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Museo delle Arti e Tradizioni Popolari
You might well have to wake up the ticket seller at this sleepy museum dedicated to folk art and rural tradition. Not one of Rome's great museums, it's nevertheless more interesting than it sounds, with an eclectic collection of agricultural and artisan tools, clothing, musical instruments and a room full of carnival costumes and artefacts.
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Museo delle Cere
Madame Tussaud's it ain't, but Rome's waxworks museum does at least provide some light-hearted relief from the highbrow culture all around you. Ranging from Francesco Totti to Snow White, the 250 wax figures include poets, politicians, murderers and priests.
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Museo di Roma
Housed in the 18th-century Palazzo Braschi, the Museo di Roma's eclectic collection of paintings, photographs, etchings, clothes and furniture charts the history of Rome from the Middle Ages to the first half of the 20th century. Of more interest than the collection, however, is the palazzo itself.
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Museo Di Roma In Trastevere
Trastevere's traditions and folklore are celebrated at this small museum. The 1st-floor permanent collection comprises several recreations of everyday scenes from 19th-century Trastevere and a small selection of watercolours depicting communal life. It's all very kitsch but the kids might enjoy it and it's been done well. The downstairs rooms are often used to stage temporary exhibitions.
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Museo e Galleria Borghese
This 'queen of all private collections' was formed by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the most passionate and knowledgeable art collector of his day. The collection - including works by Caravaggio, Bernini, Botticelli and Raphael - and the mansion were acquired by the Italian state in 1902; a lengthy restoration took place in the 1990s.
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Museo Ebraico di Roma
The historical, cultural and artistic heritage of Rome's Jewish community is chronicled in this small but engrossing museum. Housed in the city's early-20th-century synagogue which, since a terrorist attack in 1982, has a permanent carabinieri guard stationed outside, it presents harrowing reminders of the hardships experienced by Europe's oldest Jewish community.
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Museo Nazionale d'Arte Orientale
Swap continents at Rome's little-known but impressive National Museum of Oriental Art. Set in a fabulously camp palazzo (palace), its collection of near- and far-Eastern treasures includes carved ancient Afghani marble, richly hued 15th-century Kubachi ceramics, painted Tibetan fans from the 11th to 18th centuries and intricate Nepalese textiles. English-language information is wanting, but the pieces speak for themselves.
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Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo (Maxxi)
Housed in a former army barracks and built to an avant-garde design by Anglo-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, MAXXI is one of two modern art galleries the city authorities hoped would electrify Rome's contemporary art scene (the other being MACRO). Unfortunately, it's not yet running at full tilt, opening only for temporary exhibitions by contemporary Italian and international artists.
Read more about Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo (Maxxi)
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Museo Nazionale delle Paste Alimentari
Pasta is celebrated in all its fascinating glory at this wonderfully straight-faced museum. It's the only museum in the world dedicated to more than two millennia of pasta and it takes its responsibilities seriously - there are exhibitions explaining the production process, the differences between various pastas and how best to cook them. A highlight is the Neapolitan Room, with its photos of film stars tucking into plateloads of the stuff.
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Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia
This is the ideal place to bone up on Etruscan history. Italy's finest collection of pre-Roman treasures is bilingually labelled in Pope Julius III's 16th-century pleasure palace. The impressive villa and gardens were mostly the work of Vignola, Vasari and the artist Ammannat. Michelangelo also chipped in before getting on the wrong side of the irascible pope. It has pretty frescoed loggias and a much-imitated nymphaeum .
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Museo Nazionale Romano: Crypta Balbi
This, the latest addition to the Museo Nazionale Romano's stable of museums, provides a fascinating illustration of the city's multilayered history. More than the exhibits, it's the building's structure that's the main point of interest.
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Museo Nazionale Romano: Palazzo Altemps
Palazzo Altemps dates to the late 15th century but takes its name from the Altemps family who purchased it in 1568. A beautiful building in its own right, it was given a major makeover in the 1990s and today houses the best of the Museo Nazionale Romano's formidable collection of classical sculpture.
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Palazzo Massimo alle Terme
Some of the city's best examples of Roman art are housed in Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, a converted 19th-century Jesuit College. A stunning, light-filled museum, it's worth at least a couple of hours of anybody's time.
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Palazzo Venezia & Museo del Palazzo di Venezia
On the western side of Piazza Venezia is Rome's first great Renaissance palace. Built between 1455 and 1464 for the Venetian cardinal Pietro Barbo (who later became Pope Paul II), it was used for centuries as the embassy of the Venetian Republic. Its most famous resident was Mussolini, who used the vast Sala del Mappamondo as his centre of operations.
Read more about Palazzo Venezia & Museo del Palazzo di Venezia
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Pastificio Cerere
It might be an icon of modern Italian art, but Pastificio Cerere started life as a giant pasta factory in 1905. Abandoned in 1960, its empty loft spaces would eventually draw six emerging artists - Nunzio, Giuseppe Gallo, Piero Pizzi Cannella, Gianni Dessì, Marco Tirelli and Bruno Ceccobbelli. Dubbed the Nuova Scuola Romana (New Roman School), they took the nation's art scene by storm in the early 1980s, rebelling against mainstream minimalism with a revival of old-school techniques mixed with new-school edge.
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Porta San Sebastiano
Marking the start of Via Appia Antica, the 5th-century Porta San Sebastiano is the largest of the city gates in the Aurelian Wall. Originally it was known as Porta Appia but took on its current name in honour of the thousands of pilgrims who passed under it on their way to the Catacombe di San Sebastiano. Inside is a little museum illustrating the history of the wall.
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Scuderie Papali al Quirinale
Across the Piazza del Quirinale, Italian architect Gae Aulenti (of Musée d'Orsay fame) reworked the palace's former stables. The resulting Scuderie Papali al Quirinale is one of Rome's slickest exhibition venues, host to shows spanning pop art to Renaissance retrospectives.
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Vatican Museums
The entrance to the Vatican Museums (Musei Vaticani) is a 15-minute walk from Piazza San Pietro. From the piazza head to Piazza del Risorgimento and turn left, following the Vatican walls north until you come to an area with hundreds of people milling around. Join the queue, charge your batteries and prepare to enter Rome's richest museum complex.
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Villa Farnesina
Anyone with the remotest interest in Renaissance art should find a couple of hours to visit this extraordinary 16th-century villa. Commissioned by wealthy banker Agostino Chigi and built by the Sienese architect Baldassare Peruzzi between 1508 and 1511, it boasts some awe-inspiring decoration, with frescoes by Sebastiano del Piombo, Raphael and Peruzzi. In 1577 the Farnese family bought the villa from the bankrupt Chigi and modestly renamed it in honour of themselves.
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