Rome is so much more than the romantic and poetic image of what was once the capital of the world. You can take the opportunity to go to an exhibition with friends, be inspired by beauty, new ideas and timeless archetypes, keep up to date with what is most fashionable in art, and travel with both memories and new visions in mind. You can even plan your trip to the Eternal City around a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity like a must-see exhibit.
We have taken care to visit the current exhibitions and extraordinary openings so that we can offer you a selection based on a strict criterion: it deserves an extended visit to Rome. These are events for lovers of great stories, of history, of beauty, and for pilgrims of art.
Don’t miss a visit to Giacomo Balla’s house, which was completely furnished by the artist according to Futurist poetics. It is the chosen place transformed by the family into a work of art.
Casa Balla is an experimental laboratory made of painted walls and doors, decorated furniture and furnishings, homemade tools, paintings and sculptures, clothes designed and sewn at home, and many other objects that, together, have created a unique and kaleidoscopic total project. The house is a workshop, a universe dotted with shapes and colors in which even today one can breathe an atmosphere that reflects the ideas expressed in the manifesto on the Futurist Reconstruction of the Universe, signed by Giacomo Balla and Fortunato Depero in 1915. In Balla’s universe, functionality and aesthetics coexist, creating a new and vital union: art permeates everything, and the objects designed and built for everyday use—coffee tables, chairs, shelves, easels, ashtrays, plates, tiles—though simple in materials, are rich in creativity and make the apartment a magical place of metamorphosis.
Official website: http://casaballa.maxxi.art/
Location: Giacomo Balla’s House
Address: Via Oslavia
Hours: Thursday to Sunday, 10:00 am – 7:00 pm. Guided tour for up to 12 people. Reservations required.
Bernini and the Barberinis
“You are greatly fortunate, O Cavaliere, to see Cardinal Barberini as Pope; but ours is even greater, that Cavalier Bernini lives in our Pontificate.” This refers to the relationship between the artist, undoubtedly a genius, and his patron, Maffeo Barberini, who would sit on the throne of Peter as Pope Urban VIII from 1623 to 1644.
These masterpieces are the deployement of the Baroque spirit, which does not speak through reason but communicates emotion through the gleams reflected on precious marble drapes and intense gazes.
Official website: http://barberinicorsini.org
Location: Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica in Palazzo Barberini
Address: Via delle Quattro Fontane 13
Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 am to 7:00 pm (the ticket office closes at 6:00 pm).
Constantin Brâncuși. The Origins of Infinity
We see how Brâncuși’s works represent a radically new vision of sculpture, anticipating a modern conception of space, time, and form as essential expressions of infinity.
The works on display highlight the influence of the artisanal and symbolic traditions of Oltenia (a region of Romania), the artist’s native land, with its use of the “taille directe” and the archaic motifs of wood carving. On the other hand, they draw on the comparison with ancient Roman sculpture, which Brâncuși studied during his formative years as a model of formal perfection and a starting point for abstracting the essence of forms. The exhibition reconstructs the path that led Brâncuși from symbolic and realist figuration to a modernist synthesis based on extreme simplification and the abstract archetype. An interest in myth, archaism, and classical fragments intertwine with a progressive striving for pure forms, culminating in masterpieces.
Official website: http://www.mercatiditraiano.it
Location: Trajan’s Market Museum of the Imperial Fora
Address: Via Quattro Novembre 94
Hours: Daily from 9:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Last admission one hour before closing.
Robert Doisneau
The exhibition of this great artist’s images celebrates the 200th anniversary of photography’s birth as a means of expression and documentary. It was 1826 when Joseph Nicéphore Niépce took the first photograph in history, known as “View from the Window at Le Gras.”
An emotional journey through 140 black-and-white photographs by Robert Doisneau. His images tell us about twentieth-century life with irony, tenderness, and profound humanity. Born in Gentilly in 1912, Robert Doisneau was one of the leading exponents of so-called French humanist photography. He sought not effect, but the truth of a moment. With his unmistakable black-and-white, he captured everyday scenes, spontaneous gestures, and fleeting moments, transforming them into timeless images.
Official website: http://www.turismoroma.it/it/luoghi/museo-del-genio
Location: Museo del Genio
Address: Lungotevere della Vittoria, 31
Hours: Tue – Fri 10:00 – 19:30
FLOWERS. Marvelous Nature
Nature drawn, painted, colored, imagined, studied, analyzed, dissected, and represented. The endless competition between man and nature is on display, generating wonder, knowledge, curiosity, and the feeling that not everything is understood. The exhibition also addresses complex themes such as Art and Ecology, Art and Science, and Art and Politics, bringing together works by international artists. Different techniques and materials have been used by the artists to depict the complexity and richness of nature, including the use of the latest technologies and artificial intelligence, demonstrating an ongoing dialogue between art and science.
Activities for Children
The “Flowers. Wonderful Nature” exhibition pays special attention to families and children, with tools designed to make the visit accessible and enjoyable. The exhibition includes a kids’ itinerary, with captions placed at a suitable height for children and designed for shared reading.
One room of the exhibition is dedicated to experimentation and play: here, children, under adult supervision, can freely reimagine the experience by creating special flowers, conceived as lenses through which to observe the world, using the materials provided. This activity invites them to imagine, explore, and discover new ways of looking at nature together.
Official website: http://www.chiostrodelbramante.it/
Location: Chiostro del Bramante
Address: Arco della Pace 5
Hours: Sunday to Thursday, 10:00 am to 8:00 pm (last admission at 7:00 pm) Friday and Saturday, 10:00 am to 9:00 pm (last admission at 8:00 pm).
From Vienna to Rome. Habsburg Wonders from the Kunsthistorisches Museum
The artworks on display were collected or commissioned between the 16th and 19th centuries by key figures of the House of Habsburg—from Emperor Rudolf II to Archduchess Isabella Clara Eugenia, from Archduke Leopold Wilhelm to Empress Maria Theresa—rendering the image of a multiethnic, multicultural, and multireligious empire that used art as a tool for cultural representation, dissemination of knowledge, and dialogue between civilizations.
You can admire the great masterpieces of European art from the 16th to the 19th centuries, on loan from Vienna to Rome for the exhibition.
Exploring the dynastic collection of the Habsburgs—who, let us remember, held the title of Holy Roman Emperor for centuries—allows us to understand how art is an emblem of splendor, a display of culture, and a common language that does not require translation.
Official website: http://museodelcorso.com
Location: Museo del Corso – Museum Complex – Palazzo Cipolla
Address: Via del Corso 320
Hours: Monday 3:00 PM to 8:00 PM, Tuesday and Wednesday 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM, Thursday and Friday 10:00 AM to 9:00 PM, Saturday and Sunday 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM. The ticket office closes one hour early.
Hokusai a prolific, visionary, and tireless Japanese painter and printmaker, observed life with extraordinary sensitivity, monumental and powerful nature, and human beings. He was capable of transforming nature into rhythm and harmony.
“Everything I drew before the age of seventy is not worth considering… At ninety, I will have penetrated the mystery of nature. At one hundred, I will be a marvelous artist. At one hundred and ten, everything I create, a point, a line, will come to life as never before. To all of you who will live as long as I have, I promise to keep my word.”
It was indeed after the age of seventy that he created some of his most celebrated masterpieces, including his most famous image: The Great Wave off Kanagawa.
Alongside Hokusai’s masterpieces, the exhibition also features a collection of over 180 pieces, including rare books and precious Japanese objects, including lacquerware, cloisonné enamels, travel accessories, armor, helmets, and swords, as well as traditional musical instruments. Costumes (kimonos, haori jackets, and obi sashes) visually accompany the visit, creating a continuous dialogue between art, daily life, and the spirituality of Japanese culture.
An educational tour through the rooms will allow visitors to delve into the complex yet fascinating world of the technical and artistic production of Hokusai and his students.
Official website: http://www.mostrepalazzobonaparte.it
Location: Palazzo Bonaparte
Address: Piazza Venezia 5
Hours: Monday to Thursday 9:00 am – 7:30 pm; Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 9:00 am – 9:00 pm (the ticket office closes one hour earlier)
Mario Schifano (Holms, Libya 1934-Rome 1998) The exhibition showcases the artistic career of one of the most significant and popular figures in recent Italian art.
Official website: http://www.palazzoesposizioniroma.it
Location: Palazzo Esposizioni Roma
Address: Via Nazionale 194
Hours: Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 am – 8:00 pm. Last admission one hour before closing.
Tragicomica. Perspectives on Italian Art from the Second Half of the Twentieth Century to the Present is an exhibition that explores the trajectory of Italian art in recent decades, focusing on artists who have made the tension between tragedy and comedy central to their poetics and their perspective on the world. The exhibition features 300 works by 130 artists.
Official website: http://www.maxxi.art
Location: Maxxi Rome
Address: Via Guido Reni, 4a
Hours: Tue – Sun 11:00 – 19:00
Vasari and Rome
With the aim of revealing to the public the richness and complexity of his multifaceted figure as a painter, architect, set designer, and biographer, but also as an extraordinary interpreter and witness to the lives of popes, lords, men of letters, and artists of the 16th century, Rome pays homage to one of the great protagonists of the Renaissance.
Official website: http://www.museicapitolini.org
Location: Capitoline Museums
Address: Piazzale Caffarelli
Hours: Daily 9:30 am – 7:30 pm. Last admission one hour before closing.
