Whenever I find myself in the Eternal City, the grand landmarks and museums always blow me away. Rome has no shortage of famous spaces to see what this city was, is and could be. However just as any major city can overwhelm with visitors, if you want to get away from the crowds in line at the Vatican Museums or tossing their coins in the Trevi Fountain, try finding some solace and oddities at these four quirky museums in Rome.

The Criminal Museum
When you tire of all of the churches and beautiful art galleries while in Rome, you can take a dramatic turn toward the opposite at Rome’s Criminal Museum. The Museo Criminologico is run by Rome’s Ministry of Justice and sets up in the ultimate location, a former prison. Visitors to the museum can learn about everything from how justice was handled from the middle ages to the 19th century, the 19th century development of the prison system to even the notorious criminals of the 20th century. The wise won’t come here on a full stomach as the museum does boast an extensive collection of instruments of torture.


The Pasta Museum
If a nice helping of Italian pasta gets your mouth watering, Rome’s Pasta Museum is right up your alley, or plate rather. Unique in the world, Museo Nazionale delle Paste Alimentari details eight centuries of the first course of the nation. Visitors travel through eleven different exhibition halls detailing the ancient artisan process, modern industrial technology pertaining to pasta along with the history of pasta as an art form. Appropriately, you can pick up some pasta after learning all about at the museum’s gift shop. The museum perches in Palazzo Scanderbeg.



The Museum of Roman Culture
On the surface, the Museum of Roman Culture might just sound like your everyday museum in an ancient city. While the museum features displays from various aspects of ancient Rome, it tends to bring out the kid at heart in all visitors with its massive and impressive model of Imperial Rome. The model was the work of Italo Gismondi. It would take him 36 years to recreate Rome under Emperor Constantine I in the early 4th century. The model was made to scale so you can let your imagination run wild about this Rome in miniature.


The Museum of Sanitary Arts
You might want to space out your visit to the Pasta Museum and this Rome oddity. The Museum of Sanitary Arts can be found inside the Santo Spirito Hospital. The entire museum dedicates to sanitary and healing arts. Visitors can comb through the collection of anatomical wax models. They were used to teach students all about healing and sanitation. The Museum of Sanitary Arts also has a wealth of oddities including a mummified 19th century skeleton with its nervous system, a liver stone from a camel and loads of bottles around the room with floating medical peculiarities including Siamese Twins.

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