There are hundreds, if not more, hidden gems in Rome that you may have walked by many times and never realized they existed. Fortunately, there are organizations like Open House Rome (a branch of the larger “Open House” organization) that celebrate gaining access to some of these treasures.

We were fortunate to be in Rome for the May 2023 edition of Open House Rome, so we signed up to visit two properties.  The first was across the Tiber, in the impressive Palazzo Salviati.

This grand Renaissance palazzo, the imposing facade of which is at the top of this post, was designed by Giulio Romano (a pupil of the great Raphael). Several cardinals have lived here, and it was once owned by the Pope. Today it is the home of the Centro Alti Studi per la Difesa, the Center for High Defense Studies.

 

 

We first visited the beautiful library (which focuses on military and geopolitical history) with painted scenes on the ceiling of the Risorgimento, for which the palazzo is famous. 

 

 

 

 

We then climbed the grand staircase and visited the little chapel and several other impressive interior rooms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before we moved on to our second Open House site, our group tour wasn’t done. We were guided to the palazzo’s lovely garden, accessed through the courtyard’s side.

 

The palazzo is definitely a hidden gem. But underneath its beauty, there is also a sad note on the palazzo’s role in a notorious moment of Holocaust history. For two days during WWII, this palazzo housed over a thousand Roman Jews who had been rounded up by the local Nazi forces and lated deported. All but 16 of these people perished in Nazi death camps. Fortunately, that history is not hidden but is remembered on a plaque.