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  "path": "/news/how-romes-culture-scene-is-evolving-whats-new-in-2026.html",
  "publishedAt": "2026-02-26T13:34:35.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.wantedinrome.com",
  "tags": [
    "News",
    "Culture",
    "Editorials"
  ],
  "textContent": "Rome's cultural scene has been given quite a shake-up in recent months, from museums and monuments to the launch of a new arts magazine. Here we look at the latest innovations and trends shaping the city's cultural landscape.\nTrevi Fountain\nIn terms of cultural tourism, the biggest news so far this year is the introduction of a €2 fee for tourists and non-residents of Rome who wish to get up close to the Trevi Fountain. On paying the fee, tourists must join a queue which leads to the lower, internal perimeter of the fountain.\n\n\nDesigned to reduce crowds, the system is in place every day from 09.00 until 22.00, except on Mondays and Fridays when public access is from 11.30, to allow for the collection of coins in the water, all of which go to charity.\n\n\nRome residents can visit the fountain for free by showing an ID document but also must line up to see it from the water's edge. Be careful not to get hit by coins flung backwards from the piazza by those who refuse to pay the contentious fee.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFree city museums for residents\nParallel to the introduction of the Trevi Fountain fee, Rome has made its municipal museum network permanently free for residents of the capital.\n\n\nThe list includes the Capitoline Museums, Trajan's Market, the Ara Pacis Museum, Centrale Montemartini and the Villa Torlonia Museums as well as the archaeological areas at Largo Argentina and the Circus Maximus. Separate entry fees may still apply for temporary exhibitions, shows and specialised virtual reality experiences in these museums.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLaunching the campaign titled In Rome, Beauty Belongs to Everyone, mayor Roberto Gualtieri said: \"Entering a museum becomes as simple as taking a walk in a park: a normal, everyday gesture that makes us feel better and helps us feel part of the city\".\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCultural collaborations\nThe Colosseum Archaeological Park and the National Roman Museum unveiled a new reciprocal ticketing discount as part of a two-year partnership with effect from March.\n\n\nUnder the terms of the agreement, visitors holding a ticket for the National Roman Museum can buy the 'Amici PArCo' reduced €14 ticket for the Parco archeologico del Colosseo, offering access to the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Palatine Hill and Domus Aurea.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThose who have visited the Colosseum Archaeological Park can purchase a discounted MNR 'Musei in Rete' ticket, for €10, with access to Palazzo Altemps, the Baths of Diocletian, Palazzo Massimo, and Crypta Balbi (which is temporarily closed).\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCity of Arts\nThe Ex Mattatoio, Rome’s former slaughterhouse in Testaccio, is transforming into a massive cultural campus known as the Città delle Arti, or City of Arts.\n\n\nIn January the city opened the Photography Pavilion, Rome’s first public centre dedicated entirely to photography. Its inaugural blockbuster is a retrospective of Irving Penn, running through June.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe vast Mattatoio site, which was designed by Gioacchino Ersoch and served the city as an abbatoir from 1888 until 1975, also hosts Rome’s Academy of Fine Arts, the faculty of architecture of the Roma Tre University, and a school of music.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMACRO reopens\nUnder the new direction of Cristiana Perrella, the MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art has recently reopened.\n\n\nThe new season, which extends until April 2026, interweaves different languages, from art to music, from urban planning to cinema to performance, to depict the city as an open and constantly evolving laboratory.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe museum, which has introduced a €6 ticket, is currently hosting an exhibition season dedicated entirely to Rome's artistic scene and the creatives who animate it. MACRO has a new cinema space and hosts live performances and digital art workshops.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMAXXI expands\nThe Grande MAXXI is an ambitious urban regeneration and expansion project for the National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome.\n\n\nBuilding upon Zaha Hadid’s original design, the initiative will see the creation of the multifunctional three-storey MAXXI HUB, designed by the Italo-French architecture studio LAN, to house a centre for contemporary art restoration, research laboratories and accessible archives, topped by a roof garden.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMAXXI GREEN will be a 7,200-sqm green urban oasis designed to mitigate the local microclimate and host outdoor exhibitions and workshops.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMuseo del Genio\nLocated in the Vittoria quarter near the banks of the Tiber, the Museo del Genio Militare (Museum of Military Engineering) opened last autumn following renovation works.\n\n\nWhile it houses the history of Italian engineering and architecture, its rebirth has seen it become a venue for contemporary crossovers, recently hosting the works of American street photographer Vivian Maier and Italian pop artist Ugo Nespolo, with an upcoming show of photographs by Robert Doisneau.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRomarivista\nIn January, the city launched Romarivista, a new quarterly arts and culture magazine dedicated to the capital’s contemporary creative scene.\n\n\nDistributed for free in museums, libraries, theatres and other public cultural spaces across the city, Romarivista aims to bridge institutions, independent creatives and arts academies to foster reflection on urban, social and cultural changes in Rome.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLooking to the future\nThe Mausoleum of Augustus, the monumental tomb of the first Roman emperor, is set to open to the public later this year following a lengthy, extensive restoration.\n\n\nWorks continue in redeveloping the Celio Park, including a major restoration of the city's former Antiquarium which has been in a state of abandonment for almost a century, while restoration works are also under way at Villa Silvestri Rivaldi, a semi-forgotten Renaissance jewel near the Colosseum.\n\n\nBy Andy Devane. Photo credit: fivetonine / Shutterstock.com.",
  "title": "How Rome's culture scene is evolving: What's new in 2026"
}