You will enter the Vatican Museum from Viale del Vaticano and the various sectors of the Museum are reached by ascending the extraordinary Spiral Staircase. From here the Museums of Antiquities are situated to your left, the Picture Gallery (Pinacoteca) straight ahead, and Museo Pio Cristiano to your right.

Italy is a veritable treasure trove of art and culture, and the country has been described as one vast museum.

According to a UNESCO study, the country houses as much as 40 percent of the art of the world.

Small is beautiful.

Certainly it is, in the case of the Galleria Borghese. Located a little off-centre in Rome, it is housed in the casino or summerhouse of the Villa Borghese. The villa, built between 1613 and 1616, was the home of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the favorite nephew of Pope Paul V.