Italy obviously has no shortage of museums (not to mention archaeological sites, churches, etc.) and almost anywhere you go you will find something fascinating. As an ex-art curator, I wanted to share with you some of my favorites—from ancient Egypt to contemporary art, from Sardinian folk traditions to Renaissance masterpieces. Some of these are housed in extraordinary historic buildings; others are works of art in their own right. They span the country from the north to the south, and each offers a very different way of seeing Italy. Enjoy!
Museo Egizio
Turin, Piemonte
I never tire of the Museo Egizio in Turin, one of the world’s great museums devoted to ancient Egypt—and, in fact, the oldest museum in the world dedicated entirely to Egyptian culture. Its origins go back to the 17th century, but the museum itself was founded in 1824, when King Carlo Felice acquired the extraordinary collection assembled by Bernardino Drovetti. It opened to the public in 1832.
What makes it so special is the sheer breadth of the collection: monumental statues, papyri, sarcophagi, mummies, jewelry and objects that illuminate not only the lives of pharaohs but the everyday world of ancient Egyptians. It is one of those museums where you could easily spend an entire day—and still feel that you’ve only scratched the surface.
Musei Reali
Turin and Surrounding Area, Piemonte
The Musei Reali are less a single museum than an entire royal world in the heart of Turin. Their story begins in 1563, when Duke Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy moved the capital of his duchy from Chambéry to Turin and established the court here. Today, the complex encompasses the Royal Palace, Royal Armoury, Savoy Gallery, Museum of Antiquities, Royal Library, Chapel of the Holy Shroud and Royal Gardens.
I love it because it offers such a complete picture of the Savoy dynasty—from lavish apartments and baroque decorations to armor, ancient artifacts, paintings and royal treasures. The Savoy Gallery alone contains more than 800 works, including paintings by Mantegna, Beato Angelico, Botticelli, Veronese, Duccio and many others.
Because in Italy, even the gentlest winter adventure ends with a reward — and often, something warm in your hands.
Castello di Rivoli
Outside of Turin, Piemonte
For a completely different kind of museum experience, head just outside Turin to the Castello di Rivoli, a magnificent Savoy residence transformed into a museum of contemporary art.
The museum opened in 1984, with its first exhibition, Ouverture, deliberately conceived as a blueprint for a collection of contemporary art. Artists including Carl Andre, Donald Judd, Bruce Nauman and major figures of Arte Povera such as Mario Merz, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Alighiero Boetti were part of that inaugural vision.
What makes Rivoli so compelling is the collision between 17th-century architecture and contemporary art. Works aren’t simply placed in neutral white galleries; they converse with frescoed rooms, unfinished architectural spaces and the history of the castle itself.
Peggy Guggenheim Collection
Venice, Veneto
There are few museums in the world where the collector’s personality is as much a part of the experience as the art. Peggy Guggenheim bought the unfinished Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on the Grand Canal in 1949 and lived there surrounded by her extraordinary collection of modern art. She opened the house to the public during the summer from 1951 until 1979; after her death, it reopened as a museum in 1980. Peggy Guggenheim Collection
The collection is a remarkable who’s-who of 20th-century European and American art: Picasso, Dalí, Magritte, Kandinsky, Brâncuși, Giacometti, Pollock and many others. But what I especially love is the intimacy of the place. This isn’t a monumental museum—it feels like stepping into the home of an extraordinarily adventurous woman who happened to collect some of the most important artists of her generation.
Museo Fortuny
Venice, Veneto
The Museo Fortuny, housed in the magnificent Palazzo Pesaro degli Orfei, is one of Venice’s most atmospheric museums. It was the home and studio of Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, the Spanish-born artist, designer, inventor and textile innovator who made Venice his home.
After Fortuny’s death in 1949, his wife Henriette donated the palazzo to the city, with the stipulation that it remain a center for culture and that his studio be preserved. The city took possession in 1965, and the museum opened to the public in 1975.
What makes it fascinating is that Fortuny refused to stay inside a single discipline. Paintings, textiles, fashion, photography, theatrical design, lighting and technological inventions all come together here. And unlike many museums, you aren’t simply looking at objects—you are entering the extraordinary creative world in which they were made.
Museo del Costume
Nuoro, Sardinia
If you want to understand Sardinia beyond the beaches, I would put the Museo del Costume in Nuoro near the top of your list. Opened in 1976, it is the largest ethnographic museum in Sardinia and is devoted to the island’s traditional life and culture.
The collection explores everything from traditional costumes, jewelry and textiles to work, food, religious practices, music, festivals and popular beliefs. The building itself was designed as an imaginary Sardinian village, incorporating architectural elements from different parts of the island. After a major renovation, it reopened in 2015 with a completely revised presentation.
I particularly love museums like this because they preserve something that paintings and sculptures cannot: the texture of everyday life.
Fondazione Prada
Milan, Lombardia
Founded in 1993 by Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli, Fondazione Prada has become one of Milan’s most interesting destinations for contemporary art. Its permanent Milan complex opened in 2015, transforming a former distillery dating from the 1910s through an architectural project by OMA, led by Rem Koolhaas.
The complex combines existing industrial buildings with new architecture, including the striking Torre. Its exhibitions range from contemporary artists to historical and cross-disciplinary projects, often bringing together art, architecture, cinema, design and popular culture.
And this is one museum where I always tell people: don’t rush through the architecture to get to the art. The architecture is part of the experience.
Pinacoteca di Brera
Milan, Lombardia
The Pinacoteca di Brera is one of my favorite Italian painting museums—and one of the great places to understand the art of northern Italy.
Although an educational collection existed here from 1776, the Pinacoteca was officially established in 1809. Unlike museums such as the Uffizi, it wasn’t originally a private royal collection; it was created as a state museum, with Napoleon bringing together important works from churches and territories under French control. Pinacoteca di Brera
The result is an extraordinary collection of Italian painting, particularly strong in the Renaissance and northern Italian schools. Look for works by Mantegna, Bellini, Raphael, Piero della Francesca, Caravaggio and Tintoretto. I also love the setting: the museum occupies the Palazzo Brera, whose atmospheric courtyard and historic spaces make the experience feel distinctly Milanese.
The Uffizi
Florence, Tuscany
Of course, no list of favorite Italian museums would be complete without the Uffizi. But what fascinates me most about it isn’t simply the extraordinary art—it’s the story of how a family’s collection became one of the world’s great museums.
The building was commissioned by Cosimo I de’ Medici and designed by Giorgio Vasari, with construction taking place between 1560 and 1580. The name Uffizi comes from uffici—offices—because the original building was intended to house Florence’s administrative and judicial offices.
Inside is one of the greatest concentrations of Western art anywhere: Giotto, Botticelli, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio and countless others. And then there are the ancient sculptures lining the corridors, many of them collected by the Medici. It is the kind of museum where even if you’ve visited ten times, you can still discover something you’ve somehow missed.
La Specola
Florence, Tuscany
For something completely different from Florence’s Renaissance masterpieces, I love La Specola, the city’s historic natural history museum. Established in 1775 by Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo of Lorraine, it was created during the Enlightenment as a place where the public could encounter and learn about the natural world. Its collections range from zoology and mineralogy to fossils and anatomical specimens, reflecting the extraordinary breadth of scientific curiosity at the time.
What makes La Specola particularly memorable, however, is its famous collection of anatomical waxes. Created beginning in the late 18th century by a collaboration between artists and anatomists, the extraordinarily detailed wax figures were used to teach anatomy before modern medical technology existed. They are both beautiful and unsettling—somewhere between scientific illustration, sculpture and the macabre. For me, La Specola is one of those wonderfully unexpected Italian museums that reveals another side of Florence: not the Florence of Botticelli and Michelangelo, but a city fascinated by science, discovery, the human body and the mysteries of the natural world.
MAXXI
Rome, Lazio
The MAXXI—National Museum of 21st Century Arts is my choice when I need a complete change of pace from what Rome is famous for. Designed by Zaha Hadid, the building itself is one of Rome’s great pieces of contemporary architecture: sweeping concrete curves, intersecting galleries and dramatic staircases that make the museum feel almost like a piece of sculpture.
Opened in 2010, MAXXI is dedicated to contemporary art and architecture. Its collections include contemporary Italian and international art as well as an extensive architecture collection documenting Italian and international architecture from the 20th century to today. Its photography collection alone contains approximately 2,400 photographs.
For me, the magic is the juxtaposition: ancient Rome outside, Zaha Hadid’s futuristic Rome inside.
Vatican Museums
Vatican City
There are museums you visit because you love art, and then there are museums you visit because the history of Western civilization seems to be contained within their walls. The Vatican Museums are the latter.
Their origins date to 1506, when Pope Julius II placed a collection of ancient sculpture—including the newly rediscovered Laocoön and the Apollo Belvedere—in what is now the Octagonal Court.
Today the museums encompass an astonishing range of collections: classical antiquities, Renaissance painting, tapestries, maps, Egyptian and Etruscan artifacts, the Raphael Rooms and, of course, Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. It can be overwhelming, but that is also part of its extraordinary character. There is simply nowhere else quite like it.
Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli
Naples, Campania
If I could choose only one museum in Naples, this would be it. The Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, or MANN, is one of the world’s great archaeological museums and the essential companion to a visit to Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Its story begins with Carlo di Borbone, who encouraged the excavation of the cities buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79 and brought part of the extraordinary Farnese collection inherited from his mother, Elisabetta Farnese, to Naples. The present building began its transformation into a museum in 1777, and it became the National Archaeological Museum in 1860.
Its treasures include the Farnese sculptures, mosaics and frescoes from Pompeii and Herculaneum, ancient Roman objects, Greek and Egyptian antiquities, and the remarkable artifacts from the Villa of the Papyri. The museum allows you to see the art and daily life of the ancient world in astonishing detail—and then recognize many of the same objects when you visit the archaeological sites themselves.
