Welcome to Part 1 of our 2024 Walking Tour of Rome, Italy. We start the day with a hearty breakfast at our hotel, Hotel Villafranca. We then walk to the nearest museum, about a mile away – the National Roman Museum - Palazzo Massimo (Museo Nazionale Romano, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme). As we walk to the museum, we see the monument to Pope John Paul II, a memorial statue dedicated to the Pope John Paul II; it is located on an island (Piazza dei Cinquecento) alongside Viale Enrico di Nicola.
We are ones of the first to arrive at the museum when they open, making it an easy and pleasant visit to enjoy their exhibits. The Palazzo Massimo is also called Palazzo Massimo alle Terme due to its close proximity to the Baths pf Diocletian. The villa is a superb Neo-Renaissance-style palace, erected between 1883 and 1887. It was used as a Jesuit college until 1960 and in 1981 it was transformed into part of the National Roman Museum.
After Palazzo Massimo, we decided to visit another museum that is closest to where we are. We walked around the central Rome area, enjoying the sights including Le Grand Hotel and the Obelisco di Dogali, before going inside the the Baths of Diocletain (Museo Nazionale Romano, Terme di Diocleziano). The Baths of Diocletian are a famed piece of ancient Roman history dating back the late 200s and early 200s. The construction including public baths, a library, and a gym for the Romans. The baths have an ugly history; thousands of Christian slaves died during their construction. Almost 1200 years after their construction, Pope Pius IV commissioned Michelangelo to build the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli on the site of the baths in tribute to the slaves who were killed.
After enjoying the two national museums, we walk back to our hotel and enjoyed an authentic and inexpensive Italian lunch at the Pizzeria del Secolo. We then took some rest in preparation for our afternoon tour of the Vatican.

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