Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore

The experience

One of Rome's four papal basilicas and the largest church in the city dedicated to the Virgin Mary, founded in the 5th century. Its nave preserves some of the oldest mosaics in Rome, among the earliest representations of the Virgin in late antiquity, above a coffered ceiling gilded with New World gold. Behind a Baroque facade lie layers of medieval and early Christian art.

To see 5th-century mosaics and a soaring gilded nave in one of Rome's most important yet less-mobbed basilicas.

What a membership adds.

Everything above is free: the name, the photo, the rating, the exact spot. What members get is the part you can't Google: the sourced insider tip for this place (what to order, when to go, what to skip), every day of your trips unlocked in full with the insider tip on every researched stop, and the concierge at full strength, answering with your own insider tips, no daily meter.