The building beats the show
Interlocking concrete ribbons, suspended black staircases and galleries with no right angles: you buy the ticket for the architecture first.
Bruno from Roma, Italia โ CC BY-SA 2.0 ยท urbzoo โ CC BY 2.0 ยท urbzoo โ CC BY 2.0 ยท urbzoo โ CC BY 2.0
Honestly, no, unless architecture is the reason you travel at all. On a first three-day visit, closer and stronger sites will outrank it. On a second or third visit it is an excellent choice: quiet, uncrowded, and a complete break from the ancient-Rome register you will have had your fill of.
Nobody can promise you a particular work, because most of what is on is temporary and turns over completely several times a year across the art and architecture wings. Check the exhibition programme on the official site before you go; if nothing on the bill appeals, the building alone still justifies an hour and a half.
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There is barely a right angle in the place. Zaha Hadid built MAXXI as ribbons of concrete that pour over one another, cross, and peel apart again, with black staircases hung across the void like lines drawn in mid-air and galleries that curve away rather than stop at a wall. It opened in 2010 on the site of the former Montello army barracks in the Flaminio district and took the RIBA Stirling Prize that same year. The building is the main exhibit; everything else is supporting cast. Inside there are two halves, MAXXI Arte for contemporary art and MAXXI Architettura for architecture, and almost everything on the walls is temporary. Two consequences follow. You will not know what you are going to see until you check the programme, and a return visit a year later is a genuinely different day rather than a repeat. Anyone arriving in search of a famous permanent collection to tick off will leave puzzled; anyone arriving to walk around inside a building that thinks out loud will leave happy. Be honest about the trade-off. With three days in Rome, the Colosseum, the Vatican and the Pantheon have the stronger claim on your time, and MAXXI sits well north of the centre and will eat half a day once you count the journey. But on a second or third visit, or if you work in or study architecture or design, it is one of the best reasons to leave the ancient city for the one still being written. The wide forecourt is open without a ticket, with shade, benches and children tearing about, and makes a pleasant stop in its own right for anyone in your group who would rather not go in. Getting there is straightforward: Metro line A to Flaminio, then tram 2 to the Apollodoro stop and a few minutes on foot. The museum is closed on Mondays and runs 11:00 to 19:00, with the ticket desk shutting an hour before closing. The full ticket is 15 EUR at the desk and 14 EUR online, under-18s go in free, and a Roma Pass gets you the reduced rate rather than free entry. It is air-conditioned and spacious, a sane refuge from the July and August heat, and its ramps and lifts make it one of the rare Roman museums you can push a pushchair through without a fight.
Interlocking concrete ribbons, suspended black staircases and galleries with no right angles: you buy the ticket for the architecture first.
Both wings, art and architecture, turn over several times a year, so check the programme before you go and expect a different museum on a return visit.
A wide plaza with shade, benches and a cafe, open without a ticket for anyone waiting or not going in.
Via Guido Reni 4A, 00196 Rome, Italy