Rome - Termini Station District

The Fontana dell'Acqua Felice, with a figure of Moses as its central feature, was commissioned by Pope Sixtus V in 1585. The Pope, Felice Peretti (hence the name of the fountain), to whom Rome owes so many magnificent buildings, was unfortunate in his choice of a sculptor. Prospero di Brescia, who carved the figure of Moses, is said to have died of grief, or even to have committed suicide, on comparing his work with Michelangelo's Moses in San Pietro in Vincoli.

In the Castro Pretorio, is the National Library (Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Vittorio Emanuele II), built 1971-75. This contains some 3 million volumes, 1,883 incunabula, 6,169 manuscripts and 30,000 autographs, and consists of a long ten-story book-stack, an office block, a low building housing the catalogue and reading rooms, and a low conference building.

The National Museum of Oriental Art in Rome displays in its fourteen rooms the art of Asia from Persia to Japan, over the period from prehistoric times (fifth century B.C.) to the present day. Afghanistan and China, Korea and India, Nepal and Tibet, Iraq and Pakistan are all represented by a wide range of gold jewelry and bronzes, ceramics and clothing, sculpture and paintings, busts and vases.

The Porta Pia, a town gate in the Aurelian Walls near the ancient Porta Nomentana, was built by Michelangelo for the Medici Pope Pius IV in 1561-64. Near here on September 20th 1870 Italian troops entered the Papal city, an event which heralded the end of the Pope's temporal authority in the Papal State.

The Villa Torlonia park (area 13ha/32.5 acres), with the Neo-Classical Palazzo Torlonia (early 19th century), formerly the property of the Torlonia family, was the private residence of Mussolini during the Fascist period.

It now belongs to the city of Rome, and the park (though not the villa itself) is open to the public.