The 8 Best Museums in Rome

The Capitoline Museums, set on Michelangelo's beautiful Piazza del Campidoglio, are the world's oldest public museums and home to icons like the bronze Capitoline Wolf and the original equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius. Galleries of ancient sculpture, a picture gallery and the underground Tabularium with its Forum-facing terrace fill two palaces. It is far less crowded than the Vatican or Colosseum but involves a lot of stairs and walking between wings.

An inspired museum where ancient Roman sculptures are displayed inside a decommissioned early-20th-century power plant, creating a surreal and unforgettable juxtaposition of marble gods against industrial turbines and generators. It's a branch of the Capitoline Museums and holds overflow pieces of genuine quality. Locals adore it for its atmosphere and the fact that tourists rarely make it this far south. One of Rome's most photogenic and conceptually interesting spaces.

One of Rome's finest and most underrated museums, housing extraordinary Roman sculptures, mosaics, and the breathtaking frescoed rooms from the Villa di Livia on the top floor. The coin and jewelry collections in the basement are world-class. Crowds are surprisingly thin given the quality, making it a genuine local favorite. Book the frescoed rooms in advance as access is timed and limited.

The premier Etruscan museum in the world, set inside a stunning 16th-century villa built for Pope Julius III. The Sarcofago degli Sposi — a terracotta married couple reclining together — is one of antiquity's most moving sculptures. The collection spans jewelry, ceramics, bronzes, and votive objects from pre-Roman Italy. It's rarely crowded and the villa's nymphaeum garden alone is worth the visit.

A magnificent Baroque palace designed by Bernini and Borromini housing one of Italy's great painting collections, including Raphael's La Fornarina and Caravaggio's Judith Beheading Holofernes. The illusionistic ceiling fresco by Pietro da Cortona is among the most spectacular in Rome. The building itself is as much the attraction as the art. Crowds are manageable and the experience feels genuinely grand without the Vatican crush.

The largest of the ancient Roman baths, now housing an extraordinary collection of inscriptions, stelae, and prehistoric Italian artifacts within the surviving brick halls and Michelangelo's cloister. The cloister garden filled with ancient sculpture fragments is one of Rome's most atmospheric spaces. The epigraphic collection is the finest in the world for Latin inscriptions. It rewards slow, curious visitors willing to read the stones.

Augustus's Altar of Peace, one of the finest surviving monuments of ancient Rome, housed in a controversial modernist pavilion by Richard Meier that itself sparked fierce debate. The altar's carved marble reliefs depicting the imperial family in procession are extraordinarily detailed and well-preserved. The museum context and multimedia displays make it highly accessible. The Meier building divides Romans but is architecturally significant.

Housed in the last great Baroque palace built in Rome, this civic museum documents the city's history and daily life from the medieval period through the early 20th century through paintings, prints, carriages, and decorative arts. The building's grand staircase and piano nobile rooms are spectacular in themselves. Temporary exhibitions here are often excellent. It sits directly on Piazza Navona yet remains surprisingly overlooked by visitors.