Multi-Media Museum Brings Roman Heritage to Life at Palazzo Valentini
It takes a leap of faith to walk into a darkened room where the only light you can see is reflected off a floor two metres below you – even if it is the luxury marbled floor of a Roman nobleman's house. Luckily the heavy-duty glass floor was enough to hold my weight, along with that of the other 15 or so visitors exploring the underground space in Italy's first multi-media museum underneath Rome's Palazzo Valentini.
The museum is certainly unusual – in fact it's quite unique in Italy because it displays a Roman archaeological site (comprising two Roman domus and a bathing complex) in the state in which it was found, while allowing visitors to get as close as possible. The museum's route leads you through the baths of Trajan, where you can see the marbled floors, stone baths and various spa rooms (for hot, warm and cold water) in the state in which they might have been discovered during building works in 2004. The glass flooring allows you to look down onto an area that would otherwise have been off-limits to the general public.
Paco Lanciano is a physicist and a member of the team behind the museum's design. “We tried to leave the site in as authentic a condition as possible,” he said yesterday at a press conference at Palazzo Valentini.
Not Your Ordinary Museum
The museum has made clever use of lighting, film and image-projection to bring the site to life. A continuous voice-over points out different aspects of each room, and the museum's visitors (limited to groups of 15) are guided around the archaeological complex by the voice and by lights indicating where to look or where to go. In fact it's a museum experience that demands not just leaps of faith (for trusting the glass flooring) but is also demanding of the visitor's attention. Rather than walking between display cases and exhibits, as in most museums, the visitor is shepherded to specific areas while the voice-over illuminates, more like a guided tour. Lights and videos are projects onto walls, mosaic and marble floors to show what the house would have looked like during its glory days. The visitor is almost forced to imagine and take him or herself back some 1,600 years.
Piero Angela is the scientific journalist who has been involved with the museum project from the beginning. He is very enthusiastic about today's opening and explained that the aim of the multi-media museum was to bring the excavations to life. He said that he and his colleagues tackled the project by trying to imagine how the public would like to see the site and the best way to explain what is actually a complex site, with archaeological remains from many centuries and different phases of development and use.
Open Between 4 December and 6 January
The archaeological area and museum will be open between 4 December and 6 January, from 10am to 5pm. Visitors will be admitted in groups at 15 minute intervals – booking ahead is advised by phoning +39 06 32810 (there is a booked fee of €1.50). Tickets costs €6.50, or €4.50 for those aged 6-25 years or over 65, or for those with a Provinz card. Free entry for children under 6 and for people with a disability and their carer. The site will be open from 10am to 1.30pm on 24 and 31 December and will be closed on 25 December and 1 January.
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