Altare della Patria

Few buildings in Rome divide opinion like the Victor Emmanuel II Monument. This vast mass of gleaming white Botticino marble rises from the northern slope of the Capitoline Hill in honour of the first king of a united Italy. Known locally as the Vittoriano or the Altare della Patria, it was begun in 1885 to designs by Giuseppe Sacconi, inaugurated in 1911 and completed in 1935. Romans have long mocked it as the wedding cake or the typewriter.

At its centre stands a colossal bronze equestrian statue of Victor Emmanuel II. Below it lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, watched over by a permanent military guard. Within the complex, the Museo Centrale del Risorgimento traces the story of Italian unification. Broad stairways climb to colonnaded terraces crowned by bronze quadrigas, with sweeping views over the Roman Forum and the city's rooftops.

The monument draws more than three million visitors a year, many of them coming as much for the panorama as for the history.