These are some of my favorite Roman ruins. They're far from the more popular attractions, but that…read morealso means that they tend to be a lot quieter. You can spend hours wandering among these awesome ruins, which is a great way to spend the afternoon - and they really are amazing. Pictures don't do them justice. I'd suggest getting the self-guided audio tour. It's a smartphone with preloaded audio about all of the parts of the baths. It's a little quiet, but certainly not a dealbreaker. You do need to leave something like an ID so they know they'll get their smartphone back, but it's worth the few Euros you'll pay. The things you'll learn are fascinating. Overall, this has been one of my favorite spots in Rome. I'd recommend this to anyone looking for something a little more unique and quiet when compared to the other main attractions.

Saw the side of this while walking back to my hotel. Didn't go inside it but you could see a good…read morechunk of it from outside. It's beautiful and worth even walking by to appreciate the architecture.

This palazzo was so much more than I had ever expected. It is the state museum in Rome of Greek and…read moreRoman antiquities. It has a great collection of high quality pieces and the Palazzo itself is facinating. It's built on top of ruins and the have left them uncovered so you can look into the past.

Across the street from the church was Palazzo Altemps. Wow, we were very impressed with this…read moreluxurious palace designed by Melozzo da Forli for Girolamo Riario. The palace became the home of the Altemps family in 1568, and there is a stunning inner courtyard. The 16th- to 18th-century palazzo is beautiful with a grand central courtyard, many frescoes and original painted wood ceilings. The museum holds a rich collection of Roman and Greek antiquities as well as an Egyptian Collection and an entire gallery of portraits of Caesar. In the palace dining room are frescoes and mosaics brought from the Villa of Livia and the Villa of the Farnesina. The frescoes and mosaics have been reconstructed in their original dimensions. The star feature of the museum is the Lodovisi Art Collection consisting of 104 sculptures, Ludovisi Throne and the Ludovisi Acrolith. The Mattei Collection features work brought from the Ciriaco Mattei villa. The Drago Collection has four reliefs; and in the Mother Goddesses Room, visitors can see the head of Ephesian Artiemis, which was discovered in 2009 during excavations of Via Marmorata. You are also able to see the Church of Saint Aniceto, which was built within the palace. The building also holds the recently restructured Goldoni Theatre, that functions as a conference center as well. This is certainly a museum that is not to be missed.

We enjoyed our English tour for an hour exploring the fascinating remains of the patrician "Domus"…read moreof imperial Rome, belonging to powerful families, with mosaics, wall decorations, polychrome floors, paving blocks, and other remains, has been further enhanced by experts who recreated the past with virtual reconstructions, graphics and videos. We walked on a glass floor & down glass steps in the dark viewing walls, rooms, peristyles, kitchens, baths, furnishings and decorations taking a virtual tour of a great Domus of ancient Rome. In the underground area opposite Trajan's Column, we admired the remains of a monumental public or sacred building: great concrete platform, walls made of large blocks of travertine and tuff, remains of colossal columns made of single grey Egyptian granite blocks, the biggest to be found in ancient Rome, bricked rooms with vaulted ceilings, dating from the early years of the emperor Hadrian, according to stamps on the bricks. This new area boasts an exhibition, showing is how how the area of Trajan's Column looked at the time of its construction. A working model recreates the buildings as they appeared then, especially the huge Ulpian basilica, which stood right next to the column. A video brings to life the two adjacent buildings, perhaps libraries. Finally, a virtual reconstruction of the column gave us a close up look at the bas-reliefs and the story they tell of Trajan's military campaign: the conquest of Dacia, present day Romania. This event ended with the death of King Decebalus & the emperor's triumph. This was a unique example demonstrated how the artistic heritage of antiquity, regenerated by careful and painstaking restoration, was enhanced with the use of new technologies.

How is it possible that the #1 rated attraction on the "other website" (tripadvisor) doesn't even…read morehave a single review on yelp? Time to change that! The archeological remains of Rome's ancient baths and houses have been uncovered below street level, this place once belonged to the great "domus" of ancient Rome. What is different about this place from all the other ruins in Rome is they managed to integrate modern technology by presenting virtual reconstructions through graphics and videos -- you can literally picture yourself as if you were taken back in imperial Rome. Walls, rooms, kitchens, decorations are seen in pure form and living color. All through the 1+ hour tour, I kept saying, "how did they do that?!" The Palazzo is still fully operational and has government offices that surrounds the archeological museum. There are guards standing at the entrance that will question you, just tell them that you're here to buy tickets or that you are taking the tour. We tried buying tickets online but their website isn't very user friendly and very slow. A very interesting history lesson for 9.50 euro/person and kept us dry from the unpredictable weather! the only sad thing is, taking photos are not allowed inside.

We took an excursion that only took us to Rome from Civitavecchia, the cruise port, the bus ride…read morewas 4 hrs rd trip leaving us w just 4 hrs to see the city but I have been to Rome some 7 times, my husband was scared of missing the bus so we only saw the Piazza Navona and the church there then came back to the bus stop. I was so excited to find out we stood right in front of the museum, the entrance was free and it was nicely air conditioned. The Museo Napoleonico in Rome presents the collections of Count Giuseppe Primoli, the great-grandson of Joseph and of Lucien Bonaparte. Born in 1851 to Princess Charlotte Bonaparte and Count Primoli di Foglia, Giuseppe Primoli belonged to the Roman branch of the imperial family. He spent most of his youth in Paris, at Napoleon III's court and moved to Rome after the fall of the Empire. Totally devoted to his family on his mother's side, he started a collection of works of art and various objects linked with the Bonapartes. The collection - comprising family souvenirs, objects donated by Princess Mathilda and Empress Eugénie, items bought from antique dealers or purchased in auction sales - grew consistently until its owner died in 1927. Count Primoli donated it to the city of Rome where many Bonapartes had sought refuge. I had gone to a French lycee and learned about Napoleon, I had gone to Corsica and seen the house where he was born, it was amazing, Corsica was a beautiful island, one thing I never saw was a picture of Josephine, his life long love and devotion to her, never learned about his long quest to have an heir so all those questions were answered by this massive museum. When I was young I was irritated w all the French revolution, guillotine and eternal wars between Europeans but as I get older I get fascinated by it all and going back to my roots, coincidentally on the 14 hours flight back from Barcelona, Lufthansa had the movie Napoleon w Vanessa Kirby and the amazing actor Joaquin Phoenix, wow she was so glamorous, that was not how real oil paintings of Josephine showed her, she looked pretty plain Jane but she was a real character. I must have spent hours studying the history of all the pictures, I was very impressed with the fact it was free and the museum curators were very helpful. Highly recommended even if you are not a Francophile.

Nice history about Napoleon and his family. Great to do to fill in time between bigger site seeing…read moreevents. Free admission and 5 euro for audio-- audio is recommended for the full history and hidden treasures.

Located on the edge of Villa Borghese, Villa Medici is a peaceful cultural oasis above the Spanish…read moreSteps that blends art, history, and gardens with stunning views over Rome. The guided tour is worth it, insightful and surprisingly serene. Don't miss the gardens or the chance to catch a rotating art exhibit. A hidden gem away from the crowds.

This palace can be viewed only by taking one of the guided tours so make sure you plan for the tour…read morein your language. The exterior front of this palace may be very humble but it was intended to be that way because it hides from the public what is an otherwise very ornate facade in the rear of the building that when you stand in the internal Courtyard and private plaza looks out and over the Vatican. This is now a functioning school to a small collection of dedicated artists who have a one year residency here and come from all over the world to study participate learn and in some cases to replicate the marbles that can be found elsewhere in the city. The guided tour in English was excellent, filled with facts and interestings things about this location and a walk through the garden was a pleasant experience that takes you out and away from the bizziness of the city of Rome. Make sure you ask them about The Secret passage that connects this house to the Vatican. There are a lot of stairs here small narrow and steep so be prepared to do some walking but it's well worth it so you can get out into the garden and find the beautiful little Bunny rabbit that habitats this local.

Absolutely phenomenal museum…read more One not to be missed. And with 5% of the tourists of Rome's other museums, and no wait to get in line. There is no downside. * * * GNAM is the nineteenth and twentieth century art museum of Rome. If you want stuff that was painted yesterday, there are galleries of 21st century art around town. Enjoy at your peril. Everything in GNAM that was painted or sculpted before 1960 is an absolute masterpiece. And there is a lot of lively stuff in the newer material too. It is easy to forget in a city with all of the Roman antiquities, all of the medieval treasures and Rome's fantastic legacy of Renaissance and Baroque art, That Italy was just as talented in the 19th and 20th centuries as it was in the previous periods. Our "standard" art histories moves European Art history of the 1800s and 1900s to France. Italy could go toe to toe with France on every artistic movement that occurred after Napoleon and this includes Romanticism, Impressionism and Modernism. There are paintings in GNAM that fully anticipate every formal innovation of impressionism. They were painted in the 1860s and 1870's. Monet and Renoir would be "inventing" impressionism thirty years later. The nineteenth century working class realism paintings of Courbet are blown away with the soulful depictions of working class life that were painted in Italy ... and yes twenty years before Courbet. There are night landscape paintings here that are darker and more intense than anything you could see in the Louvre. There is portraiture to die for - including my favorite "beautiful woman" painting of all time. * * * GNAM is huge, and excellent throughout. But there is one utterly amazing room that can fill your whole stay. If you go straight from the front door through a "seating gallery", you walk into an enormous room that is literally the size of a football field. The ceilings are sixty feet high. This is the primary room of the nineteenth century Romantic Era collection. Every single square millimeter of wall space is hung with paintings. You are looking at five or six paintings one on top of each other going up the wall all the way up sixty feet high and this being repeated every three yards for the entire room, all four walls. There are easily over 200 large paintings in this room - maybe closer to 300. There is not a loser or a boring painting anywhere in the room. And - to give a sense of the remarkable level of activity that Italy enjoyed in the Romantic Era, no artist is represented by more than two paintings. Most artists only have one selection. Thus you are looking at a room that is displaying between 100 and 150 different nineteenth century Italian artists - with each selection being one of the best paintings that artist ever created. The spectacle is mind-boggling. Close examination makes each painting better and better and better. There are all sorts of compositional subtleties, painterly tricks and psychological/philosophical subtexts in the works that only become apparent in a long viewing. Well over 80% of my visit to GNAM was spent in that one room. And even at that - I only saw about 1/5 of the paintings that are there. * * * This is a museum that will change your opinion about much of what you understand about art. Plan to come here. Plan to spend a lot of time here. This is one of the great collections of the world.

In a city full of Renaissance art, it was awesome to have a break of that to be able to enjoy some…read moremodern art and contemporary art. The National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary has all that and more. It's a large museum and there is enough here for a half day of appreciation. I'm generally not a huge fan of "contemporary" art as it is usually political and many times, the message from the artist goes over my head. That was the case for a couple of the exhibits here. And then I found the "modern" art. Paintings by Gustave Courbet, Cy Twombly, and my very favorite, Piet Mondrian. Portraits by Giovanni Boldini. Sculpture by Ercole Dante. I got well and truly lost in the museum and before I knew it, it was time to go. Wonderful time. [Review 19190 overall - 345 in Italy - 160 of 2023.]

Museo di Roma is a wonderful museum to end your visit in Rome. I wouldn't recommend this museum for…read morepeople who are going to be staying in Rome for a short period of time (1-3 days) but more to the folks who have been in Roma before and are looking to do a recap of the history of this beautiful city. My husband and I have been in Roma four times during the last few years and were looking to do something new because the bigger attractions haven't really changed in the last few years. We were staying a block away from Museo di Roma and decided to give it a chance. The Museum goes through the history of this beautiful city, from the architecture to war. History has shaped this city and is really amazing to see how much it has changed and which places are still up and are part of the modern day Roma. This museum has some really amazing views of Campo de'Fiori which are perfect photo opportunities. They offer discounts to EU students and people who are 25 years or younger. You are not allowed to walk through the museum with a backpack but they offer free locker rooms to leave your stuff while walking through this beautiful museum.

Wonderful museum. We skipped the exhibition- the regular collection was enough for us, but the…read morespecial exhibition of opera and art looked fascinating. The museum has a lift for the handicapped (and if you have proof of disability, you can get in free with one other person! Isn't that nice?) The price- 9 euros I think- was well worth it. There were many different kinds of art here- and the palace itself is a work of art. The paintings on the ceilings are lovely- and the way the collections were arranged was great. There's even a movie giving you history of the building. My favorite room was the one of the artists and their families- paintings, representing artists and their families- and I also loved the rooms of sculpture- one with a wonderful winged nymph, and another room with many sculpted heads. But all the rooms were great- and there was almost no one here. Why? It's a gorgeous collection. Go here. Enjoy. And let me just add, they have a handicapped bathroom, if you have any mobility impairment (lovely bathroom, let me add). Just a final note- from the upper floor you get a knock out view of the Plaza Navona- it's a wonderful place to take a picture. I LOVED my picture from the upper window!

It's ok. If you're a Bernini fan, or really into church architectural history, It's probably a 5-…read morebut seriously, it's small, and it's very dark. We were here on a cloudy day and it was impossible to see much. I wish I'd brought 50 euro change- you need it to light up 2 of the works. Although I don't know if it would have been worth it. We went out of our way for this- given the great Yelp reviews, and, honestly, I could have skipped it. Sure the dome is interesting- but you're going to look at that for 5 minutes. Go to the big museums instead- unless you are going right by this place, then sure, pop in- but don't go out of your way unless you've got a religious reason or a very particular interest.

Once again, we stumbled upon this church after leaving the Piazza de Quirinale. Just a stones throw…read moreup Via del Quirinale from the piazza, this is a beautiful example of the Roman Baroque period. The church was constructed in 1661 and the interior not completed until 1670. Inside, the main "sanctuary" is divided into 6 chapels, each with it's own beautiful artwork. Unfortunately, on the day of our visit, some event was taking place inside that required us to only get a glimpse of this beautiful building. On a trip back, the church doors were closed... so we were unable to view this building in greater detail. It is one of those things that if I had more time back, I would have returned one more time to check it out, but alas, that didn't happen. This was the 3rd Jesuit church constructed in Rome and was commissioned by Pope Alexander VII. Rumour is that the architect (Gian Lorenzo Bernini) considered this church to be his finest work and was known to spend hours inside admiring his handiwork. There is a small (ish) garden located next to the church that is open to the public and is quite tranquil.