National Roman Museum – Palazzo Massimo

`` ...When Rome falls, the world will fall``, The Venerable Bede

Step back in time and discover the beauty of ancient Rome with a guided tour of the National Roman Museum at Palazzo Massimo. Experience the magnificence of ancient Rome exploring the many treasures that this incredible museum has to offer, including stunning mosaics, sculptures, and frescoes.

After your visit to the Roman Forum and the ruins of the imperial palaces on Palatine Hill, you may be curious to see what Roman senators and emperors really looked like. If you’d like to get a deeper understanding of the way they lived, as well as being able to admire the richness that must have made the mighty Rome a spectacular place, then the National Roman Museum at Palazzo Massimo is just what you are looking for.

Palazzo Massimo houses the best part of the collection of the National Roman Museum. It is truly a treasure trove of ancient Roman art, in a quantity and quality that surpasses the Vatican Palaces’ antiquity collections. More importantly, you will be able to appreciate all this beauty in a much quieter and calmer environment. This museum simply blows away anything else you’ll find in Rome when it comes to Classical era statues, frescoes, and mosaics.

Just to name a few of its fabulous masterpieces: the famous “Boxeur at rest,” which will strike you by the intensity of its look; the exquisite paintings from the villa of Livia (Augustus’s wife). These frescoes paintings depict a view of a naturalistic garden, complete with birds and plants in their resplendent glory. They were removed from their original location, a suburban villa, and installed at the Palazzo Massimo.

Not be missed with your children, the first true Barbie in history, a doll made of ivory that was found in 1964 in the tomb of an ancient Roman girl, discovered mummified in her sarcophagus.

This tour of Palazzo Massimo combines perfectly with the Ancient Rome Tour to give you full insight into ancient Roman art and can also be enjoyed in its kid-friendly version.

Read more about the Boxer at Rest on my blog article: https://www.seeromewithme.com/masterpieces-from-ancient-rome-the-boxer-at-rest/

Main highlights, including (but not limited to):

✓ Statue of emperor Augustus as Pontifex Maximus
✓ Boxeur at Rest
✓ The Hellenistic Prince
✓ Fragments of a Roman calendar
✓ Roman portraiture
✓ The Discobolus (Discus Thrower)
✓ Bronze decorations from the lost ships of Caligula
✓ Garden Paintings from the Villa of the Empress Livia
✓ Paintings and Mosaics from ancient Roman villas
✓ Insignia of emperor Maxentius discovered in 2005

Tour duration: 2.5 hours
Meeting point: the tour guide will wait for you outside the Museum in Largo di Villa Peretti 2 (close to the metro station Repubblica)