The private tour of Galleria Doria Pamphilj

Why it is on the list

Palazzo Doria Pamphilj is still the family's home, larger than many European royal palaces, and the Gallery holds most of its private collection in four wings around a Renaissance courtyard.¹² The pictures hang as a family inventory of 1767 describes them.² Velázquez's Innocent X of 1650 has its own cabinet, shared with Bernini's marble bust of the pope; the Second Room holds Caravaggio's Penitent Magdalene, Rest on the Flight into Egypt and St John the Baptist side by side; the Hall of Mirrors, designed by Gabriele Valvassori around 1730, runs between Venetian mirrors and antique statues under Aureliano Milani's Labours of Hercules.² Raphael, Titian, Correggio, Annibale Carracci, Claude Lorrain, Memling and Pieter Bruegel the Elder hang in the same rooms.³²

The tour covers the Gallery, not the family's Secret Apartments with the Bath of Diana: those are run by the Floridi Doria Pamphilj Trust and booked separately.⁴ For a palace opened by its family on almost any day, with Princess Isabelle's apartment, take the private visit to Palazzo Colonna; for one room and one painter, the Caravaggio ceiling at Casino dell'Aurora.

How to get it

Write to eventi@dopart.it or call +39 06 6797323 and ask for a private tour of the Gallery; the office answers with a quote.⁴ The same office arranges private events, and a guided tour of the collection can be added to any reception.¹ The Gallery is closed every Wednesday, on 1 January, at Easter and on 25 December, and there is no cloakroom: only small bags go in.⁴

Discretion

The door is at Via del Corso 305, a few metres from Piazza Venezia, and the Gallery entrance is on the first floor of the palace.⁴ Large bags, rucksacks and luggage are refused at the door.⁴