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Rome may be a city steeped in history, but it’s also a buzzing centre for contemporary art.

And while the queues for the Colosseum will be snaking round the block, there are plenty of other gems to enjoy in this city that, although not built in a day, is certainly abreast of the latest trends in the art world.

Here are a few of the places you won't want to miss if you’re an art lover in the Italian capital.

Maxxi

It may be one of Rome’s biggest art galleries, but Maxxi is also one of the most innovative. It’s Italy’s first museum to focus entirely on contemporary art, setting the tone for the rest of the city’s scene. Housed on the site of a former army barracks, it only opened in 2010, in a stunning building designed by the late, great Zaha Hadid.

White Noise Gallery

The White Noise Gallery shows work by young and emerging artists, with all pieces created exclusively for this San Lorenzo exhibition space. The founders, Eleonora Aloise and Carlo Maria Lolli Ghetti, made a deliberate decision not to focus on selling works to the art market - they say they want to guarantee “a totally unbiased, blank-canvas approach to art in order to develop and expand the contemporary artistic thinking of tomorrow”.

Dorothy Circus Gallery

This gallery showcases surrealist work as part of its mission to bridge the gap between “New York and Wonderland”. Named after everyone’s favourite ruby slipper-wearing Kansas resident, Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, the Dorothy Circus Gallery boasts eclectic aesthetics that vary from the Tim Burton-esque to street art chic.

Frutta

This gallery has links a little closer to home, being founded by Glaswegian James Gardner. Frutta is a small gallery but it boasts some impressive international names - it’s currently showing work by Welsh artist Bedwyr Williams, who had a show at the Barbican last year.

Monitor

This cutting edge gallery is both monitoring new stars of the art scene and showing them on a monitor - it features a lot of work by video artists. Monitor’s success is indicative of the fact that it recently opened a new space in New York too. This tranquil gallery has won much praise on the Italian - and global - art scene, with a new group exhibition opening soon.

Galleria Varsi

Galleria Varsi pays tribute to artists who use the city walls as their canvas, showcasing the work of urban street artists. It’s relatively new to the scene but has already made an impact, with one of the artists who showed there creating the city’s highest mural after an exhibition. Created by Etam Cru, it’s of a man emerging from a dustbin with a cup of coffee - a perfect expression of Monday morning malaise (it’s in the Torpignattara area if you want to see it for yourself).

If you can’t resist the old classics…

The Vatican Museums will offer you a chance to visit the Sistine Chapel and see the collections of Popes from over the years; the National Roman Museum has four different sites across the city exploring its history; and the Capitoline Museums are the oldest museum complex in the world.