Capitoline Museums
Open to the public since 1734 — among the world's oldest museums, where the real gilded Marcus Aurelius rides indoors and a copy holds the square outside.
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Michelangelo laid out Piazza del Campidoglio in 1536, and the collection behind it opens with Pope Sixtus IV's 1471 founding gift — the Capitoline Wolf and the Boy with Thorn — alongside the Dying Gaul, purchased in 1734.
What to look for
- The original gilded equestrian Marcus Aurelius, moved indoors to its glass Exedra room in 1990; the version on the piazza is a replica.
- The scattered fragments of the 4th-century Colossus of Constantine in the Palazzo dei Conservatori courtyard — the pieces a full-scale 1:1 reconstruction was built from in 2024.
- The Galleria Lapidaria, the 1930s underground passage linking the two palazzi, lined with about 130 inscriptions.
The two identical-faced palazzi — Palazzo Nuovo and Palazzo dei Conservatori — connect underground via the Galleria Lapidaria, so you can cross between them without returning to the piazza.
Capitoline Museums is one of 40 sights worth the detour in Rome, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Rome pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Rome
- Vatican CityThe world's smallest sovereign state fits in 44 hectares — you cross its border by stepping over a white line.
- ColosseumAround 50,000 Romans packed this stone oval to watch spectacles staged over a two-level warren of cages beneath the arena floor.
- St. Peter's BasilicaThe world's largest church, built directly over the grave believed to hold St. Peter's bones.
- Sistine ChapelMichelangelo painted the ceiling standing up, not on his back — and cardinals still elect the pope in this room.
- PantheonA 1,900-year-old concrete dome with a hole punched in the top — when it rains in Rome, it rains inside too.
- Stadio OlimpicoOne 70,634-seat bowl, two cross-town tenants: AS Roma and SS Lazio both play here.