Palazzo Massimo and the National Roman Museum

Most visitors to Rome walk straight past Palazzo Massimo alle Terme on their way out of Termini station, which is exactly why it is one of the city's great pleasures. This handsome nineteenth-century palazzo is the main seat of the National Roman Museum, and its collection of ancient Roman art is among the finest in the world. Sculpture fills the lower floors: portraits of emperors and their families, idealised gods, and the masterpiece of the collection, the Boxer at Rest, a Hellenistic bronze of a battered, exhausted fighter looking over his shoulder, his face and hands marked by the ring. Nearby stand the Discobolus, a celebrated Roman copy of the Greek discus thrower, and the Sleeping Hermaphrodite. Upstairs is the real revelation: complete Roman wall paintings and mosaics, reassembled in rooms that recreate their original spaces. The garden room from the villa of Livia, wife of Augustus, at Prima Porta surrounds you with a painted orchard of fruit trees, flowers and birds, astonishingly fresh after two thousand years, and the frescoes and stuccoes from the Villa Farnesina on the Tiber show the refined decoration of an aristocratic Roman house. In the basement, the coin collection traces Roman money across centuries. The National Roman Museum has other branches, and the ticket sold here gives reserved entry to two of them as well: Palazzo Altemps, a Renaissance palace near Piazza Navona that displays famous classical sculpture collections, including the Ludovisi Throne and the Galatian Suicide, and the Baths of Diocletian, the ruins of Rome's largest baths, with a great cloister and an epigraphy museum. Each site is quiet compared with the headline museums, which makes for unhurried looking.

How the ticket works: the Tiqets product is a reserved-entry ticket for Palazzo Massimo, Palazzo Altemps and the Baths of Diocletian, sold through a local provider. According to the listing, you exchange the smartphone voucher for official tickets at the Touristation office on Piazza Navona before your first visit, and the package includes a short multimedia introduction and a city map. That makes sense if you are starting near Navona, where Palazzo Altemps is a few minutes away; if you are starting at Termini, you can also buy tickets at the museum desk, as queues here are rarely long. State museums in Rome typically close on Mondays, so check the current schedule for each site before you plan your route.

Route: give Palazzo Massimo at least two hours, and head upstairs first while you are fresh, because the frescoes and mosaics are the part most visitors run out of time for. Then return to the ground floor for the Boxer. The Baths of Diocletian are across the square, and an hour there is enough for the cloister and the vast halls; the adjoining church of Santa Maria degli Angeli was carved by Michelangelo from part of the baths and is free to enter. Palazzo Altemps works well as a separate visit on a day around Piazza Navona and the Pantheon.

Who it suits: art lovers and history buffs who want to understand what Roman interiors and Roman faces actually looked like will find this one of the most rewarding museums in the city, and the lack of crowds is a luxury. It is also an excellent rainy-day choice, and handy for anyone staying near Termini or arriving by train with time to spare. Families with older children can make a game of finding the Boxer, the emperors and the painted birds in Livia's garden. Pair it with Santa Maria Maggiore, a short walk away, or with the Capitoline Museums for a full day of ancient art.