Stazione Centrale

Annually, nearly 100 million people pass through these hulking portals and onto train platforms beneath a cinematic cylindrical glass roof. Begun in 1912 but finally realised between 1925 and 1931, the station's extraordinary design is flush with the nationalist fervour that marked Mussolini's rule. Most of the overtly fascist symbolism has been removed or obscured but the deco-tinged neo-Babylonian architecture can hardly hide its intent.