The Great Hall
Seventy-six metres of mirror and gold — Versailles before Versailles.
user:Lalupa — Public domain · Parsifall — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Parsifall — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Michele Ursino — CC BY-SA 2.0
The Galleria Colonna is Rome's most sumptuous private Baroque hall and its weekly secret: the palace of the city's oldest family — the Colonna of a pope and Lepanto's command — opens its great wing Saturday mornings only: a mirror-gold-column hall of seventy-six metres compared to Versailles's and preceding it, crowded with five centuries of family collecting — Veronese, Tintoretto, Guercino — crowned by Annibale Carracci's Bean Eater: a peasant at his plain supper amid the sea of princes, startling in honesty. On its steps rests a French cannonball where it fell (1849) — left by the family as a siege medal — and the visit spreads through apartments and terraced gardens on the Quirinal slope, the 11am English tour opening the private princely rooms. Roman Holiday's closing press scene was filmed here — the hall familiar before you enter.
Seventy-six metres of mirror and gold — Versailles before Versailles.
Carracci painting honesty amid pomp — the surprise picture.
The princess's press-conference hall — cinema in situ.
Via della Pilotta 17, 00187 Rome
Museo delle CereA wax museum in central Rome at Piazza Venezia, opened in 1958 and among the old1 minute walk3.5
The Roman Domus of Palazzo ValentiniBeneath Rome's provincial palace, steps from the Vittoriano, sleep two Roman vil1 minute walk4.6
Trajan's ColumnA thirty-metre marble column raised in AD 113, wrapped in a carved frieze that w3 minutes walk4.9
Galleria Doria PamphiljThe largest private art collection in Rome still held by the family that formed 3 minutes walk4.6
Piazza VeneziaRome's largest junction and the knot where every central road meets: Via dei For3 minutes walkLooking for halal food near Galleria Colonna? There are several options nearby, from Moroccan and Indian kitchens to quick casual spots and places with a view. Confirm the halal status and opening hours before you go — these can change.
Hotel BaroccoA four-star hotel looking directly onto Piazza Barberini and Bernini's Triton Fo9 minutes walk · $$$$4.9The St. Regis RomeRome's oldest grand hotel and its most historic: opened in January 1894 as the G14 minutes walk · $$$$4.8Because it is a standing family home, not a state museum: the Colonna have lived in their palace eight unbroken centuries — Rome's longest family residence — sharing the great wing one morning weekly in balance of heritage and privacy. The scarcity is half the spell: a hall never museum-crowded.
Rome's two great private palaces: the Doria, open daily, richer in paintings (Velázquez, Caravaggio) along packed corridors; the Colonna grander of hall, rarer of door, gentler of crowd. The serious take both; choosers: Doria for pure art, Colonna for living splendour.