For people who love contemporary architecture, trying to find striking new buildings in the historic center of Rome is about as easy as trying to go gluten-free there. But if you move a little farther out — or a lot — there are stunning treasures to find, from museums to stadiums to churches, not to mention animated new neighborhoods that you probably would have never explored in the first place.

I undertook a breakneck tour of these newly completed structures, in widely varying districts, last summer with two on-call critics: my septuagenarian parents, self-professed architecture lovers who are not shy about their opinions. We traveled the streets of Rome largely by car, a method of transportation that brought out the, let’s say, raw side of the Roman population. Luckily, the buildings were as dramatic as the drive, but much less stressful.

Jubilee Church

As we headed into the city from Umbria, we wove in and out of traffic, through a steady progression of crowded traffic circles and bizarre turn-offs, somehow happening upon Richard Meier’s Jubilee Church, also known as the Chiesa di dio Padre Misericordioso. It’s in the eastern neighborhood of Tor Tre Teste, a shabby area of tall housing blocks from the ’60s and ’70s that evokes the notorious banlieues of Paris.

Created in 2003, the bright white church is covered with a curved shell of multiple travertine and concrete walls pierced by huge sheets of glass. It’s closed off with high white fences, and this fortresslike aspect, along with the rain and dirt streaks smudged into the building’s white surfaces (why white in polluted Rome?), first left us cold.