Spot in Rome- I Musei Capitolini

A Word on ‘Spots in Rome’

Close up of Colosseo

First, my number one spot in Rome is the Pantheon, but I provide some key information about it as the introduction to the restaurant Armando Al Pantheon. Even if you do not eat at the restaurant, a visit to this special spot is a necessity.  You will notice that I do not highlight the Colosseo (also known as the Flavian Amphitheater)   or the Musei Vaticani (Vatican museums) and the Basilica di San Pietro (St. Peter’s Basilica) as part of my 10 selected spots. If you are visiting Rome for the first time, I certainly recommend paying tribute.

The golden glow of San Pietro by name, my favorite time to observe its glory

A tour is a great idea and you will be able to find the right fit and price with some elementary googling.  I chose these additional 10 spots because, while you can certainly seek out a guided tour for each one, it is not necessary. I have endeavored to include key information to better inform your experience of each place and personally think this will be enough for a rewarding experience even without an official tour!

I Musei Capitolini 

     After the Pantheon,  the number 1 ‘must visit’ spot in my book are I Musei Capitolini (The Capitoline Museums). Now, as mentioned, the Vatican museums are a ‘must visit’ for most, and I would never discourage you from experiencing them, but I can almost guarantee your experience of visiting the Capitoline museums will be more pleasant. The museum also hold the title of the world’s oldest national museum, as it was founded in 1471 when Pope Sixtus IV donated a collection of important bronze statues to the people of Rome.  Despite this, I have only witnessed a line to purchase tickets on a free museum Sunday, which used to happen on the first Sunday of every month but was changed this year. Find out more here.

But I digress, and the point is, you will not wait in a long, slow-moving line to access the world renown collection of art from antiquity that is housed in these museums. You can now also purchase the tickets online, bring the receipt and go straight in, without having to pass by the ticket office at the museum. Buy tickets here.

The Cordonata Capitolina with the central facade adorned with colors of the Italian flag

Even a visit to the outside of this museum is worth it, that is, to access the museum, you must climb the imposing staircase, the Cordonata Capitolina, which lead up to one of the seven hills of Rome, the Campidoglio (or Capitol hill). You may have gleaned from the name ‘Capitoline’ that the museum is in fact perched on top of this famous hill of Rome which has been a part of the Roman story for over 2,500 years.  The stairs I mentioned and the piazza up top, however, were constructed during the Renaissance. Commissioned by Pope Paul III Farnese, the legendary Michelangelo Buonarroti designed the stairs and square at the top of the hill (and between the two wings of the museum) in 1536, in anticipation of a visit from Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor.  He created a distinctive trapezoidal design that you can still admire today. The stairs were not finished until 1581-1582, however, after Michelangelo’s death; therefore, it was Giacomo della Porta who carried out his plans posthumously.

equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius

In the center of Michelangelo’s square, you will see the imposing equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, emperor of Rome from 161-180 AD. This bronze statue was first displayed in 175 AD (though scholars are uncertain where it was originally showcased). We do know that the original statue stood in this place on the Capitoline hill from mid 16th century, when Michelangelo was redesigning the appearance of the hill; however, in 1981, it was moved inside of the museum for safekeeping and replaced with a replica. It is a copy that you see in the piazza today.  In addition to this original treasure, you will also see other masterpieces inside the museum.

Lupa Capitolina

The main entrance is located in the Palazzo dei Conservatori, that is, the building to your right if you are facing the equestrian statue. The Colossal Head of Constantine will greet you upon entering the courtyard in this building; it is of great historical importance but also a great photo-op. You will find other rather large fragments on display in this courtyard as well. Also in this building is the Lupa Capitolina (the She-wolf) which has long been the symbol of Rome, as the statue displays the wolf with two boys, Romulus and Remus, the twin boys and founders of Rome, according to the mythology. This sculpture has long been dated all the way back to the 5th century BCE; however, recently, in 2006 to be specific, this origin has come into question with more advanced lab analyses. This recent discover spoiled a bit of the magic for me when I read about it, but knowledge is power, so find out more here, if interested.

Upon entering the second ‘palace’ of the museums, the Palazzo Nuovo, you will find the impressive statue known as Marforio, or a Statue of a River God. Find out more here. I love the Hall of the Emperors and the Hall of the Philosophers, both in the Palazzo Nuovo, but in the spirit of literary pursuits, I have a favorite room, that I declare is the most literary place in Rome. The spirit of great letters hangs in the air, with multiple connections to the art of writing throughout time and space. The room known as the Hall of the Galatian takes its name from the statue of the Dying Gaul (or Dying Galatian) which is placed in the center of the room. Lord Byron wrote a poignant almost synesthetic description of this statue in his Canto IV from Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, published in 1818:

Dying Gaul (or Dying Galatian

I see before me the gladiator lie:

 He leans upon his hand; --- his manly brow

 Consents to death, but conquers agony,

 And his drooped head sinks gradually low ---

 And through his side the last drops, ebbing slow

 From the red gash, fall heavy, one by one,

 Like the first of a thunder-shower; and now

 The arena swims around him --- he is gone,

 Ere ceased the inhuman shout which hailed the wretch who won.

 This selection is from stanza 140. See the full poem here, as Byron continues to address the gladiator in the following stanza. Also in this room is a statue, known as The Marble Faun, as over a century after Byron’s commentary on the gladiator, the American author Nathaniel Hawthorne used this sculpture as inspiration for his last complete novel; The Marble Faun was published in 1860 and the first lines of the novel describe this same room:

Four individuals, in whose fortunes we should be glad to interest the reader, happened to be standing in one of the saloons of the sculpture-gallery in the Capitol at Rome. It was that room (the first, after ascending the staircase) in the centre of which reclines the noble and most pathetic figure of the Dying Gladiator, just sinking into his death-swoon. Around the walls stand the Antinous, the Amazon, the Lycian Apollo, the Juno; all famous productions of antique sculpture, and still shining in the undiminished majesty and beauty of their ideal life, although the marble that embodies them is yellow with time, and perhaps corroded by the damp earth in which they lay buried for centuries.

The Marble Faun in the Capitoline Museums

The Marble Faun (called Statue of Resting Satyr on the Capitoline website) is mentioned a few paragraphs later when three American artists and friends notice that a fourth friend, an Italian, resembles this ancient statue a great deal: “Our friend Donatello is the very Faun of Praxiteles. Is it not true, Hilda?” This is one of my favorite novels, and though the 19th century language takes some getting used to, it is a compelling and rewarding read.

Henry James also uses this hall as the setting for one of the most powerful scenes in his Portrait of a Lady, published in 1881. But unlike Hawthorne’s use of the gallery, where four friends communicate together about the sculptures that surround them—the Dying Gladiator, Antinous, and Praxiteles’ Faun, Isabel Archer, James’ resilient protagonist, turns inward in this weighed space, she communes silently with the statues. I quote the entire passage here:

...left alone in the glorious room, among the shining antique marbles. She sat down in the centre of the circle of these presences, regarding them vaguely, resting her eyes on their beautiful blank faces; listening, as it were, to their eternal silences. It is impossible, in Rome, at least, to look long at a great company of Greek sculptures without feeling the effect of their noble quietude.... I say in Rome especially, because the Roman air is an exquisite medium for such impressions. The golden sunshine mingles with them, the deep stillness of the past, so vivid yet, though it is nothing but a void full of names, seems to throw a solemn spell over them. The blinds were partly closed in the windows of the capitol, and a clear, warm shadow rested on the figures and made them more mildly human. Isabel sat there a long time, under the charm of their motionless grace, wondering to what, of their experience, their absent eyes were open, and how, to our ears, their alien lips would sound. The dark red walls of the room threw them in to relief: the polished marble floor reflected their beauty. She had seen them all before, but her enjoyment repeated itself, and it was all the greater because she was glad again, for the time, to be alone.

I love to reflect on this passage while standing in this significant room now 139 years after the description was published. The walls are no longer “dark red” if they ever were, but the impressions are just as moving and the “eternal silences” continue to enchant.

View over the Roman Forum from the Capitoline Hill at night

Finally, when you pass from one branch of the museum (Palazzo dei Conservatori) to the other (Palazzo Nuovo) you will be greeted with a gorgeous view over the Roman Forum from the Tabularium, an ancient Roman building that lies under the modern Palazzo Senatorio. See a picture of the two here. The Palazzo Senatorio has been Rome's City Hall since 1870; find out more about the construction and reconstruction here.

Practically speaking, the museum also has a rather new and improved café with a rooftop terrace, the Terrazza Caffarelli, from which you can admire views of the eternal city. You can access it from around the right side facing the statue of Marcus Aurelias, even if you do not visit the museum. I also like the little park area directly below the café; it is never very crowded and you can sit along the walls and admire the Vittoriano monument  to your right, the top of the synagogue in the Ghetto area and the Teatro di Marcello to your left, and the teeming Piazza Venezia down below. On weekends, I like to run here and then take some time for quiet reflection.  

Empty park area just underneath the Terrazza Caffarelli