The Italian capital is preparing to host one of the most popular exhibitions ever on Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci.
Opening on May 1, the travelling show will celebrate the mind of Leonardo in all its brilliance, offering a sweeping overview of his myriad interests.
''This show allows us to understand the many sides of Leonardo, explaining his mental method and guiding criteria,'' said Rome Museum Superintendent Claudio Strinati.
''Artist, scientist, designer and Renaissance man par excellence, Leonardo explored a host of ideas, from physics to metaphysics, and tackled each with the same methodological approach''.
Unlike other exhibitions that have focused on a particular aspect of Leonardo's genius, this event encourages visitors to explore his underlying approach to various thought processes, and his efforts to assimilate different ideas into a coherent world view.
It aims to paint an ''undistorted'' picture of Leonardo's contribution to science, technology, art and culture through original drawings, paintings, manuscripts and digital reproductions of lost works.
It also presents a series of spectacular models of Leonardo's most ingenious machines and experiments, and illustrates how his art and groundbreaking scientific studies were fuelled by the same methods of analysis.
''The mind of Leonardo cannot be analysed in closed-off compartments,'' commented the exhibit's curator and director of Florence's History of Science Museum, Paolo Galluzzi.
''He studied nature and things created by men in order to breathe life into his ideas''.
The exhibit seeks to draw out the relationships between Leonardo's artistic studies, those on nature and anatomy, the design of machines and buildings, and his scientific theories.
The universal nature of his personality and interests is highlighted by his most ambitious project: to compile an encyclopedia of knowledge as a basis for his astounding replications and uses of nature.
The 2007 Tokyo incarnation of the event, which has been touring the world since 2006, was Italy's most popular exhibition in Japan in over three decades, drawing 800,000 people over three months.
Entitled The Mind of Leonardo, The Universal Genius at Work, it is on show in Rome's Palazzo Venezia until August 30.
