Rome’s museums contain everything from ancient sculptures to modern art, so there is something for everyone to enjoy. To appreciate all the different types of art that Rome’s museums have to offer, visitors will need more than one day, perhaps one day per museum of interest. Plan to take your time so that you can fully absorb all the incredible world history these museums have on display.
Here is a list of the best museums to visit on your trip to Rome.
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Borghese Gallery
This museum on the grounds of the beautiful Villa Borghese park is known for its excellent collection of classical sculptures, including Bernini’s delicate marble of Apollo and Daphne , his determined David and Canova marble representation of a reclining Pauline Bonaparte.
The gallery includes paintings by famous Italians such as Raphael, Caravaggio, Correggio, and other Renaissance painters. Most of the gallery’s works of art were acquired by Pope Paul V’s nephew, Cardinal Scipione Borghese, who used the villa as a summer home in the 17th century.
02
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National Roman Museum
Spread over several locations, including the Baths of Diocletian, the Altemps Palace, the Massimo Palace, and the Crypta Balbi, the Roman National Museum preserves coins, statues, sarcophagi, earthenware, frescoes, mosaics, jewelry, and other relics of Rome from the empire. and Republican periods until medieval times.
Many of the items on display were unearthed from the Roman and Imperial Forums, as well as from outposts of the Great Roman Empire.
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MAXXI Museum
The MAXXI Museum is the newest museum in Rome. Designed by star architect Zaha Hadid, the MAXXI opened in 2010 in the northern part of Rome and features works of art from the 21st century.
The works in the MAXXI museum include paintings, photographs and multimedia installations by renowned Italian and international contemporary artists. The museum also contains an architectural archive for significant contributions to architecture from the 20th century to the present.
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National Gallery of Modern Art
Founded in 1883, and known in Italian as the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, this modern art museum features works from the 19th and 20th centuries. It houses 1,100 paintings and sculptures, the largest collection of its kind in Italy.
Italian artists, including Giorgio de Chirico, Alberto Burri, and Luigi Pirandello, are well represented in the National Gallery’s collection, as are famous international artists such as Goya, Renoir, Van Gogh, and Kandinsky.
The museum itself is a work of art, with exterior architectural friezes by sculptors Luppi, Laurenti, and Prini.
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Capitoline Museums
Housed in the Campidoglio, Rome’s Capitol, the Capitoline Museums contain many treasures from antiquity, as well as archaeological finds from and around Rome.
The Musei Capitolini, as they are known in Italian, were established by Pope Clement XII in 1734, making them the world’s first museums open to the public. The Capitoline is a museum divided into two buildings: the Palazzo dei Conservatori and the Palazzo Nuovo.
Some of the most famous pieces contained in the Capitoline are fragments and a bust of a colossal statue of Constantine, a gigantic equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius and an ancient sculpture of the twins Romulus and Remus nursing a She-Wolf.
The Capitoline Museums also house exhibits of ancient coins, sarcophagi, epigraphs, and a picture gallery (pinacoteca), which has paintings by Caravaggio, Titian, and Rubens.
At the Palazzo dei Conservatori, visitors will find portraits from the Punic Wars, inscriptions of Roman magistrates, the foundations of an ancient temple dedicated to Jupiter, and statues of athletes, gods and goddesses, warriors and emperors ranging from the days of the Roman Empire to The baroque period.
In addition to archaeological pieces, there are also paintings and sculptures by medieval, Renaissance and Baroque artists. Here you can find works by Caravaggio and Veronese, along with the famous Medusa sculpted by Bernini.
Where to shop in Rome
