Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea

The draw

Italy's largest collection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century art, about 1,100 works, and hardly anyone in it. Balla, Boccioni, Burri, de Chirico, Fontana, Modigliani, Manzù, Morandi — and, in a city that people visit for antiquity, a Van Gogh, a Monet, a Cézanne, a Degas, a Duchamp, a Giacometti, a Kandinsky, a Mondrian, a Pollock and a Rodin. There is also a Canova, which is the joke the gallery makes about itself.

The problem when visiting

The ticket lasts three hours and nobody expects that. It is not a timed entry; it is a three-hour window chosen when you buy, imposed to control numbers for fire safety. Arrive outside your band and you are turned away. It closes on Mondays, last admission is 45 minutes before the 19.00 close rather than the usual hour, and it is out in the Villa Borghese park, so nobody passes it by accident.

The tactic

Do the Galleria Borghese first, the same day. A Borghese ticket gets you in here for €10 instead of €15 — the gallery calls it "da Canova a Canova" and the offer is same-day only. The two are a twenty-minute walk apart through the park, and the Borghese's own timed two-hour slot pairs naturally with this one's three-hour window.

If you are an EU citizen aged 18 to 25, it is €2. Allow two and a half hours, and remember you can step out to the Caffè delle Arti and come back inside the window.

Skip it if you:

• Are here on a Monday. Closed.
• Have one day in Rome. This is a modern-art gallery in a city of ancient ones; it is a returning visitor's museum.
• Cannot commit to a three-hour band. The ticket is sold that way and enforced that way.
• Are arriving after 18.15. Last admission is 45 minutes before closing.

Respect the three-hour band. It is not a queueing device: the gallery sets it to keep the number of people inside within a fire-safety limit. Arriving outside your window asks staff to choose between the rule and you.

Use the cloakroom rather than arguing at the door. Helmets, umbrellas, large bags, rucksacks and suitcases all have to go in it, and only small bags come inside.

Walk from the Borghese rather than driving between them. The two galleries are a short walk apart through the Villa Borghese park, the same-day ticket rewards doing both, and the park is the pleasanter route by a distance.

No food or drink in the galleries, other than liquids, aerosols and gels carried for medical reasons or a special diet. The Caffè delle Arti exists, and the ticket lets you step out to it.

Book the free Sunday. The gallery requires it, and it is how a free day stays inside the same safety limit as a paid one.

The ticket lasts three hours

This is the thing to know before you buy. Admission to the Galleria Nazionale is valid for three hours, and the window is chosen at the moment of purchase. The gallery imposes it to keep a precise count of visitors inside the building, for fire-safety reasons and to respect its crowding limit.

You may leave and re-enter within your three hours — the operator says so explicitly, with the Caffè delle Arti in mind. But you cannot arrive outside the band you booked.

Hours

Tuesday to Sunday, 9.00 to 19.00, so closed Mondays. Last admission is 45 minutes before closing — not the hour that most Roman museums use, so 18.15 is the real cut-off.

What it costs, and the two ways to pay less

Full price €15.00. But:

€2.00 for EU citizens aged 18 to 25. The same rate the Gallerie Nazionali charge at Palazzo Barberini, and the same extraordinary saving.

€10.00 with a Galleria Borghese ticket from the same day. The gallery calls the offer "da Canova a Canova": show your Borghese entrance ticket and pay ten euros instead of fifteen. It is valid on the day of the Borghese visit only. The two galleries are a walk apart through the Villa Borghese park, and the Borghese's own timed slot leaves an afternoon free.

Santa Cecilia Card subscribers pay €12.75.

Ticket & Pass Decision Matrix

What is free

The façade, and it is worth the two minutes. Bazzani's front on viale delle Belle Arti carries friezes by Luppi, Laurenti and Prini and four figures of Fame holding bronze wreaths by Pantaresi and Candoni — a sculptural programme in the open air, in a public park, costing nothing. And the free days are unusually generous: the first Sunday of every month plus 25 April, 2 June and 4 November, with online booking required and the three-hour band still enforced.

What you cannot bring in

Helmets, umbrellas, large bags, rucksacks, suitcases and other bulky items must be left at the cloakroom; only small bags may be carried into the museum. Food and drink are not allowed in the rooms, with an exception for liquids, aerosols and gels needed for medical reasons or a special diet.

Getting there

Viale delle Belle Arti 131. Metro line A to Flaminio, about 600 metres. Trams 3 and 19 run along viale delle Belle Arti. Buses 61, 89, 160, 490, 495 and M stop at piazzale del Fiocco. The Roma–Viterbo railway also reaches Flaminio station, about 600 metres away. Telephone +39 06 322 98 221.

On the ground

Allow two and a half hours — comfortably inside the three-hour window, with time for the Caffè delle Arti, which is open 8.00 to 20.00 Tuesday to Sunday.

Not Monday. Open Tuesday to Sunday only.

Arrive by 18.15 at the latest. Last admission is 45 minutes before the 19.00 close, which is earlier than the hour most Roman museums allow, and it catches people who have learned the other rule.

Afternoon, if you are pairing it with the Galleria Borghese. The Borghese runs on timed two-hour slots and the same-day ticket here costs €10 rather than €15, so a morning Borghese and an afternoon Galleria Nazionale is both the cheaper and the easier order.

Choose your three-hour band deliberately. Because the ticket is a window rather than an open admission, the band has to fit the rest of the day rather than the other way round.

Any season. It is indoors and rarely busy. The walk through the Villa Borghese park to reach it is better in spring and autumn, which is a reason to build the visit around the park rather than the Metro.

The first Sunday of the month is free but needs booking, and the entry band is still enforced — so it is free, not casual.