Pope Julius II (1503-13) founded the Vatican Museums, which at first housed a collection of ancient sculptures. However, it was Clement XIII (1758-69) who first came up with the idea of the museum. The Gregorian Etruscan Museum first opened in 1837 thanks to Pope Gregory XVI. It houses finds that date back to the nineteenth-century excavations carried out in southern Etruria. The Gregorian Egyptian Museum, which houses a collection of a series of statues depicting divinities or characters of the royal family, sarcophagi, mummies, and elements of funerary furnishings, opened in 1839. In 1844, Pope Gregory opened the Lateran Profane Museum (now the Gregorian Profane Museum and later the Pio Cristiano, which collects materials from excavations in the Roman catacombs, including numerous sarcophagi. In the second half of the sixteenth century, Ghirlandaio's “Resurrection of Christ” and Signorelli's “Disputation on the Body of Moses” frescoes, which had been damaged by the collapse of the architrave in 1522, were re-executed respectively by Hendrik van den Broeck and Matteo da Lecce. Completely restored between 1979 and 1999, the Sistine Chapel is still the seat of the Conclave, which gathers to elect the Supreme Pontiff.

Palazzo Braschi is a gem in the oldest heart of Rome. Palazzo Braschi contains countless works that tell and describe the social and artistic wealth of the capital from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the twentieth century. Specifically, more than one hundred thousand works are on display, including drawings, sculptures, engravings, photographs, frescoes and ceramics, many of which are exhibited in rotation. Palazzo Braschi is a must-see both for its architectural value and for its location in one of the oldest and most historic districts of Rome. The view of Piazza Navona makes it even more unique and rare.

The National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome located a few steps from Villa Borghese, is the only public museum dedicated exclusively to modern and contemporary art since its foundation, with a collection of 20,000 works from the nineteenth century to the present day. The National Gallery has a priceless heritage of masterpieces, both Italian and foreign. Paintings, drawings, sculptures and installations witness the main artistic movements of the period that goes from the nineteenth century to the present day: from Neoclassicism to Impressionism, from Divisionism to the historical avant-gardes of the early twentieth century, from Futurism to Surrealism, from the works of Italian art of the early twentieth century to the so-called Roman School tag. Different paths lead the visitors to the discovery of great works of art by famous Italian and foreign artists, such as Giacomo Balla, Alberto Burri, Paul Cézanne, Giorgio De Chirico, Marcel Duchamp, Lucio Fontana, Renato Guttuso, Francesco Hayez, Vasilij Kandinskij, Gustav Klimt, Jannis Kounellis, René Magritte, Joan Miró, Amedeo Modigliani, Piet Mondrian, Claude Monet, Giorgio Morandi, Vincent van Gogh and Andy Warhol.

Located along the Via Nomentana, Villa Torlonia still retains a particular charm due to the originality of the English landscape garden and the rich quantity of buildings and artistic furnishings scattered throughout the park. In 1832, Alessandro Torlonia continued to invest in the development of the area, new structures were built and romantic gardens were created. In 1978, it was acquired by the Municipality of Rome and transformed into a public park. The museums of Villa Torlonia include: The Casino Nobile owes its appearance to the intervention of Giuseppe Valadier (1802), Giovan Battista Caretti (1835-40) who added the pronaos of the façade, and to the many artists who worked on the interior decoration, including Podesti, Coghetti and Thorvaldsen. The Theatre of Villa Torlonia, which opened in 2013 after a long restoration, hosts a program of shows and is worth a visit to appreciate the extraordinary decorative apparatus consisting of frescoes, mosaics, statues, and paintings.

They are the oldest museums in the world, located in Piazza del Campidogli. The Capitoline Museums were founded in 1471 by Pope Sixtus IV, who donated a group of bronze statues to the people of Rome. The collections are housed in two buildings: Palazzo dei Conservatori and Palazzo Nuovo, which stand opposite the other in Piazza del Campigoglio, connected by an underground gallery. Palazzo Nuovo houses collections of ancient sculptures that once belonged to noble families. It has the most famous collections of busts of philosophers and Roman emperors. Palazzo dei Conservatori retains its original architectural core and it is decorated with splendid frescoes depicting the stories of Rome. It is enriched by the presence of the ancient Capitoline bronzes. The large glass hall on the first floor of the building houses the bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius. The Pinacoteca Capitolina has a collection of works of great importance dating back to a period that goes from the late Middle Ages to the eighteenth century, such as paintings by Caravaggio, the large canvas “The Burial of Saint Petronilla” by Guercino and several paintings by Guido Reni and Pietro da Cortona.

Renamed Trajan's Markets on the occasion of its rediscovery in the period between the years 1926 and 1934, the place was a multifunctional center for administrative activities. It backed up the Forum of Trajan, which was built in the same period. It is situated along the slopes of the Quirinal Hill. Its most famous part is known as the Great Hemicycle. The area underwent state-of-the-art conservation and structural restoration work between the years 2005 and 2007. Inaugurated in the autumn of 2007, the Museum of the Imperial Fora was the first museum of ancient architecture. It not only exhibits original fragments of the architectural and sculptural decorations from the past but also aims to provide a realistic vision of the splendor of the place in past times. The ultimate aim of the exhibition is to restore the "perception" of the size and richness of the Imperial Fora.

The idea of providing Rome with a national museum dedicated to contemporary arts materialised in 1997, when the Ministry of Cultural Heritage took over a large abandoned area in the Flaminio district, which had been occupied by workshops and pavilions of the former Montello Barracks. The project for the building was selected following an international competition launched by the Ministry for Cultural Heritage in 1998. The design of the MAXXI is different from that of other museums as it has a rich spacial and functional configuration. In the museum there is a collection of art and architecture of the twenty-first century, a research laboratory to learn about contemporary artistic expressions, a library, and an auditorium. Inaugurated in 2010, MAXXI, the National Museum of XXI Century Arts, is the first national museum dedicated to contemporary arts and architecture. It helds art and architecture exhibitions; photography exhibitions; fashion shows; film festivals; and theatre and dance performances. The MAXXI has permanent collections, whose works are exhibited according to a rotation plan, and temporary exhibitions. The art installations by Anish Kapoor, Sol Lewitt and Maurizio Mochetti are always on display.

Located within the park of the Villa of the same name, the Borghese Gallery houses the collection initially established by Cardinal Scipione Borghese at the beginning of the seventeenth century and preserves masterpieces by Antonello da Messina, Giovanni Bellini, Raffaello, Tiziano, Correggio, Caravaggio and splendid sculptures by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and the Canova. Cardinal Scipione Borghese, nephew of Pope PaulV, started to acquire works of art at the beginning of the seventeenth century and his collection was one of the greatest at the time. The most important sculptures and paintings date back to the period between the year 1579 and 1633. Cardinal Scipione was particularly interested in ancient, Renaissance and contemporary art which was designed to evoke a new golden age. One of the most famous masterpieces in the gallery is the group of sculptures that depicts the abduction of Proserpina, which was made by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and dates back to the period between the year 1621 and 1622. The portrait of Pauline Bonaparte Borghese, painted by Canova between the year 1805 and 1808, has been in the Villa since 1838. In 1807, Camillo Borghese sold 154 statues, 160 busts, 170 bas-reliefs, 30 columns and various vases to Napoleon; they are currently on display at the Louvre museum.

First opened in 1883, the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art was moved to its current location on the occasion of the Universal Exhibition in 1911. The monumental building that is home to the gallery was designed by the architect Cesare Bazzani. Paintings, drawings, sculptures, and installations witness the main artistic movements of the period that goes from the nineteenth century to the present day. from Neoclassicism to Impressionism, from. Since 2014, the Gallery has started a project with the aim of reorganizing its spaces. The exhibition called "Time is out of joint", a quote from William Shakespeare's Hamlet, presents time as non-linear, but rather as stratified. Different paths lead the visitors to the discovery of great works of art by famous Italian and foreign artists, such as Giacomo Balla, Alberto Burri, Paul Cézanne, Giorgio De Chirico, Marcel Duchamp, Lucio Fontana, Renato Guttuso, Francesco Hayez, Vasilij Kandinskij, Gustav Klimt, Jannis Kounellis, René Magritte, Joan Miró, Amedeo Modigliani, Piet Mondrian, Claude Monet, Giorgio Morandi, Vincent van Gogh and Andy Warhol.