A visit to the Uffizi Gallery is pretty much obligatory for visitors to Florence; you may be staying in Florence proper, in which case you'll have several bites at the cherry, or you may well have set aside just one or two days. In either case you can, under the best of circumstances, figure on an hour or two standing in the queue, and it's not unheard of for people to be queuing for three or four hours!

Why risk any of this? Several hours will enable you to do some serious wandering around the city, so why waste any of that time by standing in a queue?

The Galleria degli Uffizi is the most visited (over 1.5 million people a year, closely followed by Michelangelo's David) tourist attraction in Florence, and is home to the finest collection of paintings and pictures in Italy - it is undoubtedly one of the finest museums in the world.

The building is a Renaissance palace by Vasari (1560) and was once home to the offices (hence 'Uffizi') of the Medicis' administration. The building is 'U' shaped, with the closed end looking out over the river Arno, the other end opening onto Palazzo della Signoria. Once Vasari had died, building and extension work continued, with each successive member of the Medici clan adding to the increasingly rich treasure trove of the family's art collection. With the death and will of Anna Maria Lodovica, the enormous collection was bequeathed to the people of Florence, with the condition that it never be allowed to leave the city.

During the nineteenth century the vast bulk of the statuary was moved from the Uffizi to the Bargello museum (still in Florence), whilst many other antiquities went to the Museo Archeologico. What remained is a breathtaking collection of paintings and as smaller selection of sculpture.

Most people leave the Uffizi vowing to return - there simply isn't enough time to do it justice in one visit. Be warned that you'll often find rooms, sometimes large sections, of the gallery closed, but you're unlikely to leave feeling short-changed.

The Gallery is particularly famous for its sculptures by Michelangelo: the Prisoners, the St.Matthew and, especially, the statue of David which was transferred here, to the specially designed tribune, from Piazza della Signoria in 1873.

In the adjacent rooms, which were part of two former convents, important works of art were collected here in the 19th century from the Academy of Design, the Academy of Fine Arts and from suppressed convents.

The holdings comprise mostly religious paintings by major artists working in and around Florence between the mid-13th and the late 16th centuries. The collection is especially important for its gold-ground paintings. In the first floor rooms is a sequence of splendid late-gothic polyptychs, complete in all their parts.

There is also a collection of sculptures in plaster by the 19th-century sculptors Lorenzo Bartolini and Luigi Pampaloni, besides a section of Russian icons.

Recently the Gallery has been further enriched by the important collection of old musical instruments from the Cherubini Conservatory, the Museum of Musical Instruments.

The original sculptures and paintings in the Borghese Gallery date back to Cardinal Scipione's collection, the son of Ortensia Borghese - Paolo V's sister - and of Francesco Caffarelli, though subsequent events over the next three centuries entailing both losses and acquisition have left their mark.

Cardinal Scipion was drawn to any works of ancient, Renaissance and contemporary art which might re-evoke a new golden age. He was not particularly interested in medieval art, but passionately sought to acquire antique sculpture. But Cardinal Scipione was so ambitious that he promoted the creation of new sculptures and especially marble groups to rival antique works.

The statue of Pauline Bonaparte, executed by Canova between 1805 and 1808, has been in the villa since 1838. In 1807, Camillo Borghese sold Napoleon 154 statues, 160 busts, 170 bas-reliefs, 30 columns and various vases, which constitue the "Borghese Collection" in the Louvre. But already by the 1830s these gaps seem to have been filled by new finds from recent excavations and works recuperated from the cellars and various other Borghese residences.

Cardinal Scipione's collection of paintings was remarkable and was poetically described as early as 1613 by Scipione Francucci. In 1607, the Pope gave the Cardinal 107 paintings which had been confiscated from the painter Giuseppe Cesari, called the Cavalier d'Arpino. In the following year, Raphael's Deposition was secretely removed from the Baglioni Chapel in the church of S.Francesco in Perugia and transported to Rome. It was given to the Cardinal Scipione through a papal motu proprio.

In 1682, part of Olimpia Aldobrandini's inheritance entered the Borghese collection; it included works from the collections of Cardinal Salviati and Lucrezia d'Este

In 1827 Prince Camillo bought Correggios' celebrated Dan?e in Paris.

The Colosseum or Flavian Amphitheater was begun by Vespasian, inaugurated by Titus in 80 A.D. and completed by Domitian. Located on marshy land between the Esquiline and Caelian Hills, it was the first permanent amphitheater to be built in Rome. Its monumental size and grandeur as well as its practical and efficient organization for producing spectacles and controlling the large crowds make it one of the great architectural monuments achieved by the ancient Romans.

The amphitheater is a vast ellipse with tiers of seating for 50,000 spectators around a central elliptical arena. Below the wooden arena floor, there was a complex set of rooms and passageways for wild beasts and other provisions for staging the spectacles. Eighty walls radiate from the arena and support vaults for passageways, stairways and the tiers of seats. At the outer edge circumferential arcades link each level and the stairways between levels.

The three tiers of arcades are faced by three-quarter columns and entablatures, Doric in the first story, Ionic in the second, and Corinthian in the third. Above them is an attic story with Corinthian pilasters and small square window openings in alternate bays. At the top brackets and sockets carry the masts from which the velarium, a canopy for shade, was suspended.

The construction utilized a careful combination of types: concrete for the foundations, travertine for the piers and arcades, tufa infill between piers for the walls of the lower two levels, and brick-faced concrete used for the upper levels and for most of the vaults.

In the same area dominated today by the majestic, imposing Palazzo Colonna, there originally stood various small buildings, erected by the ancient, noble Roman family, descending from the counts of Tusculum. Most of the ancient vestiges, the earliest of which date from the thirteenth century, were incorporated in a single, ambitious architectural complex, which was begun in the mid seventeenth century and completed during the eighteenth century, when the two new fa?ades along Piazza dei SS. Apostoli and Via della Pilotta were added. The family's celebrated art collection, one of the most important Roman collections that developed after the Renaissance, is still housed in the most famous wing of the Palazzo, the renowned Galleria Colonna, an extraordinary, magnificent example of Baroque architecture, built and decorated from the mid seventeenth century on by Cardinal Girolamo Colonna I and opened in 1730.

Private group visits to the Gallery Colonna Apartment, the Princess Isabelle Apartment or both (for a minimum of 10 people), can be booked every day of the week . Guides, also in foreign language, available on request.

Palazzo Colonna can host important events:

* Conferences

*Presentations

*Classic music concerts

*Gala evenings

*Private visits with cocktails for leading Italian and foreign companies and major congress organizers and tour operators. The two monumental gardens of Palazzo Colonna can also be made available.

The two monumental gardens of Palazzo Colonna can also be made available.

Evolving from an early twentieth-century idea to encourage artists living and working in Rome, the first exhibition of the Galleria d'Arte Moderna (Modern Art Gallery) was at the Palazzo Caffarelli in 1925. As the collection grew, it moved through a succession of palazzo venues until January 1995, when the exhibition was reopened in a former convent of the Barefooted Carmelites of St. Joseph. The collection is made up of over 4000 pieces, the majority of which were executed between 1800 and 1900 and include works by Rodin, Balla, de Pisis, Prampolini and Carr脙篓.

One of Rome's most prestigious galleries, Galleria dell'Accademia di San Luca was founded as an art academy in 1478 with the statute that "every member should donate a work to its perpetual memory". Through these gifts, combined with other bequests and donations, the gallery contains an eclectic collection of classical works by artists such as Raphael, Canova, van Dyck, Titian, Guercino, il Sassoferrato, Reni and Pietro da Cortona.

The Vatican Museums include:

EGYPTIAN MUSEUM

It consists of steleae and inscriptions from various ages, sarcophagi and mummies, Roman statuary (from the first and second century A.D.) designed to imitate or interpret the forms and aesthetics of Egyptian statuary, protohistoric and Roman ceramics, cuneiform tablets and mesopotamic seals, assirian bas-reliefs from the palaces of Sargon the IInd (722-705 B.C.) and Sennacherib (705-681 B.C.) in Nineveth.

CHIARAMONTI MUSEUM

It was founded by Pope Pius VII (Chiaramonti) and includes: the Corridoio (Corridor), the Galleria Lapidaria and the Braccio Nuovo (New Side). In the Corridor, divide into 60 sections, is an interminable series of statues, busts, sarcofhagi, reliefs, etc: about 800 Greek-Roman works. In the Galleria Lapidaria there are over 5000 pagan and Christian inscriptions. In the Braccio Nuovo, the Statue of Augustus of Prima Porta, the Group of the Nile and the Doriforos, deserve particular attention.

MUSEUM OF POPES CLEMENT XIV AND PIUS VI

In the Palazzetto of Belvedere the visitor finds Greek and Roman sculptures like the Apollo Belvedere (a Roman copy from the original Greek sculpture, 130-140 A.D.), the famous group of Laoco?n by Agesander, Polydorus and Athanodorus, the statue of Hermes (copied during Hadrian's reign from an original Greek bronze of 4th century B.C.), the colossal statue of Antinous (photo), and moreover the Canova's Cabinet, the Gallery of Statues, the Room of the Animals, etc.

GREGORIAN MUSEUM OF ETRUSCAN ART

FThe Etruscan Museum was founded by Gregory XIV in 1837 to house the works coming from the excavations carried out in southern Etruria. It was later enriched with further acquisitions and donations, and became one of the most important for Etruscan art.

ANTIQUARIUM ROMANUM

Divided into three small rooms, the Antiquarium houses mainly ancient Roman objects and works of the minor arts.

VASE COLLECTION

The collection consists of Greek and Etruscan black figure ceramics.

THE BIGA ROOM

This room, built during the pontificate of Pius VI (1775-99), is named after the Biga, the two-horse chariot located in the middle of the display area. The Roman Biga dates to the first century B.C.

GALLERY OF THE CANDELABRA

Once a loggia, the gallery was enclosed during the pontificate of Pius VI. Arches supported by columns and pillars were used to divide the space, which was then hung with candelabra, one for each arch: hence the name of the gallery.

GALLERY OF THE TAPESTRIES

Decorated during the pontificate of Pius VI, the gallery is named after the tapestries which were first exhibited there in 1814.

GALLERY OF THE MAPS

The Gallery is named after the maps painted on the walls in 40 different panels, each devoted to a region, island or particular territory of Italy.

APARTMENT OF ST.PIUS V

Gallery of St. Pius V: tapestries produced in Tournai in the middle of the sixteenth century and by Pieter van Aelst. Chapel decorated with frescoes by Giorgio Vasari and Jacopo Zucchi.

SOBIESKI ROOM

Named for the painting which takes up the entire north wall with its depiction of the victory of John III Sobieski, King of Poland, over the Turks outside the walls of Vienna in 1683. The work was painted by Jan Matejko (1883).

ROOM OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

Located in the Borgia Tower, this room is decorated with frescoes by Francesco Podesti depicting scenes based on the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.

Raphael:

The Bolsena Mass (detail)

RAPHAEL'S ROOMS AND LOGGIAS

The four rooms commonly known as the "Rooms of Raphael" were part of - togheter with the "Chiaroscuri" room, the Old Room of the Swiss, the cubicle with its adjoining heater, the Nicholine Chapel and the Loggia - the new residence chosen by Julius II on the third floor of the building.

The series of four communicating rooms was a reconstruction carried out by Nicholas V (1447-55) of the thirteenth century palace of Nicholas III (1277-80). Towards the end of the first decade of the sixteenth century Perugino, Sodoma, Baldassarre Peruzzi and Bramantino were all at work decorating them, but in 1509 Julius II dismissed them and commissioned Raphael to decorate the whole of this part of the Vatican. He worked there for about ten years, but only three of the rooms were completed before his death in 1520, and the direct intervention of the master is certain in only two of them.

COLLECTION OF MODERN RELIGIOUS ART

The collection includes Hundreds of paintings, sculptures, engravings and designs donated to the Holy See by private individuals and, in some cases, by the artists themselves. Housed in 55 different rooms, the exposition was inaugurated by Pope Paul VI in 1973. The itinerary begins in the Borgia Apartment, named for Alexander VI, who had the room decorated with the now famous frescoes, most of which are the work of either Pinturicchio or his students.

The collection includes Hundreds of paintings, sculptures, engravings and designs donated to the Holy See by private individuals and, in some cases, by the artists themselves. Housed in 55 different rooms, the exposition was inaugurated by Pope Paul VI in 1973. The itinerary begins in the Borgia Apartment, named for Alexander VI, who had the room decorated with the now famous frescoes, most of which are the work of either Pinturicchio or his students.

Michelangelo:

Last Judgement,Christ the Judge (detail)

SISTINE CHAPEL

Deservedly one of the most famous places in the world, the Sistine Chapel is the site where the conclave for the election of the popes and other solemn pontifical ceremonies are held. Built to the design of Baccio Pontelli by Giovannino de

Dolci between 1475 and 1481, the chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who commissioned it. It is a large rectangle with a barrel-vaulted ceiling and it is divided into two unequal parts by a marble screen. The screen and the transenna were built by Mino da Fiesole and other artists.

The frescoes on the long walls illustrate parallel events in the Lives of Moses and Christ and constitute a complex of extraordinary interest executed between 1481 and 1483 by Perugino, Botticelli, Cosimo Rosselli and Domenico Ghirlandaio, with their respective groups of assistants, who included Pinturicchio, Piero di Cosimo and others; later Luca Signorelli also joined the group.

The barrel-vaulted ceiling is entirely covered by the famous frescoes which Michelangelo painted between 1508 and 1512 for Julius II. The original design was only to have represented the Apostles, but was modified at the artist's insistence to encompass an enormously complex iconographic theme which may be synthesized as the representation of mankind waiting for the coming of the Messiah. More than twenty years later, Michelangelo was summoned back by Paul III (1534-49) to paint the Last Judgement on the wall behind the altar. He worked on it from 1536 to 1541.

APOSTOLIC LIBRARY

The Vatican Library was founded by Nicholas V (1447-55). Sixtus V (1585-90) commissioned the present building from Domenico Fontana, who built the long gallery and the Salone.

VATICAN PICTURE GALLERY

The Vatican Picture Gallery was founded by Pope Pius VI (1775-99). Only in 1932 was a permanent site established in a building commissionated by Pius XI (1922-39) from a design by the architect Luca Beltrami. The gallery includes works of Giotto, Gentile da Fabriano, Beato Angelico, Perugino, Pinturicchio, Leonardo, Tiziano, Guercino, van Dyck, Poussin, etc.

GREGORIAN MUSEUM OF PROFANE ART

The special building constructed to house the museum (founded by Gregorius XVI in 1844) runs parallel to the Pinacoteca and was opened in 1970. The works are arranged according to didactic criteria, liberated as far as possible from arbitrary integration and excessive restorations. The four sections contain Roman copies and re-elaboration of Greek originals, Roman sculptures of repubblican and early imperial periods, sarcophagi, later Roman sculptures.

CHRISTIAN MUSEUM

Founded in 1854 by Pius IX in the Lateran Palace to house the Christian antiquities found during the excavations of the catacombs, the Museo Pio Cristiano was transferred to the Vatican in 1963.

MISSIONARY MUSEUM OF ETHNOLOGY

The material is vast and various and is presented according to didactic principles so as to document the religious cult of the various civilisation which have flourished in other continents over an enormous span of time, from centuries before the coming of Christ right up to our times.

CARRIAGE PAVILION

It was founded under the auspices of Paul VI and laid out in 1973 in a building constructed under the Square Garden. The collection contains: the carriages of popes and cardinals, with various harnesses; graphic and photographic documentation of solemn processions containing berlins and carriages; black landaus for daily conveyance and the first automobiles used by the popes.

Tadolini Museum

In January 1818, at the height of his European fame, Antonio Canova, signed a contract for a property destined for the practice of sculpture. This was to favour his favorite pupil, the promising Adamo Tadolini. The housings located on the corner of via del Babuino and via dei Greci, and the area of Rome traditionally animated by artists' workshop, was also the site where Canova lived and executed numerous commissions. Considering Adamo the most gifted of his pupils, and maybe his only spiritual heir, he formed an intense collaborative relationship. This is reflected in the number of jobs given to him, and particularly on the singular opportunity to reproduce, under his strict surveillance.

Antonio Canova's most famous works. From 1818 until 1967 the atelier in via del Babuino remained in the possesion of four generations of sculptors belonging to the Tadolini family. This way, the art of the animated sculpture, guided by the spiritual climate of the time, was passed on from father to son in a reciprocal relationship. This passage of time is marked in sculpted marble, giving testimony to the memory two century of Italian sculpture. This is visible, within the atelier, in the preparatory models of finished works situated around the world: inthe sculptures in marble and bronze: in the anatomical exercises: and lastly, in the mechanical instruments used by the artists.

The recent restoration was a sensitive operation to salvage the unique atmosphere of the once disorderly atelier. This was done by respecting the original colours of the decoration and materials and the casual placing of the works. The precious atelier, probably the only surviving exemplar of the sort, houses a collection grouped together in casual arrangement failing to follow a systematic order. Thus, the juxtaposition of works by Canova and Adamo with more romantic works, or with works of a more political tone such as the ones by Scipione and Giulio, or even with the more intimate world of Enrico is voluntary: fulfilling the creation of a timeless atelier.

Leaving scope for the imagination to travel without barriers, from the neoclassical grace towards the bourgeois dimension of the twentieth century. A journey accompanied by a magnificent collection of sculpture.

Capitoline Museum

The Capitoline Museums are housed in the Palazzo dei Conservatori and the Palazzo Nuovo, which face each other across the Piazza del Campidoglio; they were built on the Campidoglio as part of the design of the Square drawn up by Michelangelo. Against the backdrop of the Palazzo dei Senatori, they represent a classic area in the heart of Rome.

The foundation of the Capitoline Museums dates back to 1471. There is therefore good reason to consider them the oldest existing public collection in the world.

　　　　　　　Busts of philosophers and poets　　　　　　　　　　　　　The Dying Gaul 　　　　　　　

Palazzo dei Conservatori

　　　　　　　　　　Head of Constantine　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Seated gir　　　　　　　

Capitoline Picture Gallery

The collection consists of paintings from the Sacchetti and Pio di Savoia collections, acquired in 1748-50 and subsequently augmented through donations, purchases and legacies. The gallery includes works of Caravaggio, Guercino, Tintoretto, Annibale Carracci, Paolo Veronese, Scarsellino, Palma il Vecchio, Tiziano, Rubens, Antonio van Dyck, Calvaert, etc.

Barracco Museum

Barone Giovanni Barracco donated his personal collection to thecity of Rome in 1902 together with the building which housed it at that time, which was built by the Architect Koch on Corso Vittorio Emanuele and demolished in 1938 when this area was redeveloped. In 1948 the collection was rehoused in its present building, "The Piccola Farnesina" or "Farnesina dei Baullari", attributed to Antonio da Sangallo the Younger. The original building, which has bossed stonework on the ground and upper floor, was given a new facade on Corso Vittorio Emanuele between 1898 and 1901 by Enrico Gui.

Villa Giulia National Museum

The Museum is housed in the Villa of Pope Julius III or Villa Giulia. This Villa was built from a design by Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola between 1551 and 1553.
The Villa Giulia National Museum was founded in 1889 with the aim of collecting together all the pre-Roman antiquities of Latium, southern Etruria and Umbria, and mostly contains finds from excavation conducted in Latium between the Tiber and the sea and belonging to the Etruscan and Faliscan civilizations.

National Museum of Rome

Baths of Diocletian Octagonal Hall Palazzo Massimo Palazzo Altemps Mosaic of cat attacking a turkey The National Museum of Rome, which possesses one of the world's most important archaeological collections, is housed in three different facilities: the Baths of Diocletian, which include the Octagonal Hall, the Palazzo Massimo, and the Palazzo Altemps.The complex restructuring and renovation effort is partially completed, but work is still under way. For this reason, only a portion of the Museum's exhibitions can currently be visited. The historic headquarters of the Museum is the Baths complex built by Diocletian between the last years of the third century A.D. (the dedicatory inscription dated 306 A.D. is conserved in a fragmentary state in the Museum). The building of the Baths, the largest in the ancient world, included many rooms besides the traditional calidarium, tepidarium and frigidarium-which were designed to hold 3,000 people at the same time. Ther was a natatio or frigidarium for swimmers (large open air swimming pool) and various other rooms, meeting rooms, libraries, nympheums, dressing rooms, concert rooms and rooms for physical exercises etc.

Baths of Diocletian

Following the transfer of the materials to the Palazzo Massimo, massive restoration work was begun on the Baths complex (at present the rooms are open to the public on a partial, irregular basis). Rooms I-IX: exhibition of funerary materials (sarcophagi, etc.) and of artifact from the Baths themselves, or from other major public buildings, such as the decorations on the Temple of Aurelian. Rooms X-XII: temporary exhibits. The so-called "Masterpiece Roooms" have been set aside for the Epigraphical Department, which consists of almost 10,000 inscriptions. Plans also call for the first floor of the "Michelangelo" cloister to house a section on the protohistory of the City of Rome.

Octagonal Hall

The Octagonal Hall stands at the southwest corner of the central complex of the Baths of Diocletian, in which it may have served as a passage area. The most important of the works on exhibit are the Lyceum Apollo and the Aphrodite of Cyrene. The first, and IInd century A.D. copy of the original by Praxiteles, was found near the Baths of Trajan, by the Church of St. Peter in Chains, while the Aphrodite comes from Cyrene, in Libya, and represents a splendid copy from the middle of the IInd cent. A.D. of a late-Hellenistic original. All of the sculptures on display come from bath complexes, including the Anadyomene Aphrodite, the Heracles, the Lance-Bearer and the Cnidian Aphrodite.

Palazzo Massimo

Formerly the site of the preparatory school "Massimiliano Massimo", the building was constructed in 1883-87 by Camillo Pistrucci in imitation of the noble residences of the early Roman baroque period. Exhibited in the central hall are works that illustrate the political and ideological program of Augustus, including the statue of Augustus dressed as the Pontifex Maximus from the Via Labicana and the pictorial frieze of the noble sepulchre from the Esquiline hill.

The first floor offers iconographic works from the Age of the Flavians to the late Empire, with examples of the decorations used on imperial villas and aristcratic residences.In the section featuring the physicalactivities related to gymnasiums and public baths, visitors can admire two copies of the Discus Thrower by Myron. The following section holds important sarcophagi, including an oval-shaped work from Acilia. The second floor offers in-depth documentation on mosaic and pictorial decorations from the Ist cent. B.C. to the late Imperial Age.
On the basement level, a rich coin collection is displayed, including extremely rare pieces, such as the medaillon of Theodoric, the silver piasters of the Pontifical State with views of Rome snd the four ducats of Pope Paul II. The exhibition is completed by a section on luxury in the Roman world, featuring a rich selection of jems and jewels.

Palazzo Altemps

The Palazzo was commissioned by Girolamo Riario (1443-1488). In 1568 it passed into the hands of the Altemps family, which had it enlarged and built the courtyard. This feature of the building, without a doubt its most handsome, is credited to Martino Longhi the elder.
Restoration work has been under way since 1984, and steps are being taken to arrange the exhibit.
Apart from the Ludovisi Throne, which is kept in the Palazzo Massimo, the collection boasts works of great artistic value, such as the Gaul who kills himself together with his wife, a copy of an originalfrom Pergamon; the Ludovisi Ares, a copy traceable to Lysippus; the Castelporziano mosaic (IInd cent.), one of the most important known Roman mosaics; the Ludovisi Hermes, copy of a bronze original by the school of Myron; the Aphrodite of Cnidus, a copy of the reknowned Aphrodite by Praxiteles, and a colossal sarcophagus depicting a battle between Romans and Barbarians.

Municipal Gallery of Modern Art

The arrangement, established in a former convent of the Barefooted Carmelites dedicated to St. Joseph, features 130 works which highlight the most meaningful developments in XXth-century Italian art. The Gallery offers a library, plus archives equipped with photographic and scientific reference equipment for the benefit of scholars and whoever else presents a request. The Gallery also possesses a computerized catalogue available to the public, together with the standard card catalogue. The Gallery includes works of A. Rodin, G. Balla, F. Depero, G. Morandi, G. De Pisis, G. De Chirico, C. Carr脙 , M. Mafai, Afro, R. Guttuso, etc.

Doria Pamphilj Gallery

The Doria Pamphilj Gallery is housed in the Palace of the same name, which is located on the Corso, but its entrance on the Piazza del Collegio Romano. On the days the building is open, it is also possible to visit the private and public rooms in the Palace. The Gallery includes works of Jacopo Tintoretto, Tiziano, Raffaello Sanzio, Correggio, Caravaggio, Guercino, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Parmigianino, Gaspard Dughet, Jan Brueghel il Vecchio, Velasquez,etc.

National Gallery of Ancient Art in Palazzo Barberini

Palazzo Barberini was designed by Maderno, and built on the site of the previous Villa Sforza, for Maffeo Barberini, who became pope with the title of Urban VIII. On Maderno's death in 1629, Gian Lorenzo Bernini took control of construction. One of his collaborators was Francesco Borromini. The great hall was decorated by Pietro da Cortona, who worked on it from 1633 to 1639: the allegorical theme centres on the "Triumph of Providence" and was intended to exalt the glory of the papal family. The Gallery includes works of Giulio Romano, Raffaello Sanzio, Perugino, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Tiziano, Tintoretto, Caravaggio, Tiepolo, Hans Holbein, N. Poussin, etc.

National Gallery of Ancient Art in Palazzo Barberini

Palazzo Barberini was designed by Maderno, and built on the site of the previous Villa Sforza, for Maffeo Barberini, who became pope with the title of Urban VIII. On Maderno's death in 1629, Gian Lorenzo Bernini took control of construction. One of his collaborators was Francesco Borromini. The great hall was decorated by Pietro da Cortona, who worked on it from 1633 to 1639: the allegorical theme centres on the "Triumph of Providence" and was intended to exalt the glory of the papal family. The Gallery includes works of Giulio Romano, Raffaello Sanzio, Perugino, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Tiziano, Tintoretto, Caravaggio, Tiepolo, Hans Holbein, N. Poussin, etc.

National Gallery of Modern Art

The National Gallery of Modern Art includes works of Balla, Morandi, Pirandello, Carr脙 , De Chirico, De Pisis, Guttuso, Fontana, Burri, Mastroianni, Turcato, Kandisky, C脙漏zanne, etc.

Spada Gallery

The Spada Gallery is housed in the Palace of the same name, once the property of Cardinal Girolamo Capodiferro (1501-1559). After the death of Cardinal Capodiferro the Palace passed to the Mignanelli family and was then bought in 1632 by Cardinal Bernardino Spada (1594-1661), who, from the moment he took up residence, decided not only to set up the basis of an art collection, but also decided on a series of modificatios employing various painters, sculptors and architets. Among the latter was Francesco Borromini who created the famous Perspective Gallery. The Gallery includes works of Gaspar Dughet, Guido Reni, Annibale Carracci, Jan Brueghel il Vecchio, etc.

Early Middle Ages Museum

The recently founded Museum (1967) contains archaeological material from excavations and collections relating to the period of time from late Antiquity to the high Middle Ages (from the fourth to the thirteenth centuries).

Museum of Palazzo Venezia

Palazzo Venezia was designated as the seat of the museum in 1916 when it passed into the possession of the Italian State after serving as the embassy of the Venetian Republic and later as the Austrian embassy. In 1911, to provide space for the monument to Victor Emanuel II on the far side of Piazza Venezia, the entire "greenhouse" of Paul II, which cornered on the main prospect, was moved and reconstructed with all its stones, marble and cloisters on the left side of the building. The Museum houses paintings from the thirteenth to eighteenth centuries, marble and carved-wood sculptures, bronzes, terracottas, pottery, china, silver, cloths, seals, medals, glassware, tapestries, enamels, etc.

Castel Sant'Angelo National Museum

Built, as was the Elian bridge in front, by the Emperor Hadrian (117-138) as a Mausoleum for himself and his successors, it was completed by Antoninus Pius in 139. In 271, the Emperor Aurelian incorporated the pile into the defence system he designed: it lost its function as a tomb to become a fortress. 　　In 1277 it was occupied by Nicholas II who connected it to the Vatican by the famous corridor, a safety passage which runs along the top of the encircling wall of the Vatican. Hencefort, it remained under the control of the Popes who used it as a fortress, to impress, but also as a prison and a place for torture.
　The Castle is divided into five floors:
Floor I from which starts the famous winding ramp about 400 feet long, a stupendous Roman costruction.
Floor II (or floor of the prisons) with horrible cells, called "historical" prisons, and store-rooms for wheat and oil.
Floor III (or military floor) with two big courtyards.
Floor IV (or papal floor) with the loggia of Julius II, by Bramante, in the principal part of the Castle and the papal apartment, consisting of magnificent rooms with frescoes by Giulio Romano, Perin del Vaga and others painters of Raphael's school, the Sala del Tesoro and Cagliostro's Room, the prison cell of the famous alchemist of the 18th century.
Floor V (top floor) with a big terrace, dominated by an Archangel in bronze by Wersschaffelt, from which we have a fine panorama of the city.

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