National Roman Museum, Baths of Diocletian

My wife and I had a wonderful time exploring the Museo Nazionale Romano in Rome, which offers an incredible collection of ancient Roman art, culture, and history. Established in 1889, the museum is spread across several historic sites, including Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Palazzo Altemps, the Baths of Diocletian, and Crypta Balbi, each offering a unique perspective on Rome’s vast archaeological heritage. We were especially impressed by the beautifully preserved frescoes, intricate mosaics, and lifelike marble sculptures, many of which date back to the height of the Roman Empire. The museum’s thoughtful layout and detailed explanations brought the ancient world vividly to life, making it a must-visit for anyone interested in the grandeur and daily life of ancient Rome.

A stunning location with incredible historical depth. The museum is beautifully maintained, and walking through the ruins at night adds a special atmosphere. The lighting outside highlights the ancient structure perfectly, making it feel almost surreal. It’s a peaceful place to explore, even more so after dark. Highly recommended for anyone interested in Roman history or architecture.

Nice easy access from termini. The architecture itself is better than the museum exhibition. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get access to underground today.

Excellent display of recovered artifacts that allow an up close view in a beautiful garden area. The indoor museum also has some fascinating examples of funerary objects from pagan, Christian and Jewish graves.

Good exhibit showing the size and magnitude of the Roman baths. Lots of statues and busts from what remains. 1 hour is all you really need.

A huge museum with information about the various families/empires that “contributed” to the collection. The ancient baths are stunning in their size and complexity. The display from artist Tony Cragg is a nice use of the huge hall.

So much to see, make sure you give yourself enough time to see everything. Most of Roman history is about the rich so I found it refreshing to see how everyday people lived.

The Museum of the Baths of Diocletian, part of the National Roman Museum, is located within the remains of the largest thermal complex of ancient Rome. It offers a glimpse into Roman history and culture, displaying a wide range of archaeological artifacts from prehistory to the early Roman Empire.

This is actually spread out over 2 (or more) buildings. These are diagonally across a large intersection from each other. Both are across streets from the Termini (train) Station. Also - our city pass purported to include this place for admission. However, when we arrived they said that there had been some change and it was not covered. We paid their fee anyway. Later, we got a reimbursement from the city pass company for this. We began our tour in the building to the right when you are facing the train station. It houses mostly statuary from the period from Julius Ceasar forward. They have busts of many of the emperors from the first couple of centuries of the empire (and their families, in some cases). There are other statues as well, plus things like a huge room's preserved wall paintings that were unearthed nearby. It is definitely heavy on busts, but I thought it was interesting. We then crossed the streets to the 2nd building, which is incorporated into the remains of a vast Roman baths complex. They had a variety of different exhibits here - about the baths, some more sculptures, an odd small shrine that was unearthed during a construction project (and which was preserved in a parking garage), details about pre-Roman villages in the area, etc. You could browse through and focus on a few areas of interest. There were also multiple courtyards to examine, each with its own statuary. This set of museums is probably best viewed after touring things like the Forum or Colosseum first. You then may have some basic context of where things happened, and can then start adding details about the major figures associated with the time period (and get some idea of what they looked like too). I enjoyed spending a morning here.

One of the stars of my visit to Rome. Let me start by saying I don't really like classical art. I appreciate it, I know it's significant...but the sculptures and bronzes and vases tire me out. So, I was skeptical heading into this museum, and then it took a look at my skepticism and laughed and growled, "What now, wise guy?" And all I can do is fold my hands and say I was beaten. I started on the top floor with the frescoes, and it's just unfair how good they are AND how well-preserved they are. You see wall murals from a merchant's house that have painterly skill we didn't see again until the Renaissance. Mind-blowing. Then the sculptures and sarcophagi are epic. For one sarcophagus, I had to sit down and process it for 5+ minutes. It was that beautiful. I'd come back here again and again. Great collection.

4 star for their collection 0 star for their horrible staff. 7:16pm Their staff walks behind me and makes this short "shi...shii..." sounds, as if he wants to chase a dog away. When I look at him, he used his hand to make this "get out" movement and more "shi..shi...shi..shi..." came out of his dirty mouth. I turned to him and told him that the museum opens till 7:45pm. And now it's only 7:16pm. He was shocked and didn't expect me to questioning him. He still told me that he wants closed the museum now because we are the only ones in the museum. I asked him what are the opening times in the museum. He used his fingers to tell me that the museum opens till 7pm. But at their entrance it shows the museum opens till 7:45 today. I show him he closing time on my phone and I also show him that now it's only 7:16pm. He then act like he doesn't understand and shout something in Italian and walks away. The same worker chatting super loud early with another worker when we were in one of the halls. He was leaning on the display that presents the sculptures as well. very disrespectfully. I thought he was one of the museum maintenance people because the way how he acts. 7:25, they successfully chased us out of the museum. It's a museum with beautiful sculptures collection and extremely rude rasim staff . Instead of talking like a normal person, he just use "shi...shi...shi" sounds.

This was our second visit to Palazzo Massimo. On our first visit in 2016, the lower level was closed. So we decided to come back and see it this time. We were able to see their collection of jewels, grave ornaments and Roman coins from different periods. The display cases were filled with pieces of jewelry discovered in ancient burial grounds in Rome and its suburbs, which illustrate the history and evolution of fashion and costume in the Roman Empire. The coin exhibit illustrates the story of money, from its origins to its function in modern times, describing the complicated social, political and economic aspects of coinage. We were astounded to see the amount of coins on display from the early years to the present. We found it all very interesting.

This museum was really cool to go through! I don't think it is a permanent exhibit, but when I was there, they had a pop art exhibit that took different ancient works of art and put them in a modern/pop art context. It was super interesting. They have 4 different floors with art and artifacts, and everything is curated very well. I especially love all of the different mosaic art pieces! Overall, I'd say that the ticket price is worth it!

2.50 Euros with the Roma pass discount. I would recommend going early, like as soon as they open. That's exactly what three of my friends and I did on our last day in Rome. We pretty much had the whole place to ourselves to be as loud and obnoxious as we wanted (not that a crowd would have stopped us. Kidding. Sort of). I liked this museum because it wasn't just paintings and sculptures. There were also a lot of cool artifacts and trivia about Rome. I wasn't just staring at pieces of artwork I don't understand the entire time. There's an outdoor portion and a courtyard so if you're planning on visiting during the cooler months, you might not want to check your jacket. You'll still have to check any large bags or backpacks though (free). It's also right near the Piazza della Repubblica if you want to check it out afterwards.

I only knew about this museum because I was searching for things to do in the area where our hotel was located. I think this should be a destination for anyone, regardless of where you are staying! Beautiful building and amazing exhibits -- sculptures, murals, whole rooms recreated! It was also a great place to visit before our trip to Pompeii -- so many things became a lot clearer. An added bonus: it was not crowded and you often had the whole floor to yourself, even for just a few minutes. Palazzo Massimo is also in a great part of the city, so explore the area -- great shopping, restaurants, churches, and a delicious Gelateria right on Via Nazionale, next to the Hotel Artemide!

Great place to see Greek & Roman sculptures from the Hellenistic times. They had sculptures of Roman emperors like Caesar. They Trojan soldiers sculptures but the one I wanted to see was ''The Boxer'' which is the Hellenistic one dated 2500 yrs ago. If u love Ancient Greek & Roman sculptures then visit this place while in Rome!!

A Surprising Find This museum was on the itinerary as a filler in case time was available and/or the weather was disagreeable. Since both conditions were met, we found our way here. It does not qualify as a top highlight of our Roman holiday, but it was certainly more enjoyable than we expected.

Time limits prevented us from seeing the coin collection and the Terme di Diocletian, also included in the price. But what we did see was so amazing it was worth it for the three floors we visited. Beautiful and well-preserved statuary and mosaics including a lot of relatively recent late 20th century archeological discoveries. The bronze boxer is outstanding as is the version of the discus thrower here. The busts of the various emperors and their wives are beautifully done and show much of their personalities. But don't miss the third floor, which not only has spectacular mosaics but also reconstructed rooms with frescoes from the actual villa of Livia (wife and widow of Augustus). She might historically have been a conniving b*tch but she evidently had an exquisite home. As others have mentioned this museum is very conveniently located right next to Roma Termini and across the piazza from the Terme di Diocletian and Santa Maria degli Angeli.

We used this with our pair of Roma Passes to get complimentary admission on the first 2 museums. Well, we were disappointed to learn that we didn't maximize the savings since the admission was lower than what was reported in Rick Steven's book. Oh well, also the three museums are not adjacent or even within a block of each other. So, we had to use our GPS to find it since the museum maps only showed its own museum and not the others. Anyways, I digress on this museum but this is probably the 2nd best of all 3 museums. There are both things to see indoors and outdoors but just be sure to get a map to make sure you visit all the galleries and exhibits. It can be quite the maze trying to find your way around this museum.

Location: About 5 minutes on foot from Termini. The place: I was pleasantly surprised by this museum! I woke up on a Sunday morning to a crazy thunderstorm so I used Google to see what I could do in Rome on a rainy day. This museum came up and since it was right by my flat, off I went. The Palazzo offers three floors of art - sculptures, paintings, frescoes, mosaics, coins - pretty much everything that you can think of. I have to say that they have an impressive selection of busts too, for some reason. Price point: I think I paid 7 Euro to enter the museum, which was perfectly reasonable to me.

The museum has 4 extensive floors of ancient Roman artifacts. It includes the busts of nearly everyone in Emperor Augustus's family, ancient Roman coins, Roman tomb stones, to artifacts from the Emperor Calagula's water palace etc. There are so many things to see, at times it is overwhelming. If you want to see everything in museum, you will need at least 3-4 hours and an energetic body and mind, but you will be amazed by the sheer beauty of the historical articles.

This museum has everything - coins, jewelry, a mummy (!), sculpture, paintings, the most wonderful collection of mosaics, wall paintings, artifacts. You can spend all day here, and you should. Put a piece of cheese in your purse.

This was a decent Museum. The collections are nice. I think the price is a little high for what they offer + several items were copies of the originals which are in other Museums (didn't care for that). When we visited several areas were closed too - specifically 5 areas which was nearly half of their exhibitions, I would like to have been told that before I paid for the tickets.

Excellent museum experience. We were able to browse the sculpture and mosaic collections at our leisure, unhurried by crowds. Highly recommended.

Nice museum. Not crowded on a Saturday morning. Nice variety of art so you won't get bored.