Site Visit: Palazzo Colonna and Private Apartments of Princess Isabelle

• PHOTOS

This ancient clan boasts two great leaders, spiritual and military: Pope Martin V and Marcantonio Colonna, respectively famous for modernizing Rome in the 1420s and leading the Christian navy to victory over an Islamic fleet at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. Their palace, embellished through the ages, is one of the showpieces of the Eternal City, both for its grand halls and intimate residential rooms, decorated with great works of art ranging from antiquity to the Baroque age. The Princess Isabelle Apartments reflect mostly 17th-century taste and include an enchanting group of Roman views by Vanvitelli, jewel-like pictures by Jan Brueghel, and a painted ceiling by Pinturicchio; the great Gallery on the floor above (site of a memorable scene in the film Roman Holiday) offers an important collection of Renaissance and later artists: Bronzino, Veronese, Annibale Carracci (the celebrated Bean-Eater), as well as frescoes by Sebastiano Ricci glorifying the Colonna family.

The Colonna Gal

This ancient clan boasts two great leaders, spiritual and military: Pope Martin V and Marcantonio Colonna, respectively famous for modernizing Rome in the 1420s and leading the Christian navy to victory over an Islamic fleet at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. Their palace, embellished through the ages, is one of the showpieces of the Eternal City, both for its grand halls and intimate residential rooms, decorated with great works of art ranging from antiquity to the Baroque age. The Princess Isabelle Apartments reflect mostly 17th-century taste and include an enchanting group of Roman views by Vanvitelli, jewel-like pictures by Jan Brueghel, and a painted ceiling by Pinturicchio; the great Gallery on the floor above (site of a memorable scene in the film Roman Holiday) offers an important collection of Renaissance and later artists: Bronzino, Veronese, Annibale Carracci (the celebrated Bean-Eater), as well as frescoes by Sebastiano Ricci glorifying the Colonna family.

The Colonna Gallery and the Princess Isabelle Apartments are normally closed except by special permission, this will be an exceptional experience for any lover of ancient Rome.