk. Traffic is still allowed on part of the road but there's not supposed to be much, and it's closed to motor vehicles on Sundays. I did come this way to visit Christian catacombs as a child, but I've always dreamed of a leisurely meander to check out the tombs. Though this Vespa tour looks like a more stylish and efficient way of getting around.

PALAZZO MASSIMO

Some of the choicest pieces of art from ancient Rome have been collected and put on display in this relatively new museum, a branch of the Museo Nazionale Romano created from a derelict palace at the turn of this century.  From the website, it looks like this is probably the best concentration of Roman sculpture outside the Vatican museum; in fact they share a few, since most great Roman statues were copies of Greek originals. But the main attraction for me are the frescos from the house of Livia. I've only seen examples on loan to a travelling exhibition in Paris, but never seen them all or in their home city. I do know they set decorative trends for nearly a century, and are gorgeous. To be honest, I never even knew where they lived (and suspect they were in storage for a long time). This is probably my easiest visit to accomplish next trip, as both the museum and our hotel are near the main train station.

CINECITTA

The largest film studio in Europe, Cinecitta's early days gave us classics like Ben-Hur, La Dolce Vita and Roman Holiday. In the modern era the studio has continued with film (I'm highly amused that Gangs of New York was made here) but also branched into TV. Both Rome and The Young/New Pope series were filmed here on sets that delivered a completely convincing Ancient Rome and Vatican City. The Cinecitta studio tour has multiple routes for exploration including views into the production process and a costume collection. But I suppose most visitors are here for the sets: ancient Rome, the temple of Jerusalem and 1400s Florence. There's also the re-creation of an American S-33 submarine used in the film U-571, which I suspect will be of more interest to my husband than to me. (Although having looked up the film and seen that it stars both Matthew McConaughey and Bon Jovi in the full flower of youth, I could be persuaded to watch the movie.)

QUARTIERE COPPEDE

This 31,000 square metre suburban district was designed by a single architect, Gino Coppede, in the early 20th century. Given the photos I've seen, he's Rome's unsung version of Gaudi, and much of the highly-decorated Art Nouveau/historic mish-mash here reminds me of bits of Barcelona. Or Disney fairy tale film sets. While I know I would enjoy a wander around, my real ambition is to find a wonderful VRBO apartment in the district and stay here for a week or two. During which I would concentrate on getting through the list above, while also visiting old favourites.