Rome Capitoline Museums Tickets: how to buy and what to see
I tell you what you can't miss at the Capitoline Museums and give you some tips on how to get your tickets at the best price.
Inside the Capitoline Museums | ©Mike Bradley
The Capitoline Museums are the first space dedicated to art in history. Located on top of the Capitoline Hill, they are two buildings that hold a collection of art of the Catholic Church donated by Pope Sixtus IV.
If you are thinking of visiting them during your trip to Rome, I will tell you how to do it:
Rome Capitoline Museum Tickets
Access to the Capitoline Museums without queues and at the best price
Perfect if you want to tour the museum at your own pace and not join a guided tour. With this option, you will save time by skipping the queues at the ticket office.
Buying your tickets to the Capitoline Museums online is a very good option to save you the entrance queues and ensure your visit. This museum operates with time slots to distribute tickets to visitors, so I highly recommend buying your ticket in advance.
You will be able to explore the rooms full of sculptures, artifacts and archaeological remains of the Roman Empire, at your own pace and without haste because even though you have a fixed entry time you can stay in the Capitoline Museums buildings as long as you want.
Why I like this option: it is the easiest and cheapest way to visit the Capitoline Museums at your own pace. You won't have to stick to a guide's itinerary and you will have time to visit at your own pace.
I recommend it if... you organize your trip on your own or you know the history of Rome well enough to not need a guide during the visit.
Rome Capitoline Museum Guided Tour
Discover the Museum with an expert guide
This is the best option to join a guided tour of the Capitoline Museums in English. You will walk through all the rooms with a specialized guide who will make sure you enjoy the tour to the fullest.
Another way to do this visit is with a tour of the Capitoline Museums, in which a professional guide expert in the history of the Roman Empire will take you to see the most unique works of art and objects that this museum has to offer.
Just like buying tickets in advance, this tour guarantees you to skip the lines and will offer a narration entirely in English. After the guided tour, you can wander around the museum at your leisure if you've been left wanting to see something else.
Something that sets this tour apart from others is that it is done in a small group of a maximum of 13 people, which ensures a close relationship with the guide and avoids the burden of being part of a crowd of tourists.
Why I like this option: a guided tour in a place with so much historical context and so many details, in my opinion is always a good choice. You will be able to understand everything you see and an expert guide will make sure you don't miss the essential works.
I recommend it if... you want to understand and contextualize better what you see, besides being surrounded by a small group, which will make the visit much more intimate.
Buy your ticket to the Capitoline Museums at the box office
You can buy your tickets at the ticket office, which is on the first floor of the Palazzo dei Conservatori. The price of the general admission ticket is 15 €, and reduced admission for people between 6 and 25 years old or over 65 is 13 €. My recommendation, both for this experience and for any other visit to Rome that requires a ticket, is to purchase tickets online in advance.
The only advantage of deciding to buy tickets at the ticket office is that you can improvise the visit and leave it for the time you want, but in return you will lose a lot of time in the queue and nothing assures you get a ticket for the time you want.
What to see at the Capitoline Museums
The Capitoline Museums are spread over two buildings surrounding the Piazza del Campidoglio, and are considered a single museum where you can see everything: Roman bronze and marble statues of ancient times, impressive frescoes of medieval and Renaissance times and also from the museum you will have a brutal view of the Roman Forum.
I tell you some of the spaces that you can not miss:
Palazzo dei Conservatori
Start your visit by entering the building in front of the Palazzo Nuovo. In the courtyard, you can admire the fragments of the imposing Colossus of Constantine, a statue that used to occupy a place of prominence in the Roman Forum.
Continue to the Hall of Tapestries, also known as the Hall of the Throne, since in the 18th century it was used as the command room of the pontiff of Rome. You will see impressive tapestries reproducing historical scenes of ancient Rome, and reproductions of works by Rubens.
Galleria Lapidaria
It is a subway gallery that exhibits more than a hundred stone inscriptions that were used for both public and private life in Rome in antiquity. You can read informative texts about tombs, laws, trades and merchant affairs, and military orders.
Palazzo Nuovo
This is, in my opinion and in the opinion of many people who visit the Capitoline Museums, the wing of the museum that you definitely cannot miss. Here you will find some of the most beautiful marble statues in the History of Art, and as you enter you will fall under the hypnosis of the statue of Marforio, the god of the river, who will welcome you in a portico flanked by niches inhabited by statues in perfect symmetry with the design of the floor. A real fantasy.
What to consider before booking
- You will receive a confirmation email when you book your tickets or tour, at the email address you provided. Open it to check that everything is correct, and my advice is to keep it in prominent mailboxes as you will need to show it at the ticket office or to your guide at the meeting point.
- You can return the tickets or cancel the tour at any time, which is an advantage over buying tickets by other means. However, to receive a 100% refund, you will need to do so 24 hours before the start of the experience. You will see the instructions in the confirmation email.
Tips for visiting the Capitoline Museums
- In addition to what I've been telling you about in my itinerary, the museum has a lot of other things you can see, such as coins and jewelry from ancient times that you'll love to peruse if you're passionate about history.
- The Capitoline Museums are open to the public Tuesday through Sunday from 9:30 am to 7:30 pm, except on December 24 and 31 when they close at 2:00 pm. On January 1, May 1 and December 25 the museum is closed all day.
- You can take photos inside the museum, but flash and tripod are not allowed.
- If you are carrying a large backpack or bag, you will have to leave it at the ticket office, which costs 1 €. If this is your case, remember to bring loose change.
- The closest metro stop to the Capitoline Museums is Colosseo (line B), which is about a 15-minute walk away. Some nearby bus stops are Teatro Marcello-Ara Coeli, Teatro Marcello, Piazza Venezia, Piazza Venezia-Ara Coeli, Fori Imperiali and Plebiscito.
Other activities that may interest you
After touring the Capitoline Museums, if you haven't already, I recommend visiting the Roman Forum. There are plenty of guided tours and experiences that take you to visit them along with the Colosseum, and you can read more about Rome Colosseum tickets and Colosseum guided tours.
And if you are one of those people who tirelessly tour the museums of the cities you visit, you can't miss the Vatican Museums. The richness of centuries and centuries of art are the treasure of its collection, which houses works by Da Vinci, Titian, Caravaggio, Raphael, and a must-see of Rome such as the Sistine Chapel.
Read more about how to get your Vatican tickets at the best price or take a guided tour of the Vatican with an expert guide to make the most of your visit.