National

Roman
Museum FOOD AND DRINK
Food and drink may not be consumed
during the tour.
Mini Guide

Map and Useful Tips PETS

for your tour Not allowed.

You have booked

a ticket with Italy Travels! PHOTOS
Thank you for choosing us. Photographs may be taken of the works
and interiors. The use of flash is always
prohibited inside galleries.

How to plan your trip

to the National Roman Museum

YOUR BOOKING STROLLERS

Allowed.
You must print your voucher in paper form to present it at the entrance to
the staff. Do not confuse the voucher with the order copy.

If you have questions or have not received the voucher, you can always contact
our customer support. Our contact details are at the bottom of the page. COFFEE SHOP
Available at Palazzo Massimo.
The ticket is open and allows a single admission for one time for each of the
four sites of the National Roman Museum during to their opening hours.
The ticket is valid for 3 days. The National Roman Museum also includes
archaeological sites, and, therefore the sites may be subject to unexpected BOOKSHOP
closures. In the event that one of the four sites is not open because of a Available at Palazzo Massimo and
museum management decision, a refund may not be requested for the Palazzo Altemps.
ticket already used to access the other sites.
Be sure not to lose the ticket that you will be given when you present your
voucher! This is the only admission ticket. If it is lost, you will not be able
to access other locations unless you buy a new ticket.
AUDIO GUIDES
Available in all sites.
The four sites are in different areas of Rome. The ticket does not include
transportation from one site to another.

Italy Travels S.r.l. TOUR OPERATOR Via Livorno, 54/2 - 50142 Firenze Tel. +39 055 5321180 E-mail: info@italy-travels.it © Italy Travels S.r.l. 2019. Tutti i diritti riservati
National
Roman
Museum Located in 4 separate sites:
Palazzo Massimo, Palazzo Altemps,
THE SITES

Mini Guide Crypta Balbi, Museum of the Baths of Diocletian.

Open from Tuesday to Sunday from 9:00 am to 7:30 pm.
Closed on Monday.
Map and Useful Tips ADDRESS
for your tour Palazzo Massimo Piazza dei Cinquecento, 6 1
Palazzo Altemps Piazza di S. Apollinare, 46 2
Crypta Balbi Via delle Botteghe Oscure, 31 3
Museum of the Baths of Diocletian Viale Enrico de Nicola, 78 4

1
2

Italy Travels S.r.l. TOUR OPERATOR Via Livorno, 54/2 - 50142 Firenze Tel. +39 055 5321180 E-mail: info@italy-travels.it © Italy Travels S.r.l. 2019. Tutti i diritti riservati
Palazzo
Massimo
alle Terme
Mini Guide

Map and Useful Tips

for your tour HISTORY
The main site of the museum complex is
located on the side of the Termini railway
station, in a 19th-century building, which was
later bought by the Italian government. It has
been a museum since the 1990s and open to
the public since 1995.

WHAT TO SEE
The underground floor holds an extensive coin collection, Hellenistic period, found in Nero’s Villa in Anzio. Among the
starting from the first money systems of the 6th century BC. many sarcophagi, exceptional pieces include the Portonaccio
through to today’s euro, by way of the coins of the Roman era, Sarcophagus (about 180 BC), probably of a General in Marcus
the Middle Ages, Ancient Italian States, the Italian Kingdom, Aurelius’s army and so of that period in a highly expressive
and the Italian Republic. It is joined by an antique jewelry style of reliefs, the Aurelian Column, and the early Christian
collection mostly from funerary objects. Sarcophagus of Marcus Claudianus, dating from the 4th century
Statues of the Republican and Augustan periods are displayed BC, with scenes from the New Testament still depicting
on the ground floor. Of special interest are the Fasti Antiates a beardless Christ, according to the very early Christian
Maiores, a rare example of an engraved marble calendar from iconographic tradition.
before the Julian calendar reform, the “Boxer at Rest,” and On the second floor is an extensive collection of mosaics
the Hellenistic Prince, remarkable bronzes, likely from the from the Roman era and valuable frescoes removed from the
Hellenistic period, found at the beginning of the 19th century walls of the Roman domus and villas where they were found.
during excavations in the Quirinale area, and the “Portrait of Especially noteworthy is the Triclinium of the Villa di Livia,
a Roman General from Tivoli,” a marble portrait from the 1st from the lavish home of Augustus’s powerful wife in the Prima
century B.C., the late Republican period, in which his hero’s Porta area north of Rome.
body contrasts with the realistic features of his face typical of The work dates from between 40 and 20 B.C. Its four walls
Roman portraits from the Republican period. depict a lush garden, with minutely rendered trees and
On the first floor are imperial age statues, connected to the plants and the frescoes of the Farnesina, also from the first
period of the pieces of the lower floor. Of special note are two century BC, a wonderful example of the Third Pompeian
marble copies from the Roman era of the Discobus of Myron, Style, from a wealthy home, possibly that of Agrippa, son-
an example of Severe Style from the early 5th century BC. in-law of the Emperor Augustus, overlooking the Tiber in
and the Girl of Anzio, an exquisite statue representing the the Trastevere area.

Italy Travels S.r.l. TOUR OPERATOR Via Livorno, 54/2 - 50142 Firenze Tel. +39 055 5321180 E-mail: info@italy-travels.it © Italy Travels S.r.l. 2019. Tutti i diritti riservati
Palazzo
Altemps
Mini Guide HISTORY

Map and Useful Tips One of Renaissance Rome’s historical

buildings, this has been one of the sites of

for your tour the National Roman Museum since 1997. It

was originally built for Cardinal Riario in the
1470s and heavily remodeled in the following
century. It owes its current name to the
Altemps family, as Cardinal Marco Sittico
Altemps purchased it in 1568. In the 1980s,
it was bought by the Italian government
and turned into a museum after extensive
restoration work.

WHAT TO SEE
Unquestionably important for its combination of frescoes and by Bernini with the addition of a deliberately different marble
decorations from the Renaissance and the following century, from that of the original work to make the additions visible.
mixed with masterpieces of ancient sculpture, coming mainly Another extremely significant work is the Ludovisi Gaul, a copy
(but not only) from the Ludovisi collection, it was bought by of a Hellenistic work of the Pergamene school of the 3rd century
the Italian government in the early 20th century. Among the BC. Caesar likely commissioned it when he returned from
pieces from the same period as the building’s construction, military campaigns in Gaul. The pathos and drama expressed
on the first floor there is the Sala delle Piattaia with trompe by the Gaul and his dying wife make it a wonderful example of
l’oeil frescoes from the first construction phase of the building the “Hellenistic Baroque.” Lastly, another two works deserve
in the later 15th century, attributed to the school of Melozzo special mention, the Ludovisi Throne, a controversial bas-relief
da Forlì, and the loggia, commissioned by Cardinal Altemps of Venus in the bath, which has been variously interpreted as a
himself shortly before his death, and decorated with frescoes remnant of a throne, altar or, most credibly, a base of a giant
depicting putti and plant vines that evoke the Raphaelesque statue.
“Loggia di Amore and Psyche” of Villa Farnesina. Its dating is also up for debate, usually set in the mid-5th
In the ancient statue collection, many of the works are known century BC, but there are some who believe it is even a 19th-
to have been restored by key figures of 17th-century sculpture, century fake. Worth special mention among the sarcophagi
commissioned by Cardinal Ludovisi. For instance, the statue is the “Great Ludovisi” sarcophagus, dating to the mid-3rd
of Athena, a Roman copy of the Greek original, exhibited on century A.D. Its grand frontal high relief depicts a frenetic
the ground floor, was found in fragments in the 1820s. Algardi battle between the Romans and the Barbarians in which a
restored it, working to create its current appearance under young general on horseback emerges in the upper part, who
the instructions of Cardinal Ludovisi himself. The same is true has been identified with the son of the emperor Decius,
of the Ares Ludovisi on the second floor, which was retouched Hostilianus.

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Museum
of the Baths
of Diocletian
and Crypta Balbi
Mini Guide
Crypta Balbi
Map and Useful Tips
HISTORY
for your tour An interesting example of an archaeological area
being turned into a museum, the Crypta Balbi was
actually the portico behind the theater built at the
behest of Lucius Cornelius Balbo, a wealthy friend of
Emperor Augustus, with the spoils of war from the
military campaigns in Libya, serving as the Proconsul
of Africa around 20 BC. Though smaller than other
Museum of the Roman theaters (such as the theaters of Marcellus and
Pompey), it was likely richer in decorations and could
Baths of Diocletian accommodate about 7,000 spectators.
The site is in an area that is particularly important
archaeologically, near the Sacred Area of Largo
HISTORY Argentina, behind the ancient Porticus Minucia
The museum is located in part of the largest bath complex in Roman Frumentaria, where free wheat was donated to the
history: the Baths of Diocletian, named after the Emperor who reigned public in imperial times.
when they were built between 285 and 305 AD. About 13 hectares were Inside we can appreciate the different historical
covered by the massive structure, and the monument’s ruins give periods that have left tangible signs in the area.
us an idea today of the grandeur of the architecture. we can grasp its Remnants of houses, workshops, and places of worship
monumentality by just entering the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, from the Middle Ages and later eras are explained in
adjacent to the museum, created according to an original design by the informational panels, joined by the archaeological
Michelangelo from the halls of the tepidarium and the frigidarium to finds from various eras found in the excavation area.
get to the baths themselves. The museum also includes an area that Objects displayed include those for personal use and
Michelangelo designed in the period that the church was built (known tools used in the workshops built in the Middle Ages.
as “Michelangelo’s cloister”). It is completed by other internal rooms
and an entrance courtyard with a garden, also originally designed in the
16th century.
WHAT TO SEE
WHAT TO SEE There are two sections in the museum area: one
The exhibition area inside has two separate sections. The Epigra general section, “Archeology and History of an Urban
Museum has a large collection of inscriptions through the different Landscape,” which considers the history and shifts from
phases of Roman history. The Proto-History of the Latin People ancient times to the present day, and one about “Rome
Museum illustrates the development of the sites of the Lazio civilization from Antiquity to the Middle Ages,” which focuses on
in the Iron Age, and the Orientalizing Era (from the 10th to the 7th the crucial period of transition between the last phase
centuries BC), with finds mainly from tombs of the necropolis called the of the Roman Empire and the early Middle Ages.
Latium Vetus.

Italy Travels S.r.l. TOUR OPERATOR Via Livorno, 54/2 - 50142 Firenze Tel. +39 055 5321180 E-mail: info@italy-travels.it © Italy Travels S.r.l. 2019. Tutti i diritti riservati