The Great Beauty rooftop and the view

The film behind the name

La grande bellezza, released as The Great Beauty, is a 2013 film directed by Paolo Sorrentino, who wrote it with Umberto Contarello. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on 21 May 2013 and is set in Rome. It took the Oscar for foreign-language film in 2014, at the 86th Academy Awards. The booking page says scenes were shot on the terrace, which is why the rooftop carries the film's title.

More about the film

Sorrentino wrote the film with Umberto Contarello, and filming in Rome began on 9 August 2012. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on 21 May 2013. The terrace takes its name from the film, and the booking page says scenes were shot there. The film is not required viewing, but if you have seen it, the rooftop evening gives you the chance to stand where it was shot, with the same skyline of domes and bell towers around you.

Two terraces, two names

The La Grande Bellezza rooftop gives the 360-degree view, and it is where the concert on the first ticket is staged. The Terrazza Borromini is a different terrace, on the fourth floor, set between the palace's clock tower and the dome of Sant'Agnese in Agone. A guided visit connects the two, in one order or the other depending on the ticket.

Read next: Rome rooftop opera: which one to book

St Peter's Basilica

The dome is the part of St Peter's you see from a rooftop. Wikipedia gives the top of the dome as 136.6 metres and says it continues to hold the title of tallest dome in the world. Pope Urban VIII dedicated the basilica on 18 November 1626, and the principal design is credited to Bramante, Michelangelo and Carlo Maderno, with Bernini responsible for the piazza and fittings.

Castel Sant'Angelo

Hadrian commissioned it as a tomb for himself and his family, and it was erected between 134 and 139 AD, by one account. His ashes were placed there with those of his wife Sabina and his adopted son Lucius Aelius, and later emperors were buried there too, the last recorded being Caracalla in 217. It became a fortress in 401, and later a papal castle, linked to St Peter's by a fortified corridor. Pope Clement VII took shelter here during the Sack of Rome in 1527. The third act of Tosca is set on its upper levels.

The Pantheon

The original temple was commissioned by Agrippa under Augustus, and the present building was reconstructed under Hadrian and probably dedicated about 126 AD. Because Hadrian reused Agrippa's inscription, the exact date is uncertain. The dome is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome, and the oculus at the top was never covered, so rain falls through to the floor. The building has been a church since 609, and Raphael is buried in the third niche.

Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza

This church stands near the piazza, and its lantern is the shape that makes the skyline unusual. Francesco Borromini designed it, and work ran from 1642 to 1660. The corkscrew lantern at the top of the dome was novel, and it is topped by a spiral and a cross. The church stands on Corso del Rinascimento and takes its name from Saint Ivo and from La Sapienza, the university whose palace it served from the 14th century.

Trinità dei Monti and the Campidoglio

Trinità dei Monti is the church above the Spanish Steps, begun by Louis XII of France in 1502 and consecrated by Pope Sixtus V in 1585. The Piazza del Campidoglio was designed by Michelangelo between 1536 and 1546 for Pope Paul III, and the palaces around it now house the Capitoline Museums. Michelangelo also gave Palazzo Senatorio, Rome's city hall, its double staircase.