Serre Barberini offers coffee, lunch and aperitivo.

The visitor experience just got even better at Palazzo Barberini, the national gallery of ancient art in Rome, with the opening of a new restaurant and bar on the museum grounds.

After viewing the stunning collection of masterpieces, visitors can stop at the Serre Barberini, a converted greenhouse which offers lunch and brunch options as well as coffee and cocktails.

The new café restaurant is also accessible to those who are not visiting the museum, with entrances from Via XX Settembre 2 and Via Quattro Fontane 13.

Describing it as "a service that has been absent until now", the museum's director Thomas Clement Salomon said that Serre Barberini will offer visitors, local residents and tourists "a meeting point in one of the most extraordinary places in Rome, a secret Italian garden".

The 19th-century greenhouse building, which has a fountain in the centre and overlooks the museum's gardens, has been extensively restored and modified for its new purpose.

The glass windows filter the sun's rays, converting them into electricity via solar panels on the roof, and providing a pleasant indoor temperature.

Serre Barberini, run by Panda Catering, is open Tuesday to Sunday from 09.00 to 19.00, and it is possible to organise private events at the new venue.

Palazzo Barberini

Together with Galleria Corsini in Trastevere, Palazzo Barberini is home to the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Italy's national collection of 13th- to 16th-century paintings.

The Rome palace was commissioned in 1625 by Pope Urban VIII, of the powerful Barberini family, and was designed by three great architects in succession: Maderno, Borromini and Bernini.

The museum collection contains paintings by artists including Bronzino, Caravaggio, Carracci, El Greco, Holbein the Younger, Lotto, Raphael and Guido Reni.

The gallery also boasts Bernini's Square Staircase, Borromini's Helicoidal Staircase and the Allegory of Divine Providence and Barberini Power fresco by Pietro da Cortona.

For visiting details see website. Photo Alberto Novelli.