Every year on June 2 the Eternal City transforms into a stage of pageantry and national pride for Italy’s most patriotic holiday, the Festa della Repubblica. The celebration unfolds with a grand military parade advancing along the storied Via dei Fori Imperiali, where ancient ruins form a majestic backdrop to modern ceremonial splendor.

Often hailed as Rome’s most beautiful bridge, Ponte Sant’Angelo is less a thoroughfare than a ceremonial passage: one that draws visitors from the bustle of the city toward the spiritual gravity of the Vatican.

Immersed in the park of the Monte Mario hill in Rome’s north-west is the city’s former astronomical observatory, now housing the headquarters of the Italian Astronomical Society and a museum that showcases the city’s oldest telescopes, binoculars, a number of celestial globes, and many other fascinating stargazing instruments. telescope (34 meters high)…