The collections in the twin Museo Capitolino and Palazzo dei Conservatori were assembled by Pope Sixtus IV (1414-84), one of the earliest of the Renaissance popes. Although parts of the collection may excite only archaeologists and art historians, others contain some of the most famous pieces of classical sculpture, such as the poignant Dying Gaul, the regal Capitoline Venus, and the Exquiline Venus (identified as another Mediterranean beauty, Cleopatra herself). The delicate Marble Faun inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel of the same name. Many of the works here and in Rome's other museums were copied from Greek originals. For hundreds of years, craftsmen of ancient Rome prospered by producing exact replicas of Greek statues using a process called "pointing."

Portraiture, however, was one area in which the Romans outdid the Greeks. The hundreds of Roman busts of emperors in the Sala degli Imperatori and of philosophers in the Sala dei Filosofi of the Museo Capitolino constitute a Who's Who of the ancient world. Within these serried ranks are 48 Roman emperors, ranging from Augustus to Theodosius (AD 346-395). On one console you'll see the handsomely austere Augustus, who "found Rome a city of brick and left it one of marble." On another rests Claudius "the stutterer," an indefatigable builder brought vividly to life in the novel I, Claudius by Robert Graves (1895-1985). Also in this company is Nero, one of the most notorious emperors -- though by no means the worst -- who built for himself the fabled Domus Aurea. And, of course, there are the baddies: cruel Caligula (AD 12-41) and Caracalla (AD 186-217), and the dissolute, eerily modern boy-emperor, Heliogabalus (AD 203-222).

Unlike the Greeks, whose portraits are idealized, the Romans preferred the "warts and all" school of representation. Many of the busts that have come down to us, notably that of Commodus (AD 161-192), the emperor-gladiator (found in a gallery on the upper level of the museum), are almost brutally realistic. As you leave the museum, be sure to stop in the courtyard. To the right is the original equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius that once stood in the piazza outside, restored and safely kept behind glass. At the center of the courtyard is the gigantic, reclining figure of Oceanus, found in the Roman Forum and later dubbed Marforio, one of Rome's "talking statues" to which citizens from the 1500s to the 1900s affixed anonymous satirical verses and notes of political protest. (Another talking statue still in use today sits at Piazza Pasquino, near Piazza Navona.)

The Palazzo dei Conservatori is a trove of ancient and baroque treasures. Lining the courtyard are the colossal fragments of a head, leg, foot, and hand -- all that remains of the famous statue of the emperor Constantine the Great, who believed that Rome's future lay with Christianity. These immense effigies were much in vogue in the later days of the Roman Empire. The resplendent Salone dei Orazi e Curiazi on the first floor is a ceremonial hall with a magnificent gilt ceiling, carved wooden doors, and 16th-century frescoes. At either end of the hall reign statues of the baroque era's most charismatic popes, a marble Urban VIII (1568-1644) by Bernini (1598-1680) and a bronze Innocent X (1574-1655) by Bernini's rival Algardi (1595-1654). The renowned symbol of Rome, the Capitoline Wolf, a 6th-century BC Etruscan bronze, holds a place of honor in the museum; the suckling twins were added during the Renaissance to adapt the statue to the legend of Romulus and Remus. The museum's Pinacoteca, or painting gallery, holds some of baroque painting's great masterpieces, including Caravaggio's La Buona Ventura (1595) and San Giovanni Battista (1602), Peter Paul Rubens's (1577-1640) Romulus and Remus (1614), and Pietro da Cortona's (1596-1669) sumptuous portrait of Pope Urban VIII (1627). The museum complex includes the adjacent Palazzo Caffarelli, where temporary exhibitions take place and where you can enjoy the view and refreshments on a large open terrace. Admission to the Pinacoteca is included in your ticket. COST: EUR6.20, free last Sun. of month.