Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana (Square Colosseum)

Rome's most dramatic piece of Fascist-era architecture, built in EUR for Mussolini's planned 1942 World's Fair (cancelled due to WWII). The building — officially the Palazzo della Civiltà del Lavoro — is a stark travertine marble cube of six storeys, each with nine arches per side (54 total), inspired by the Colosseum but reduced to pure geometric abstraction. Often called the 'Square Colosseum' or 'Colosseo Quadrato,' it is now the Rome headquarters of Fendi. The exterior and approach can be viewed freely at any time; the interior houses Fendi's offices and is not publicly open. Stands in the geometric EUR district, 7km south of the city centre — a planned suburb of severe beauty, also worth exploring for its monumental spaces, the EUR lake (Laghetto), and the Museo della Civiltà Romana.