Santa Maria in Domnica (La Navicella)

A 9th-century church on the Caelian Hill, directly across from Villa Celimontana, holding one of the most perfectly preserved early medieval mosaics in all of Rome. Pope Paschal I (817–824) rebuilt the church and commissioned the apse mosaic: Christ enthroned in a sea of gold, surrounded by apostles and angels, with a tiny Paschal I prostrated at the Virgin Mary's feet — a mosaic of extraordinary refinement and Byzantine delicacy barely changed since the 9th century. Outside stands the Navicella — a marble Roman boat from the 1st century AD, converted into a fountain in 1513 by Pope Leo X and now one of the most distinctive small monuments on the Caelian Hill. Almost completely unknown to international tourists; rarely crowded.