Largo di Torre Argentina

Four Republican-era temples emerge in the square, uncovered between 1926 and 1929. Beside them stood the Curia of Pompey, where Julius Caesar was murdered on the Ides of March, 44 BC. The site can be seen from the street; visits inside are run by Rome's Sovrintendenza.

Did you know: A colony of cats lives among the ruins, cared for by volunteers: it is one of Rome's best-known cat sanctuaries.

✦ The legend: The medieval tower closing the site is called Torre del Papito, “the little pope's tower”: tradition links it to Anacletus II, elected in 1130 against another pope and never recognised, whom the people mockingly called by that name. Rome's cats have lived in the archaeological area for decades, and for a century someone has gone down every day to feed them.