Everyone wants their place to look nice when company comes over. When you're the Pope, and your place is Rome, you don't hire a maid to spruce things up -- you get Michaelangelo. In 1536 Emperor Charles V announced he was going to visit the city. Pope Paul III Farnese needed to make a good impression, so he hired the famed artist to give the square a facelift. Michaelangelo designed a geometric pattern to be made from paving stones, and came up with the new facades for the surrounding buildings. Look for the statue of a man on a horse. It survived because people thought it was the Christian Emperor Constantine. It is actually the Pagan Marcus Aurelius. Michaelangelo was so taken by the quality of the sculpting that he allowed it to remain in the renovated plaza. The one in the Piazza del Campidgolio is actually a copy. The original is safe and sound in the Capitol Museum. If you see it turning gold, start praying. Legend has it that the statue's gold will return at the end of the world.

Photograph courtesy Philip Greenspun.