Palazzo Barberini tickets

One ticket, two palaces

Palazzo Barberini and Galleria Corsini are the two sites of Italy's National Galleries of Ancient Art (Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica), and they share one ticket: €15, valid for 20 days from first use. You don't have to do both on the same day, and you probably shouldn't. Barberini is next to Barberini metro station on line A; Corsini is on Via della Lungara in Trastevere, on the other side of the Tiber. Two separate half-days work better than a dash between them.

Discounts and free entry:

• €2 for EU citizens aged 18–25. Non-EU visitors in that age group pay full price.
• €12 for holders of an annual Metrebus transport pass, which mostly means residents.
• Free for under-18s of any nationality (bring ID), ICOM members, working guides and interpreters, disabled visitors with a companion, booked EU school groups and other categories set by Italian law.

If you only want Corsini, a Corsini-only ticket is €8.

Booking and hours

On ordinary days you don't need to book: buy at the desk or online through the ticketing site linked from the museum's website. The museum recommends booking on its free days: the first Sunday of every month, 25 April, 2 June and 4 November. Those days are busier and a fixed time saves you a queue. Individual pre-sales also work by phone on +39 06 39967500, daily 9 am–6 pm. Groups must always book.

Hours are Tuesday to Sunday, 10 am to 7 pm, but the ticket office closes at 6 pm, so a 6:10 pm arrival won't get you in. Closed Mondays, 25 December and 1 January.

Official ticket or a partner

The gap between the official ticket and partner tickets is small here. Tiqets sells Barberini + Corsini entry, Headout sells Palazzo Barberini entry, and GetYourGuide also offers a version with an audio guide. That's worth it if you want commentary without a guide or prefer keeping all your bookings in one app. Guided tours, small-group or private, make more sense for the building itself: the palace is the work of Carlo Maderno, Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, and a guide will point you to the staircases and rooms as well as the paintings.

The newest arrival is Caravaggio's Portrait of Monsignor Maffeo Barberini, bought by the Italian state. Under the palace is the Barberini Mithraeum, an ancient Roman shrine to the god Mithras. It only opens on Saturdays at 10, 11 am and 12 pm, by 45-minute guided tour with a maximum of 20 people. The Mithraeum + museum ticket costs €17; the Mithraeum-only ticket doesn't include the galleries.