Rome: the Capitoline Museums

Rome is the oldest city of Greek and Roman archaeological treasures and of paintings and sculptures from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The city itself, with its ancient walls and imperial monuments, with its squares, churches and palaces, is an immense and incomparable open-air museum. In every corner there are, one next to the other, masterpieces from different eras, an evident testimony of the eternity of Rome! If you want to discover Rome in its entirety, what remains of its great and vast empire, its most ancient documents and then the testimonies, statues and archaeological finds, you cannot miss a visit inside one of the most important museums of Rome: the Capitoline Museums. Immersing yourself in a thousand and more years of history is possible thanks to the various testimonies that the Museum contains in it. Taking part in a Capitoline Museums Guided Tour means going through the history of a city that still retains its indistinct charm step by step. After all, Rome is the capital of the known world. Inside it will be possible to admire a vast collection of jealously preserved unique pieces, from the finds of ancient Rome to the paintings of the 16th and 17th centuries by artists such as Tiziano, Caravaggio and Rubens. Crossing the rooms of the Museum means crossing eras, traditions, cultures and centuries that still today mark the present, the past and the future of a city like Rome that hides mystery, color, music and much more visible only to those who, walking through its streets, they are able to breathe its atmosphere.

Things to know about the Capitoline Museums

The Capitoline Museums are the museums of museums, they represent the seed, the initial sprout from which we can begin the history of the museums that have populated Italy. Why are the Capitoline Museums so important? Because they are the main civic museum of the city of Rome and can be considered the first collection of antiquities open to the public in the world. They arise from the donation of pagan bronzes preserved in the Vatican, made in 1471 by Pope Sixtus IV della Rovere, the pope who gave the name to the Sistine Chapel, to the city of Rome. Among them the famous Capitoline Wolf, original of the 5th century BC. and the Spinario, from the 1st century BC. The Capitoline museums overlook one of the most beautiful squares in the capital, Piazza del Campidoglio, the work of Michelangelo both for the construction of the palaces and for the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, whose original statue is preserved and kept inside the Museum. A few steps from the Capitoline Museums it will be possible to come across the Roman Forum, the archaeological site where the most important square of ancient Rome was concentrated, seat of the Curia and the courts; the Colosseum, the monumental symbol of the power of Rome and finally the Palatine Hill, one of the seven hills, imperial residence and palace of justice. The Capitoline Museums are the museums not of Rome but of the history, myth and glory of Rome, desired, built and appreciated today.