9 Best Sights in Esquilino and Environs, Rome

The cathedral of Rome is San Giovanni in Laterano, not St. Peter's. The church was built here by Emperor Constantine 10 years before he built the church dedicated to Peter, making it the ecclesiastical seat of the Bishop of Rome (the pope). But thanks to vandals, earthquakes, and fires, today's building owes most of its form to 16th- and 17th-century restorations, including an interior designed by Baroque genius Borromini. Colossal statues stand watch over the towering facade: the 12 apostles plus Christ, John the Baptist, and the Virgin Mary.

Some earlier fragments do remain: under the portico on the left stands an ancient statue of Constantine, while the central portal's ancient bronze doors were brought here from the Forum's Curia. The altar's rich Gothic tabernacle, holding what the faithful believe are the heads of saints Peter and Paul, dates from 1367. The last chapel on the left aisle houses the cloister, which is encrusted with 12th-century cosmatesque mosaics. Around the corner stands one of the oldest Christian structures in Rome: Emperor Constantine's octagonal baptistery. Despite several restorations, a 17th-century interior redecoration, and even a 1993 Mafia-related car bombing, the baptistery from AD 315 remains true to its ancient form.

This massive park, technically part of the Parco dell'Appia Antica, was named for the six remaining aqueducts that formed part of the famously elaborate system that carried water to ancient Rome. The park has some serious film cred: it was featured in the opening scene of La Dolce Vita and in a rather memorable scene depicting some avant-garde performance art in La Grande Bellezza. On weekends, it's a popular place for locals to picnic, exercise, and generally enjoy a day out with their kids or dogs.

This church was built on the spot where tradition says Christ appeared to St. Peter as the apostle was fleeing Rome and persuaded him to return and face martyrdom. A paving stone in the church bears an imprint said to have been made by the feet of Christ.

This small nonprofit art foundation is housed inside the turn-of-the-century Cerere factory, which produced pasta until 1960 and embodies San Lorenzo's transition from industrial to artsy. Although the foundation was established in 2004 to promote the work of young contemporary artists, artists have been renting studio space in the factory since the 1970s. Part of the exhibition space has remained raw, which makes for interesting site-specific installations. Check in advance to see what's happening, as exhibitions typically change every couple of months.

If you're keen to delve deeper into Rome's contemporary art scene, come to this stark-white gallery, which represents local and international artists whose work gets shown at international art fairs and prestigious museums like MAXXI and MACRO. The gallery has four exhibitions per year.

Unlike the other mausoleums in the area, this one is much more recent: buried here are the 335 victims of a massacre ordered by the Nazis as retribution for a partisan attack that killed 33 Nazis in March 1944. The tombs are labeled with the names, ages, and occupations of the victims, most of whom had nothing to do with the attack. As you enter the complex and walk through the caves, note the sculpture at the entrance and the bronze gates inside the tunnels. The statue, called The Three Ages of Man, represents the age range of the victims, from the youngest (15 years old) to the oldest (74 years old), while the bronze gates represent the horrific tangle of tortured bodies. A small museum with artifacts from the war sheds some light on the tragedy that took place here.

Rome's first walls were erected in the 6th century BC, but the ancient city greatly expanded over the next few centuries, and when Rome was at its peak, it didn't need walls. In the 3rd century AD, however, Emperor Aurelian commissioned a 12-mile wall to protect the city. Although many considered this a sign of weakness, it was more than a century before those walls were first breached in a siege that would herald the end of the empire. The ancient walls eventually became the fortifications of the papal city and remained in use for 16 centuries until the unification of Italy in 1870. Studding the Aurelian Walls were 18 main gates, the best preserved of which is the Porta di San Sebastiano at the entrance to the Via Appia Antica. This gate is also home to a small museum that allows you to walk a section of the ancient ramparts and take in some truly wonderful views. Note that the museum closes relatively early, at 2 pm.

There are few places dedicated to Second World War history in Rome, but this small museum inside the infamous prison on Via Tasso serves as a poignant reminder of the horrors that conspired here under the Nazi-Fascist regime. In cells where the S.S. tortured partisans and other prisoners, artifacts such as wartime bulletins, letters written by the prisoners, and even bloody garments are displayed as moving testaments to a dark period in history.

The massive, 1st-century-AD arch was built as part of the original Aqua Claudia and then incorporated into the walls hurriedly erected in the late 3rd century as Rome's fortunes began to decline. The great arch of the aqueduct subsequently became a porta (city gate) and gives an idea of the grand scale of ancient Roman public works. On the Piazzale Labicano side, to the east, is the curious Baker's Tomb, erected in the 1st century BC by a prosperous baker (predating both the aqueduct and the city walls); it's shaped like an oven to signal the deceased's trade. The site is now in the middle of a public transport node and is close to Rome's first tram depot (going back to 1889).