Rome’s visitors flock incessantly to its ancient ruins and monuments and its thick urban mass of Renaissance and Baroque architecture, out of which piazzas and narrow alleys are carved. But the Eternal City’s urbanistic antithesis lies about 20 minutes by car or metro to the south: it is Esposizione Universale Roma, more familiarly EUR, a 99-acre area of massive, modern-classical buildings arranged along broad, axial streets. Benito Mussolini intended this suburban area to open in 1942 as a world’s fair celebrating his totalitarian reign, but World War II got in the way. Nevertheless, the monumental architecture and planning conceived by Marcello Piacentini and others laid the groundwork for Rome’s expansion into what is now, decades later, a bustling office and residential district.

Over the years, EUR’s Fascistic architecture, captured evocatively on film by such postwar directors as Fellini and Antonioni, has made it a cult tourist destination, with the haunting de Chirico-esque Palazzo della Cività Italiana as the dominant landmark. (Ironically, this former political symbol has now become a fashion statement, since Fendi, the luxury goods company, purchased and renovated it for offices in 2015.)