Rome in high season can be a whirlwind of crowds, long lines and packed piazzas — but away from the well-worn paths of the Colosseum and Vatican Museums is a city brimming with unique cultural events. Though the city itself is “eternal,” certain things on the calendar run for a limited time only. Add these exhibitions in Rome to your list if you’re looking for something special to do on your next visit.
Homage to Carlo Levi
Galleria d’Arte Moderna
Ongoing until September 14, 2025
2025 marks two important anniversaries related to Carlo Levi’s influential memoir Christ Stopped at Eboli: 80 years since its publication and 90 years since the yearlong exile in southern Italy that inspired it. In 1935, Levi — a doctor and painter from Turin — was banished to the remote village of Aliano in Basilicata for his outspoken opposition to Fascism. His memoir of his time there brought national and international attention to Basilicata’s struggles, shaping post-war discussions on southern Italy’s economic and social conditions. Christ Stopped at Eboli is frequently studied in schools and in 1979 was adapted into a celebrated film and miniseries starring Gian Maria Volonté.
Levi also produced numerous paintings inspired by his exile, 19 of which are currently being exhibited to the public for the first time at Rome’s Galleria d’Arte Moderna (Via Francesco Crispi 24). The works are from the collections of Angelina De Lipsis, a doctor and passionate supporter of Levi’s painting who died in 2020, and of Levi’s widow Linuccia Saba, daughter of the writer Umberto Saba, whom Levi met while hiding from the Nazis in Rome in 1943.
The exhibition also features works by Levi’s friend, Piero Martina, offering a comparative journey through their artistic evolution from the 1920s to the 1960s, with a particular emphasis on the post-war decade — a time of intense creativity, political engagement and shared life in Rome.
Caravaggio 2025
Palazzo Barberini
Ongoing until July 6, 2025
The 2025 Jubilee celebrations are the pretext to see a remarkable collection of Carvaggios under one roof. It’s a mammoth achievement by the curators at the National Gallery of Ancient Art, with Palazzo Barberini serving as the suitably lavish abode for this gathering of both iconic and unfamiliar Caravaggios, pulled from collections as far away as Madrid, Detroit and Kansas City.
Among the standouts is Portrait of Maffeo Barberini, shown to the public for the first time in over six decades and newly presented alongside other works by Caravaggio. Ecce Homo returns to Italy from Madrid’s Prado Museum, while Saint Catherine of Alexandria, once part of the Barberini collection, comes home from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. Also featured is Martha and Mary Magdalene from the Detroit Institute of Arts, now displayed for the first time alongside Judith Beheading Holofernes, which features the same model and is part of Palazzo Barberini’s collection.
The exhibition also marks the reunion of three paintings commissioned by the banker Ottavio Costa: Judith and Holofernes (Palazzo Barberini), Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness (Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City) and Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy (Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford). Also making its grand return is The Cardsharps from the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, a work with deep ties to the Barberini family’s legacy as art patrons and collectors.
The exhibition culminates with The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula, Caravaggio’s final work, painted shortly before his death.
Read more about Caravaggio 2025 (and beyond) here.
Franco Fontana Retrospective
Museum of the Ara Pacis
Ongoing until August 31, 2025
The singular vision of Modenese photographer Franco Fontana is celebrated in this sweeping retrospective, set within the ultramodern Museum of the Ara Pacis, the controversial, Tiber-side gallery designed by Richard Meier and inaugurated in 2006. The museum was the first major architectural intervention in Rome’s historic center since the Fascist era, and drew polarizing responses, with one critic likening its aesthetics to that of a Texas gas station.
Yet the museum’s bright, airy and clinical spaces feel remarkably well-suited to Fontana’s vibrant, minimalist works. Still active in his ninth decade, Fontana first gained attention in the 1960s by boldly rejecting the dominance of black-and-white photography. His signature style — expansive landscapes reduced to geometric essentials and drenched in saturated reds, blues and yellows — earned him comparisons to Mark Rothko, a personal acquaintance and major influence. Like the museum that houses it, the exhibition is a testament to Rome’s evolving cultural landscape and refusal to remain tethered to the past.
