I’m about to be in Rome. If anyone has tips on under-rated things to see and do then I would appreciate hearing about it. I’m already interested in that road you can see from space.
Not sure if it qualifies as under-rated, but there is a night tour of the Roman forums with what's basically a documentary about roman life projected on the ruins, highlighting details and providing context. I found it great (also because it's been produced- and narrated, in the Italian version- by Piero Angela, a beloved science documentarist that has interested in science entire generations of Italians, sort of an Italian David Attenborough). I was there with a friend who's a native English speaker and she enjoyed it a lot as well.
The one referenced by SeanLuke, the via Emilia is some 300km North of Rome. (and I suspect that now what is visible from space is the highway that is practically parallel to it):
http://www.viaggioneifori.it/en/