Italy Traveller Guide

The buildings that surround Santa Maria degli Angeli are also recycled parts of Diocletian’s baths, including the round church of St Bernardo , off via XX Settembre, and the round building (now an albergo diurnale) at the corner of via Viminale and via di Terme di Diocleziano. Immediately to the left of the church, another caldarium was formerly used as a planetarium and is now the Aula Ottagona (Octagonal Hall), part of the Museo Nazionale Romano (same ticket) - a large domed room which contains marble statues taken from the baths of Caracalla and Diocletian, and two remarkable statues of a boxer and athlete from the Quirinal Hill. Excavations underground - accessible by stairs - show the furnaces for heating water for the baths and the foundations of another building from the time of Diocletian.The rest of the Baths of Diocletian - the huge halls and courtyards on the side towards Termini - formerly housed the Museo Nazionale Romano but this has since been relocated in Palazzo Massimo and Palazzo Altemps and is now closed to the public while it is renovated as new exhibition and convention space