Official Information
Official site: https://www.palazzovalentini.it/domus-romane
Online tickets: https://tickets.palazzovalentini.it/en
Address: Via Foro Traiano 84-85, 00186 Roma RM, Italy
Map: View on Google Maps
Opening Hours
Guided visits only, at fixed times, with mandatory reservation. Timetables vary slightly by season, but visits typically run daily in late morning and afternoon time slots, with the site closed one weekday (traditionally Tuesday) and on 25 December, 1 January and 1 May. Exact times and languages are published on the official booking page and should be checked when reserving.
The Domus Romane di Palazzo Valentini offer one of Rome’s most immersive encounters with archaeological remains thanks to a combination of excavated structures and carefully designed multimedia. Under the nineteenth-century Palazzo Valentini, seat of the Metropolitan City of Rome near Trajan’s Column, archaeologists uncovered the remains of luxurious Roman houses and later bath installations along the edge of the imperial forums. Instead of removing these to a distant museum, the project stabilised them in situ and built a raised pathway of glass walkways that lets visitors look down onto mosaics, walls and hypocaust systems while moving through the spaces.
The visit is only possible on a guided timetable, with synchronised projections and audio that reconstruct the original appearance of rooms as you stand above them. Light mapping outlines now-lost walls and decorative schemes, digitally colouring black-and-white mosaics and suggesting painted vaults, so you can mentally rebuild the domus around you. Floors showing geometric patterns, marine creatures or floral motifs, fragments of wall painting and traces of heated floors evoke the comfort and status of the owners, who benefited from a prime location just off the imperial forums.
The narration (available in several languages) situates the houses within the broader urban context and explains how later centuries reworked the area, from late antique transformations to medieval and early modern construction. A section of the visit is dedicated to the massive base of Trajan’s Column and its surrounding area, helping visitors connect what they see at street level with the foundations below. Because groups are small and schedules precise, the experience feels more like a performance than a traditional museum visit, and advance booking is essential, especially on weekends and in high season.
Official channels emphasise security and controlled numbers, which is why third-party resellers route booking back to the main system. For travellers who enjoy combining storytelling, technology and archaeology, the Domus Romane are an excellent complement to open-air walks through the forums, allowing you to grasp how elite housing, infrastructure and monumental public spaces interlocked in the heart of imperial Rome.