The Secret Apartments and the Bath of Diana
The four rooms, and what is in them
The Secret Apartments are a suite of four rooms built around the elements. The Salotto del Fuoco holds paintings by Pietro Testa, Ludovico Carracci and Massimo Stanzione. The Sala dei bambini takes music and astrology as its subject. The Sala degli Amorini carries neoclassical frescoes by Annibale Angelini. And the Bagno di Diana, the Bath of Diana, is drawn from Pompeian painting.
None of that is on the route a gallery ticket walks. That is the point of the listing and it is a real one. If you have already seen the four wings, or if what you actually want is more of the building rather than more pictures, this is one of only three things on sale here that opens a door a ticket does not.
The 4.0, handled fairly
Four from twenty-one reviews is the weakest score of the six listings on this attraction, and I am not going to bury it or sneer at it. No verbatim review text was captured for this listing, so I have nothing to quote and I will not invent anyone. What I can say is what the shape of the thing suggests.
The listed duration runs one to three hours, which is a wide spread for four rooms and the Bath of Diana. A visitor arriving after the main gallery, expecting a comparable quantity of rooms, is going to feel the difference. A visitor arriving because they want to see a Pompeian bathroom inside a private Roman palace is going to be delighted. Same tour, two ratings.
Worth noting from the other side of the catalogue: Monika from the United Kingdom, reviewing the plain entry ticket, wrote “Brilliant gallery Worth to book the secret rooms as they are outstanding”. That is a gallery reviewer volunteering an opinion about these rooms, which is about as unprompted as recommendations get.
What works
- Four themed rooms and the Bath of Diana, none of them on the standard route
- The Bagno di Diana is drawn from Pompeian painting — there is nothing like it on the gallery floor
- A reviewer of the plain entry ticket recommended these rooms unprompted
- Listed as one to three hours, so it can be paired with a gallery visit
Worth knowing
- The lowest-rated of the six listings, 4.0 from 21 reviews
- No verbatim review text was captured, so there is nothing to quote
- It is four rooms, not a second gallery — expectations do the damage here
- Managed by a separate entity, with hours that differ from the gallery’s
- The palace has no lift, and no cloakroom of any kind
The scheduling trap
The Secret Apartments are managed by a separate entity, Trust Floridi Doria Pamphilj, and their listed opening hours are not the gallery’s. They include opening on Wednesday, which is the one day of the week the gallery itself is shut. That is either very useful or very confusing, depending on whether you knew it before you planned the day.
Because they are run separately, I would treat their hours as something to confirm when you book rather than as a promise on a page like this one. The gallery’s own hours, which are a different question with a different answer, are on opening hours.
If you want both, the plain entry ticket’s listing shows upgrade paths to Secret Apartments access and Diana’s Bath, and one combination runs a gallery visit at 4:00 p.m. followed by a Secret Apartments tour at 6:00 p.m. Buying the pieces separately and landing them on a Wednesday is the mistake to avoid. Entry mechanics are on tickets and entry.
Where it sits against the other five
Three of the six listings on this attraction go through the same door as a plain ticket. This is one of the three that does not, alongside the live guide and the evening concert. That is its argument, and it is a better argument than its score suggests. The full audit is on the all-listings page, and the concert — which is held in the Princess’s Secret Apartment and is emphatically not a gallery visit — is on the concerts page.
Rooms off the routeDoria Pamphilj: Bath of Diana & Secret Rooms
Most reviewedRome: Doria Pamphilj Gallery Entry Ticket
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Frequently asked questions
What are the Doria Pamphilj Secret Apartments?
A suite of four themed rooms tied to the elements — the Salotto del Fuoco, the Sala dei bambini, the Sala degli Amorini and the Bagno di Diana — none of which is on the standard gallery route. The Bath of Diana is drawn from Pompeian painting. The listing is rated 4.0 from 21 reviews.
Are the Secret Apartments included with a gallery ticket?
No. They are a separate visit, managed by a separate entity, Trust Floridi Doria Pamphilj. The plain entry ticket's listing does show upgrade paths to Secret Apartments access and Diana's Bath, so you can combine them — see tickets and entry.
Why is this the lowest-rated listing?
It sits at 4.0 from 21 reviews, and no verbatim review text was captured, so I will not guess at individual complaints. What I would say is that it is a short guided look at four rooms rather than a second gallery, and expectations do most of the damage on a listing like this.
Are the Secret Apartments open on Wednesday?
Their listed hours differ from the gallery's and do include Wednesday, which is the day the gallery itself is closed. Because they are run separately, confirm the hours when you book rather than relying on a guide like this one. The gallery's own timetable runs Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 09:00 to 19:00, and Friday to Sunday from 10:00 to 20:00.
Is the audio guide any use in the Secret Apartments?
The gallery's included audio guide covers the gallery route, which these rooms are not on. It is still included with your gallery admission, in four languages and subject to availability, and worth collecting for the wings — the detail is on the audio guide page.