Palazzo Altemps

Palazzo Altemps is the second of the four sites making up the Museo Nazionale Romano, tucked into the tangle of narrow streets just north of Piazza Navona, and it's easily the most atmospheric — a genuine 15th-century cardinal's palace with frescoed ceilings and an internal courtyard, rather than a purpose-built museum hall.

Its core collection is the Ludovisi Collection, ancient sculpture assembled by Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi in the 17th century and heavily — sometimes controversially — restored by Baroque sculptors including Bernini's circle, who added missing limbs and heads in period style rather than leaving fragments bare. The results include the Ludovisi Throne, a Greek relief of disputed origin and date showing the birth of Aphrodite, and the Galata Suicide, a wrenching Roman copy of a Hellenistic bronze depicting a defeated Gallic chieftain killing his wife and himself rather than face capture — one of the most emotionally direct sculptures to survive from antiquity.