The world's first museum! (Capitoline Museums)

Member Name: vhart

Product:	Capitoline Museums
Date:	05/03/01 (52 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great collection

Disadvantages: none

The Capitoline Museums are, helpfully for those who tend to get themselves lost, situated on the Capitoline Hill, wedged between the unmissable Vittorio Emanuele Monument in Piazza Venezia, and The Forum.

From Roman Times this was the seat of the city authorities and it still is today. There are three sections to the museums, well, really two, but a 'link' passage which I'll count as a third.

The Piazza itself was designed by Michelangelo and is dominated by a statue of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (a copy.. the original is actually inside the museum).

There are three palazzi in the Piazza. The Palazzo Nuovo and the Palazzo dei Conservatori make up the museums themselves and the Palazzo Senatorio is where the city government still manage (or don't as the case may be) Roman affairs.

You should enter the museum through the Palazzo Nuovo (it doesn't really matter if you wander into the Palazzo dei Conservatori instead, they'll still sell you a ticket, but you'll have to walk back across the courtyard.. I guess it depends on how lazy you're feeling!). It costs 12.000L (as of February 2001 - this is about £4). You can also buy an audioguide which was quite interesting actually, although about half of it doesn't work.

Inside the museum itself, and probably because it is such an old museum, it doesn't have the layout you really might expect, because things have been arranged in themes rather than in date order, for example, there are lots of busts of emperors and greek philosophers, and they are housed in terms of 'Emperors', although they would have been sculpted hundreds of years apart. It does work though, and the palaces, themselves, are reason enough to visit, let alone what is actually contained within.

The link passage underneath the piazza has a walkway up to the Palazzo Senatorio and the collection of books and documents, then you resume your walk over to the
Palazzo dei Conservatorio. This is where the famous she-wolf of Rome statue is, always drawing much attention! The top floor is dedicated to paintings from all periods of italian history.

This really is a place you can lose yourself in, I'd put it behind the Vatican Museums, but only just. Even for non-museum people, there is enough to keep you entertained. I'd definitely recommend a visit for at least half a day.

Summary: