Rome has transformed the giant silos at the Metro C construction site in Piazza Venezia into an open-air art gallery as part of the Murales project launched on Monday. Pietro Ruffo is the first of six contemporary artists whose work will be displayed on the towering silos which blot out the view of the Vittoriano and offer a surface area of 700 square metres.

Rome mayor Roberto Gualtieri inaugurated the project with the unveiling of Ruffo's Costellazioni di Roma, a blue and white mural that recalls constellations and legends associated with the city. Ruffo, whose work is currently the focus of a major exhibition in Rome, said that creating a site-specific work in Piazza Venezia was a chance to "leave a trace in the historic fabric of this city".