Just when you thought that the area around the Colosseum had unveiled all its treasures, both above and below ground, the city of Rome launches a new museum that is sure to fascinate and intrigue first-time visitors and returning travelers alike. You can add to a list that includes the Ludus Magnus, the Basilica di San Clemente, the Colle Oppio Park, the Domus Aurea, the newly opened Parco archeologico del Celio (Archaeological Park of the Caelian Hill), within which you can find the Museum of Forma Urbis. While the former is free, the latter (closed one day a week on Mondays) has an entrance fee of 9 EUR (discounts available, see

The location of the park and the museum is halfway up the Caelian Hill, on the opposite side of the Colosseum from the metro exit. Frequent users of the no. 3 tram will be familiar with the structure of the new Museum, as the tram route passes by it on its way to (or from!) the Circus Maximus: the building was fenced off and closed for years, and several mayors tried to have it reopened. The same building, once a public gymnasium of the Fascist Party, now houses all known fragments of the Forma Urbis.

The Forma Urbis, literally “the shape of the city”, is the most famous map of the ancient city of Rome, commissioned by the Emperor Septimius Severus: engraved on huge marble slabs (it was almost 20 meters wide), it was completed in 211 AD. It was originally displayed in the Temple of Peace in the Forum. This map is the basis for the model of Imperial Rome built by architect Italo Gismondi, which has been on display for years at the Museum of Roman Civilization in the EUR district, whose reopening is long overdue.

As for the Forma Urbis, it had not been on display for almost 100 years!

Visitors to the Museum of the Forma Urbis are in for a surprise: to help them “read” the monumental map, whenever the fragments are interrupted because they have been lost, another historic and famous map has been superimposed to it. This is Giovanni Battista Nolli’s map of Rome of 1748 – a copy, of course – which will help visitors understand how much of the ancient city has been covered by the buildings of the historic center, most of which can still be seen today at street level.

Addresses for the Celio Archaeological Park/Museum: entrances from Viale del Parco del Celio 20 and 22 and from Clivo di Scauro 4. The Park is open every day. The museum is open every day (except Mondays) and closes at 4 pm.