The best attractions, monuments, museums, archaeological sites, neighborhoods and experiences to enjoy in Rome.
MACRO is Rome’s municipal museum for contemporary art and one of the best choices for travelers who want to see what the city is producing now rather than only what it inherited from antiquity and the Baroque. Located in a former industrial complex in the Nomentano area, the museum mixes historic brewery architecture with Odile…
The National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia is one of Rome’s great museums for travelers who want to understand Italy before the rise of imperial Rome. Housed in a Renaissance villa built for Pope Julius III, the museum combines a beautiful architectural setting with the world-class Etruscan collection known as ETRU. Its star objects include…
The National Roman Museum is not a single building but a network of major archaeological collections spread across central Rome. Its four historic sites—Palazzo Massimo, Palazzo Altemps, the Baths of Diocletian and Crypta Balbi—tell different parts of the city’s story, from imperial portraiture and painted villas to monumental bath architecture and the archaeology of Rome’s…
Palazzo Bonaparte is one of central Rome’s most visible exhibition venues, standing where Piazza Venezia meets Via del Corso. Many visitors recognize the façade and enclosed green balcony without knowing the building’s connection to Napoleon’s mother. Today the palace is best understood as a historic setting for major temporary art exhibitions rather than as a…
Explora is Rome’s dedicated children’s museum and one of the most useful places to keep a family itinerary balanced. Instead of asking children to look quietly at objects, the museum is built around touching, experimenting, role play and discovery. It sits near Piazza del Popolo, so it can be combined with central sightseeing without turning…
Rome’s Museo Civico di Zoologia is a compact natural-history museum that works particularly well for families, science-minded travelers and anyone looking for an indoor complement to Villa Borghese. It is less famous than Rome’s art and archaeology museums, but that is part of its appeal: collections can be explored at a manageable pace without the…
Villa Ada is one of Rome’s largest green spaces and one of the best places to see how the city changes once you move beyond the monumental center. Its woods, lawns, lake and former royal landscape make it a different experience from manicured Villa Borghese: less about ticking off sights and more about walking, running,…
Villa Celimontana is one of central Rome’s most useful “breathing spaces”: a historic park on the Celio where shaded paths, old trees, archaeology and an Egyptian obelisk sit only a short walk from the Colosseum. It fits naturally into the Celio and works especially well when you want a quieter hour between major monuments. This…
Rome’s Roseto Comunale is a seasonal garden where the city’s archaeology, skyline and flowers meet in one of the easiest beautiful stops to add to an Aventine walk. Located above the Circus Maximus and below the Aventine Hill, it is especially valuable in spring, when hundreds of rose varieties turn a usually quiet slope into…
The Rome Botanical Garden is one of the capital’s most rewarding quiet stops: a scientific garden, historic landscape and green escape rising behind Palazzo Corsini on the lower slopes of the Janiculum. It sits in Trastevere but feels far removed from the busiest restaurant streets, making it a useful counterpoint to a day built around…