What to see inside Palazzo Colonna, in the order you walk it

The short version: the operator names eight rooms on the route and walks you through them in a fixed order — the Hall of the Colonna Bellica, the Great Hall, the Room of the Throne, the Tapestry Room, the Yellow Room, the Chapel Room, the Primitive Room and the Embroidery Room. The cannonball is on the short flight of stairs before the Great Hall, and the gardens come after. The Princess Isabelle apartments are a separate tier so check which tier you hold.

Named roomsEight

FirstHall of the Colonna Bellica

SecondThe Great Hall

LastThe Embroidery Room

Before the Great HallThe cannonball, on the stairs

After the roomsThe gardens

The route, as the operator sets it

This is the operator’s order rather than a suggestion, and it matters because the building is walked one way. You do not wander a private house.

The Hall of the Colonna Bellica — where the route begins.
The Great Hall — the gallery itself, and the room the whole building is arranged around. What is known about it, gathered in one place.
The Room of the Throne.
The Tapestry Room.
The Yellow Room.
The Chapel Room.
The Primitive Room.
The Embroidery Room.

Two things sit outside that list of eight. The cannonball of 1849 is lodged in the short flight of stairs leading up to the Great Hall, so you meet it between the first room and the second, and most groups stop dead there. The gardens come at the end, up the slope behind the palace, and they are the part people miss.

The paintings are the reason most people come

Annibale Carracci’s Il Mangiafagioli — The Beaneater — is the one visitors ask for by name, and around it hang Bronzino, Tintoretto, Guido Reni, Guercino, Salvator Rosa, Ghirlandaio and Gaspard Dughet. The paintings page takes them in that order and says which ones are behind the second ticket.

The apartments, and which ticket includes them

The Princess Isabelle apartments are not part of the short ticket. At the door the operator sells a short tour at about fifteen euros and a complete one at about twenty-five, and the apartments are what separates them. On the platform, 2 of the four Palazzo Colonna listings put an inclusion behind the words “if option chosen”, and on the flagship the gated thing is the apartments. One listing gates nothing at all.

Laurie, writing on the flagship, put it as plainly as anyone: “Paying the extra to see the gardens and the apartment is a must!!” She had understood what she was buying. Not everybody does, and the tickets page quotes a reviewer who missed part of what she paid for.

Stated flat, in the listings’ words

“Colonna Gallery and Gardens entry ticket” — the flagship’s base inclusion, in its own words
“Access to the Galleria Colonna”, “the Princess Isabelle Apartments”, “the Palace Gardens” and “the Pio Pavilion” — the one listing that gates nothing
The operator’s own short tier, which it lists as Galleria, Pio pavilion and gardens

Gated, or crossed out

“Colonna Gallery, Gardens, and Apartments entry ticket (if option chosen)” — the apartments, on the flagship
“Guided tour”, crossed out on the flagship
A live guide on the complete listing, crossed out

Are the platform’s base ticket and the operator’s short tier the same ticket? They are very close. The platform’s base inclusion is the Gallery and the gardens; the operator’s short tier is the Galleria, the Pio pavilion and the gardens. The platform does not mention the pavilion. Both lists are above, and they are not identical as written.

Where the film scene happens

The press conference that ends Roman Holiday was shot in the Great Hall. The page on it covers the scene.

Insider tip

Give the gardens their time. They are at the end of the route on a morning that stops at 13:15, which means the people who run out of clock run out of it exactly where the gardens are. Start with the rooms, but do not linger so long in the Great Hall that you are hurrying at the top of the slope.

The three listings that reach the rooms above

Each card below says what it gets you and what it does about admission, read from the listing’s own fields rather than from its title. The middle one is called a guided tour, and its inclusions list the guide as an option. All sixteen listings are laid out in a table, and the tickets page sets them beside the door price.

The ticket itself

Book the admission

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before departure on most tours — book now, decide later.

Frequently asked questions

What is there to see at Palazzo Colonna?

Eight named rooms on the operator’s route: the Hall of the Colonna Bellica, the Great Hall, the Room of the Throne, the Tapestry Room, the Yellow Room, the Chapel Room, the Primitive Room and the Embroidery Room, plus the gardens.

Where is the cannonball in Palazzo Colonna?

On the short flight of stairs leading up to the Great Hall, so you pass it between the first room on the route and the second. It landed there in 1849.

Do you need a separate ticket for the Princess Isabelle apartments?

At the door they are the difference between the short tour and the complete one. On the platform the flagship listing puts them behind an option; one listing includes them flat. Check the inclusions before you book.