The Campidoglio has been the center of Rome for more than two millennia. The hill's importance as a sacred site in antiquity had been largely forgotten due to its medieval transformation into the seat of the secular government and headquarters for the Roman guilds, and it was in poor condition when Michelangelo was commissioned to redesign the piazza in 1536 by Pope Paull III Farnese.

Campidoglio

He came up with a geometric pavement design, new facades for the Senate, the Palazzo dei Conservatori, which holds antique bronzes such as the "Lupa" and the "Spinario, to name a few, and a third building, Palazzo Nuovo where numerous works of art and sculpture, such as the statue of Galata and Morforio from great families past, can be seen today.

Palazzo Caffarelli holds a hall, the Caffè Capitolino, where dinners and gala's can be organized and from the terrace,off the Capitolini Museums, one alsohas a magnificent view of the Capital. Begun in 1538, little had been built before Micelangelo's death in 1564, and not completed until the seventeenth century, Michelangelo's original design has been preserved in engravings from the 1560s by Ètienne Dupèrac." Built facing Saint Peter's square, the center of the piazza once hosted a gilded bronze of Marcus Aurelius on horseback. The original statue was later moved inside of Palazzo Nuovo so as to conserve it from ruin from the modern day pollution of Rome. In 1996 a copy of this statue was finished by Guido Veroi, a renowned Roman sculptor.