Capitoline Museums: Hours, Tickets and Highlights

Capitoline Museums: the short answer

The Capitoline Museums are Rome's best place to see ancient sculpture and bronzes in one visit, and a full ticket costs €15. The museum's opening-hours page says they are open every day from 9:30 to 19:30. Last admission is one hour before closing. They close on 1 May and 25 December, and on 24 and 31 December they close at 14:00.

The address is Piazza del Campidoglio 1, where you go to the ticket counter; there is no meeting point, and the museum lists no group size for individual visitors. The museum's call centre is +39 060608, daily from 9:00 to 19:00. The €15 ticket covers the permanent collection only. Audio and video guides, and any temporary exhibition, cost extra, and the cloakroom is free.

What is the Capitoline Hill and the Capitol building of Rome?

The Capitoline Hill is the seat of Rome's city government, and the Capitoline Museums fill the palaces around its square. The museum's history page says the Capitoline Hill became the headquarters of the city authorities in 1143. Michelangelo designed the square, the Piazza del Campidoglio, in the 1500s.

The museums trace back to 1471. That year Pope Sixtus IV gave a group of bronze statues to the people of Rome, says the museum's own history page. Most pieces on show come from Rome itself.

The collection sits in several buildings. The museum's room guide lists the Palazzo dei Conservatori, the Palazzo Nuovo, the Capitoline Picture Gallery, the Tabularium and a coin cabinet.

What you see at the Capitoline Museums

You see the bronze Marcus Aurelius on horseback, the Capitoline Venus, the Spinario, the Capitoline Gaul and a Caravaggio painting of John the Baptist. These are the works the museum puts on its home page.

• Marcus Aurelius. The bronze rider stands in a glass hall in the Palazzo dei Conservatori, next to the head, hand and globe of a colossal bronze of Constantine. The statue in the square outside is a replica, the museum's hall page explains, made to protect the original from the weather.
• The Capitoline Venus. She has her own small room, the Cabinet of Venus, in the Palazzo Nuovo.
• The Capitoline Gaul. The museum keeps this statue in the Hall of the Galatian.
• The Spinario. This bronze boy is in the Hall of the Triumphs.
• The picture gallery. The Hall of St Petronilla holds Caravaggio's John the Baptist.
• The She-wolf. Its own blog describes the Capitoline Wolf as a bronze of the 5th century BC. That post also explains how it was cast.

The Palazzo Nuovo also has halls for emperors and philosophers, which are a good place for portrait busts. The museum also runs temporary shows. Until 10 January 2027 it hosts an exhibition on angels in art, and from 9 June to 13 December 2026 a show on Diego Rivera.

Key Takeaway The Capitoline Museums hold the original bronze Marcus Aurelius, the Capitoline Venus and the Capitoline Gaul, and a full ticket to the permanent collection is €15.

How long to spend at the Capitoline Museums

Allow two to three hours for the main halls. No visit time is published, so this is our advice. It is enough to see Marcus Aurelius, the sculpture halls and the picture gallery at a steady pace.

Short on time? Give the glass hall and the Palazzo Nuovo sculpture halls 90 minutes. Love ancient art? Plan half a day and add the picture gallery.

Keep the closing time in mind. Last admission is at 18:30, and you can stay until 19:30.

Pro Tip Arrive at 9:30 and go straight to the glass hall with Marcus Aurelius, then work through the Palazzo Nuovo. No crowd data is published, so an early start is the simplest hedge.

Tickets: price, queue and what the passes cover

A full ticket to the permanent collection costs €15 and a reduced ticket €9.50, according to the museum's ticket page. While the angels exhibition runs, the combined ticket costs €16.50 full and €11 reduced.

You can buy online, through the call centre or at the ticket office. Pre-sale carries a €1 fee, and same-day tickets at the desk carry none. Pre-bought tickets cannot be refunded or changed. An online reservation, says the museum, lets you skip the queue at the ticket counter.

Other costs and extras:

• An audio guide is €4 and a video guide is €6, both sold at the ticket office. Both come in Italian, English, French, German and Spanish, so on your own you can still get a commentary.
• The museum also offers a guided-tour service in several languages, with payment and reservation, for the museum or the exhibition route. The ticket page gives no price or tour length for it, so check the museum's events schedule or call 060608.
• Groups of 11 to 25 people plus a guide must reserve free through the call centre and buy at least 5 tickets in advance.
• The Capitolini Card costs €15.50 and covers seven days, including the Centrale Montemartini branch.
• Roma Pass holders get free or reduced entry. The Roma Pass page puts the 48-hour pass at €38 and the 72-hour pass at €62.90.
• Residents of Rome and its metropolitan area enter free with ID.

Is a tour worth it? For the museum itself, the museum publishes no verdict. Our view: go on your own with the €4 audio guide if you just want the highlights, and add a guide only if you want the history explained. You book a guide through the museum by calling 060608 daily from 9:00 to 19:00, and its pages give no price or tour length. Things to Do in Rome's count of GetYourGuide listings in October 2026 found 73 entry tickets, from €7. None of those listings sells a Capitoline Museums ticket, so buy yours from the museum. That also means the museum has no GetYourGuide rating to check: the official pages are your source, and the only refund rule they state is that pre-bought tickets cannot be refunded or changed.

You may see "Rome from the Sky" elevator tickets online. The museum's ticket page does not list one, so we cannot confirm it or its price. For a rooftop view of the Forum nearby, see the Vittoriano terrace below.

Getting in and moving around

The cloakroom is free and you serve yourself. Staff may ask you to leave large bags, backpacks and umbrellas there. Strollers are allowed inside.

You may take photos of the permanent works for personal use, without tripods, selfie sticks or extra lights. The museum says its old buildings limit step-free access in some places and points to an accessibility page for details.

No metro stop or bus line appears on the museum's pages. Our Rome public transport guide shows how to reach the Forum area, and from there it is a short climb up the Capitoline steps.

Capitoline Museums vs the Borghese Gallery

Choose the Capitoline Museums for ancient Rome and the Borghese Gallery for Baroque sculpture and painting. The two are not rivals. They suit different trips.

The Borghese Gallery's visit page says a reservation is obligatory, even for free tickets. It lists 2-hour slots for up to 180 people. Monday is not an opening day. Plan the Borghese days early. At the Capitoline Museums the €15 ticket does not include a guide, and the museum publishes no group size for individual visitors. At the Capitoline Museums you go to the ticket counter at Piazza del Campidoglio 1 and need no meeting point, unless you book as a group of 11 to 25.

If you pick the Borghese Gallery, the Borghese Gallery entry ticket is run by AJA Global Tours. It is from €44 per person, rated 4.5 from 258 reviews, and lists a 2-hour visit. The listing says free cancellation applies, and that it does not include an audio guide. It is not suitable for people with mobility impairments or wheelchair users.

The Borghese Gallery guided tour is run by Doooing. It is from €95 per person, rated 4.9 from 1,019 reviews, and lasts 2 hours. Groups are up to 5 people in the small option or up to 15 in the standard one. It is not suitable for wheelchair users.

Prices and ratings as shown on GetYourGuide on 25 October 2026. Meeting points are on each listing page; the Borghese Gallery's own visit page does not give one for tours.

Pairing the museum with the Forum

The Forum lies at the foot of the hill, so the easy plan is one day for both. Do the museum first when it opens, then walk down to the ruins, or the other way round.

Ratings and review counts below come from GetYourGuide, not from the museum, and the museum itself has none there because it is not sold on that site. The museum belongs to the City of Rome's Musei in Comune network, and its own pages say pre-bought tickets are non-refundable, so check the date before you pay. The Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill tour is run by Crown Tours. It is from €49 per person, rated 4.8 from 93,507 reviews, and lasts 2.5 hours. It includes entry to the Colosseum, the Forum and Palatine Hill. It is not suitable for people with mobility impairments or wheelchair users. For the full list, compare tours of the Colosseum in Rome.

The City Highlights walking tour is run by City Walkers Tours. It is from €35 per person, rated 4.8 from 126 reviews, and takes 2.5 hours. It passes the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon and the Monument to Victor Emmanuel II. It is not suitable for people with mobility impairments. Free cancellation is listed.

The Vittoriano panoramic terrace ticket is run by The Roman Experience Tours. It is from €27 per person, rated 4.3 from 724 reviews, and takes 1 hour. The listing calls it self-guided with an audio guide, and you meet a host at Piazza d'Aracoeli to collect tickets. Security checks apply on entry, and some reviewers still queued.

Prices and ratings as shown on GetYourGuide on 25 October 2026.

Another short stop in the same area is the Mamertine Prison.

Other art galleries and Rome's top sights

Rome has more than one place for art. The Capitoline Museums have their own picture gallery, the Borghese Gallery covers the Baroque, and the Vatican Museums are the largest and best known. The Vatican Museums' ticket page lists a full ticket at €20 at the door and €25 booked online. Our Vatican Museums tickets guide covers the rest.

For a first trip, our five picks are the Colosseum with the Forum and Palatine, the Vatican Museums, St Peter's Basilica, the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain. The Capitoline Museums are a strong extra if ancient history is your main reason to come.

A museum visit goes best when you pick one thing to see well and let the rest wait.

When the Capitoline Museums are the wrong choice

The Capitoline Museums are the wrong choice if you have one day in Rome and want the Colosseum and the Vatican first. They are also not the best pick for Baroque art, where the Borghese Gallery wins. The older buildings limit step-free access in places, so check the museum's accessibility page before you go. Finally, the museum does not publish a visit time or crowd levels, so our advice on both is a judgement and not a fact.