4 Best Sights in Villa Borghese, Piazza del Popolo, and Flaminio, Rome

It's toss-up as to which is more magnificent: the museum or the art that lies within it. The luxury-loving Cardinal Scipione Borghese had the museum custom built in 1612 as a showcase for his collection of both antiquities and more "modern" works, including those he commissioned from the masters Caravaggio and Bernini. Today, it's a monument to Roman interior decoration at its most extravagant.

One of the collection's most famous works is Canova's neoclassical sculpture Pauline Borghese as Venus Victorious. The next three rooms hold three key early Baroque sculptures: Bernini's David; Apollo and Daphne; and The Rape of Persephone. All were done when the artist was in his twenties and all illustrate his extraordinary skill. Apollo and Daphne shows the moment when, to aid her escape from the pursuing Apollo, Daphne is turned into a laurel tree. Leaves and twigs sprout from her fingertips as she stretches agonizingly away from Apollo. In The Rape of Persephone, Pluto has either just plucked Persephone (or Proserpina) from her flower-picking or is in the process of returning to Hades with his prize. Note the realistic way his grip causes dimples in Persephone's flesh. This is the stuff that makes the Baroque exciting—and moving. Other Berninis on view include a large, unfinished figure called Verità, or Truth.

Room 8 contains six paintings by Caravaggio, the hotheaded genius who died at age 37. All of his paintings, even the charming Boy with a Basket of Fruit, have an undercurrent of darkness. The disquieting Sick Bacchus is a self-portrait of the artist who, like the god, had a fondness for wine. David and Goliath, painted in the last year of Caravaggio's life—while he was on the run, murder charges hanging over his head—includes his self-portrait in the head of Goliath. Upstairs, the Pinacoteca (Picture Gallery) boasts paintings by Raphael (including his moving Deposition), Pinturicchio, Perugino, Bellini, and Rubens. Probably the gallery's most famous painting is Titian's allegorical Sacred and Profane Love, a mysterious image with two female figures, one nude, one clothed.  Admission to the Galleria Borghese is by reservation only. Visitors are admitted in two-hour shifts 9–5. Prime-time slots sell out days in advance, so reserve directly (and early) through the museum's website.

Designed by the late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid, this modern building plays with lots of natural light and has curving and angular lines, big open spaces, glass ceilings, and steel staircases that twist through the air—all meant to question the division between "within" and "without." The MAXXI hosts temporary exhibitions of art, architecture, film, and more. The permanent collection, displayed on a rotating basis, has more than 350 works from modern and contemporary artists, including Andy Warhol, Francesco Clemente, and Gerhard Richter.

The world's most outstanding collection of Etruscan art and artifacts is housed in Villa Giulia, built around 1551 for Pope Julius III. Among the team called in to plan and construct the villa were Michelangelo and fellow Florentine Vasari. Most of the actual work, however, was done by Vignola and Ammannati. The villa's nymphaeum—or sunken sculpture garden—is a superb example of a refined late-Renaissance setting for princely pleasures.

No one knows precisely where the Etruscans originated, but many scholars maintain they came from Asia Minor, appearing in Italy about 2000 BC and creating a civilization that was a dazzling prelude to that of the ancient Romans. Among the most striking pieces are the terra-cotta statues, such as the Apollo of Veii and the serenely beautiful Sarcophagus of the Spouses. Dating from 530–500 BC, this couple (or Sposi) look at the viewer with almond eyes and archaic smiles, suggesting an openness and joie de vivre rare in Roman art. Other highlights include the cinematic frieze from a later temple (480 BC) in Pyrgi, resembling a sort of Etruscan Elgin marbles in terra-cotta; the displays of Etruscan jewelry; and the beautiful gardens.

This massive white Beaux-Arts building, built for the 1911 World Exposition in Rome, contains one of Italy's leading collections of 19th- and 20th-century works. It's primarily dedicated to the history of Italian modernism, examining the movement's development over the last two centuries, but crowd-pleasers Monet, Rodin, Van Gogh, and Warhol put in appearances, and there's also an outstanding Dadaist collection. You can mix coffee and culture at the mid-century-inspired Caffè delle Arti in a columned alcove.