Michelangelo’s house is gone. The façade of one of the last homes he owned is now preserved as the front of a water storage building on Via Garibaldi. That’s the only existing building that we know he slept in. However, knowledge can be overrated in Rome. Everyone wants to claim that Michelangelo — or Raphael, Pope Leo X, or Goethe — lived in their building. And, frankly, they have a better chance at being right than most.
Vagabondish is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Read our disclosure.
Michelangelo’s House © Angela Nickerson
I was once in a taxi driving along the Tiber River. We passed a beautiful old building on a prominent corner. “That was Michelangelo’s house, Macel de’ Corvi,” the taxi driver said. I didn’t say anything, but in my research and reading, I’d found that Macel de’ Corvi — given to Michelangelo as partial payment for Pope Julius II’s tomb — had been torn down in the 1800’s, and its façade is the one that graces a water tower. However, I wasn’t about to disabuse my friendly taxi driver, so I decided to do a little more research.
The building my taxi driver was pointing to — and it is very cool — is now a restaurant, Hostaria dell’Orso (Via dei Soldati 25c). Chef Gualtiero Marchesi has created an elegant and refined restaurant earning a 3-star Michelin rating.
I was out for my evening walk, and the bouncer was out front. In broken English/Italian and a smattering of French, I explained my project and asked him if Michelangelo had lived there. “No,” he explained. But the building had been built in the Middle Ages and had been an inn for a long time.
Inn Where Dante Stayed © Angela Nickerson
So who has stayed there? Dante and Goethe, amongst others. Michelangelo? No. But the mystique remains.
Roman Rule of the Day
Tipping is unnecessary — and unexpected – in Roman taxis. However, taxi drivers appreciate exact change, and I often simply round up to the nearest Euro when making change.