Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II

Rome's largest piazza, in the multicultural Esquiline district near Termini Station. Unlike the Baroque piazzas of central Rome, it's a 19th-century Savoyard creation — rectangular, lined with arcaded buildings, and centred on a public park (Giardini Nicola Calipari) with playgrounds and shaded paths. Inside the gardens stands the Porta Magica (Alchemical Door) — a 17th-century gateway covered in mysterious alchemical inscriptions, the only surviving fragment of the lost Villa Palombara.