Discover Giorgio de Chirico House Museum

You cannot walk into this one. The Casa Museo Giorgio de Chirico is the painter's own apartment at Piazza di Spagna 31, and it is visited only on a guided tour at a fixed time, booked in advance. The foundation opens it on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and the last Sunday of the month — it is closed on Wednesdays — and the tour times are different on every one of those days.

De Chirico settled here in 1948, at the age of sixty, after what the foundation calls a life of movement, with stays in various European cities and a significant period in New York from 1936 to 1938. He lived and worked here for the last thirty years of his life, in a three-floor apartment-studio that is now the house-museum.

Tour times: Monday, Thursday and Friday at 10.30, 11.30, 14.15 and 15.15; Tuesday at 9.30, 10.30 and 11.30; Saturday at 11.00, 12.00, 14.00, 15.00 and 16.00; the last Sunday of the month at 10.00, 11.00 and 12.00.

Tickets: EUR 8.00 full, EUR 5.00 reduced for under-18s and over-65s, free under 12. Booking is online and can be done at any time; the ticket arrives by email and is paid for at the house-museum on the day of the visit.

It is at the foot of the Spanish Steps — Metro line A, Piazza di Spagna stop.

It is a flat, and the thing worth noticing is that it goes up rather than along. The foundation describes it as an apartment-studio on three floors — which is unusual for a Roman apartment and is what makes the visit a sequence rather than a circuit. You climb through it.

That vertical arrangement separates the two halves of a working life. Living rooms below, studio above: de Chirico lived and worked here for thirty years, and the stairs are the boundary between the two.

Its position is part of its architecture. The house stands at Piazza di Spagna 31, directly on one of the most-walked squares in Europe, which means the windows look onto a public space rather than a courtyard — a painter's studio with a view of a crowd.

What this page does not claim. The building has been described elsewhere as a 17th-century palazzetto under a particular name. The foundation, which owns and runs the house, gives the address and nothing about the fabric's date or title, so neither appears here.

Nothing here was built for a museum; it was lived in and then kept. The foundation's account is simple and is the whole of it: de Chirico settled in the house in 1948 at the age of sixty, and lived and worked the last thirty years of his life in the three-floor apartment-studio, today visitable as a Casa-museo.

The decision that made it a museum was to leave it alone. A house-museum is made by not redistributing the contents — the rooms stay in the arrangement the occupant used, which is why the visit is a guided one with a fixed group size rather than an open gallery with a flow of people through it.

The thirty-year occupancy is what gives it weight. De Chirico arrived here after a life of movement, with stays in various European cities and a significant period in New York between 1936 and 1938. This was the end of that, and the only address where he stayed long enough for the rooms to be about him.

Can I just turn up? No. Visits are guided and at fixed times, and booked in advance on the foundation's booking site.

What days is it open? Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and the last Sunday of the month. It is closed on Wednesdays.

What are the tour times? Monday, Thursday and Friday at 10.30, 11.30, 14.15, 15.15; Tuesday at 9.30, 10.30, 11.30; Saturday at 11.00, 12.00, 14.00, 15.00, 16.00; last Sunday of the month at 10.00, 11.00, 12.00.

How much is it? EUR 8.00 full; EUR 5.00 for under-18s and over-65s; free under 12.

When do I pay? At the house-museum on the day of the visit. The ticket itself arrives by email when you book.

Where is it? Piazza di Spagna 31 — Metro A, Piazza di Spagna stop.

How long did de Chirico live here? He settled here in 1948 at the age of sixty and lived and worked here for the last thirty years of his life.

How big is the apartment? The foundation describes it as an apartment-studio on three floors.

Where was he before? The foundation records a life of movement with stays in various European cities and a significant period in New York from 1936 to 1938.

How long should I allow? About an hour for the tour.