Palazzo Barberini

The draw

Raphael's La Fornarina, Caravaggio's Judith Beheading Holofernes and Holbein's portrait of Henry VIII hang in one building, ten minutes' walk from the Trevi Fountain. Palazzo Barberini holds the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, the main national collection of older paintings in Rome, and the palace is itself the exhibit: Carlo Maderno, Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini all worked on it, and Pietro da Cortona covered the salon ceiling with an allegory that changed how ceilings were painted across Europe.

The problem when visiting

Almost nobody goes. It sits on a busy road between Piazza Barberini and the Quirinal, its entrance is a gate rather than a grand staircase, and visitors walking from the Trevi Fountain to the Spanish Steps pass within two streets of it without knowing what is inside. It also closes on Mondays, like the Baths of Caracalla and the Centrale Montemartini but unlike the civic museums most people learn the rhythm of first. And the ticket is widely misunderstood — bought as a Barberini ticket when it is in fact a two-palace ticket good for twenty days.

The tactic

Understand what you are buying before you buy it. The €15 ticket covers Palazzo Barberini and the Galleria Corsini across the Tiber, and it stays valid for twenty days — so the two do not have to be done together, or even in the same week. If you are an EU citizen aged 18 to 25 the same ticket is €2. Go on a weekday morning, start in the salon under the Cortona ceiling before your neck tires, and take the two staircases in both directions: Bernini's square one up, Borromini's oval one down.

Skip it if you:

• Are here on a Monday. Closed, and so is the Corsini.
• Have already spent a day in the Vatican Museums. This is a concentrated painting gallery and it deserves a fresh head.
• Want one Caravaggio and nothing else. San Luigi dei Francesi has three, in a church, for nothing.
• Are travelling with restless children. There is no garden route and little to touch.

Book the free Sunday rather than just turning up. The operator asks for it, and the first Sunday of the month concentrates a month's free admissions into one day in rooms that were built for a household, not a crowd.

Do not lean on the stair rails. Both staircases are original seventeenth-century work by named architects, and the oval helicoidal one in particular takes its load in ways a modern stair does not.

No flash in the painting rooms. The Galleria Nazionale hangs oil on panel and canvas four centuries old, and light is cumulative.

Use the whole ticket. It covers the Galleria Corsini for twenty days and most people never use that half. Crossing the river spreads visitors across two buildings instead of concentrating them in one, and the Corsini is quieter still.

Carry the right document if you are claiming a concession. The €2 rate needs proof of EU citizenship and age, and the free categories need the relevant card or press credential; arguing at the desk holds up a queue that is otherwise short.

The ticket is better than it looks, in two ways

It covers two palaces. The €15.00 full ticket admits you to Palazzo Barberini and the Galleria Corsini, on the other side of the Tiber in Trastevere.

And it stays valid for twenty days. That is an unusually long window by Roman standards, and it means the two palaces need not be visited together, on the same day, or even in the same week of a longer trip.

If you are an EU citizen aged 18 to 25, that same two-palace, twenty-day ticket costs €2.00. Metrebus card holders pay €12.00.

Hours

Closed Mondays. Open Tuesday to Sunday, 10.00 to 19.00, with the ticket office closing at 18.00 — an hour before the galleries, which catches out late arrivals. Also closed on 25 December and 1 January.

Ticket & Pass Decision Matrix

One booking note. The advance ticket service for individuals covers parties of up to 10 people and runs on +39 0639967500, every day from 9.00 to 18.00.

What is free

Less than at most Roman sites, and more than you would guess. From via delle Quattro Fontane the portico facade and the false glass loggia above it read from the pavement, and the Barberini arms — three bees under the papal tiara and crossed keys — are on the outside of the building where anyone can see them. The Sforza wing on Piazza Barberini, the villa Maderno refused to demolish, is visible from the square. None of the collection is.

But the free CATEGORIES here are unusually wide, and they are the real free entry: everyone under 18; EU students and faculty in architecture, humanities with an archaeological or art-historical course, cultural heritage, educational science and fine-arts academies; ICOM members; tour guides with valid ID; journalists with a valid press card; and people with disabilities with one companion. Add the free first Sunday of every month and the free days of 25 April, 2 June and 4 November, and a large share of visitors pay nothing at all.

Getting there

Via delle Quattro Fontane 13, between Piazza Barberini and the Quirinal. Metro line A to Barberini. Buses 53, 61, 62, 63, 80, 81, 83, 160, 492 and 590. It is about ten minutes on foot from the Trevi Fountain.

On the ground

Allow two hours. Begin in the salon under Pietro da Cortona's ceiling while your neck is fresh, then work the painting rooms, and use both staircases — Bernini's and Borromini's — rather than the same one twice. The Barberini Mithraeum is a separate guided visit and is not included in the general route.

Any day except Monday. Closed, and so is the Galleria Corsini that shares its ticket.

Weekday mornings are the quietest. This is not a crowded museum by Roman standards at any time, but the rooms are palace rooms rather than purpose-built galleries and a dozen people fill them.

Arrive before 18.00, whatever the closing time says. The galleries run until 19.00 but the ticket office shuts at 18.00, so a 18.15 arrival is a locked desk in front of an open museum.

Free days are the first Sunday of each month, plus 25 April, 2 June and 4 November. The operator itself recommends booking ahead for them, which is a fair indication of how busy they get.

The twenty-day ticket changes the planning. Because the Barberini and the Corsini can be separated by up to three weeks, there is no need to force them into one day — take the Barberini early in a trip and the Corsini when you are next near Trastevere.