As I noted, I was in Rome last week for a day-long workshop (which was great), but also had an opportunity to be a tourist. My wife and I have been to Rome at least four times over the last 30+ years, so we long ago exhausted the “obvious” attractions. Here’s three we saw last week that are a little less “obvious,” but were each very enjoyable, and perhaps some readers will enjoy them as well.

The Palazzo Farnese requires reserving tickets in advance (with a passport), since the French Embassy still occupies part of the building. You have to arrive early, for the security clearance, but it was handled with professionalism and courtesy. The English-language tour was very interesting, and the highlight was the Carracci Gallery, which is both stunning and funny (Carracci had a sense of humor, especially with his cherubs).

The Doria Pamphilii Gallery is also worth visiting. The audio tour, included with the price of admission, is generally well-done, although one has to listen to one of the heirs to this family of social parasites praise the “charitable” works of his ancestors. But most of the audio material is informative, including about the striking collection of Northern European art the families collected over the centuries. The collection is most famous, justifiably, for this unusually realistic portrait (from the 17^th century) of Pope Innocent X (which the Pope himself described as “too real”); you can see a photo of the portrait here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Innocent_X

Finally, and only six months old, there is a new exhibit in the Metro of all places at the Colosseum stop: they added a new subway line much further down, and in the course of digging further into the ground they uncovered old wells and other relics they did not know were there (before the famous Roman aqueducts, Rome got its water from wells). The exhibit is interesting and informative, and the whole area is modern and spacious. We entered at the Metro B (Colosseum) and then followed the signs to go down to Metro C, which has the exhibits.

Opening comments for those who want to share for the benefit of readers other less obvious Rome attractions (i.e., no Colosseum, Imperial Forum, Villa Borghese, Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, Capitoline Museum etc. [all worth seeing of course!]).