November is a month rich with beautiful art and photography exhibitions. It features ancient Egypt, several anniversaries, such as the 450th anniversary of Titian and the centenary of Marilyn Monroe’s birth, and also immersive shows that appeal to younger audiences, designed to bring them closer to art and to the great masters of painting.
We have selected the ten best exhibitions to visit in Italy, here are our recommendations.
Cleopatra in Milan
From November 12, the immersive exhibition Cleopatra: The Truth opens at CityOval Milano in CityLife, telling the true story of Cleopatra VII by weaving archaeological research, technology, and visual storytelling to offer the public an authentic portrait of one of history’s most fascinating and influential figures, beyond the myths and stereotypes that have shaped her image over the centuries. Through an innovative journey, the exhibition guides visitors to discover the woman, the sovereign, and the political strategist behind the legend. A voyage that retraces Cleopatra’s life, her reign, and her legacy, translating the latest archaeological discoveries into a narrative with a compelling, accessible language for a broad and cross-generational audience. The scientific foundation of the show rests on the research and discoveries conducted at Taposiris Magna by the curators Dr. Zahi Hawass and Dr. Kathleen Martinez, which SiViaggia has interviewed.
Titian in Verona
On the hundredth anniversary of its opening, the Castelvecchio Museum in Verona commemorates its history with an exhibition that dialogues between the visual arts and music, offering the public a renewed sense of Renaissance culture. From October 31, the exhibition The Venus of Titian and the Musical Renaissance opens to the public. Music for the Eyes travels from the Prado Museum to the City of Verona, and is scheduled to run until January 31, 2027 in the Sala Boggian. The heart of the display is Titian’s Venus with a Dog and an Organ Grinder, a masterpiece loaned exceptionally from the Museo del Prado in Madrid. Surrounding the painting, a curatorial route explores the relationship between painting and music, humanistic thought, and Verona’s cultural life in the sixteenth century, when musical practice was a central element of intellectual formation and social life.
The Masters of Brera in Milan
Since October 30, 2026, in the Sala Stirling of Palazzo Citterio in Milan, the exhibition The Masters of Brera. Teaching Art has opened, one of the most anticipated events within the celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the Brera Academy. The show presents a selection of 30 works by artists who taught in the Academy’s classrooms: from Adolfo Wildt to Carlo Carrà, from Arturo Martini to Ugo La Pietra, not forgetting the most important pupil the academy has trained, Lucio Fontana. The exhibition runs until January 10, 2027.
The 7 Wonders of the World in Milan
At Spazio Ventura in Milan, until April 21, 2027, the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World and the 7 Wonders of the Modern World come to life through an interactive experience that lets visitors explore, reconstruct, and “walk through” them virtually, taking a journey through time and space to uncover the secrets that made them legendary and immortal in the collective imagination. It’s a voyage spanning over 4,500 years of history, featuring iconic monuments, mysteries, and extraordinary engineering feats. Throughout the journey, via virtual reality, 360-degree projections, and interactive displays, visitors learn how these works were built and the roles they played in the civilizations that produced them. Also designed for younger generations, the exhibition offers creative activities for all ages.
Marilyn Monroe in Parma
From November 21 to May 2, 2027, Palazzo Pigorini in the Municipality of Parma hosts the exhibition Marilyn Monroe. Fragments dedicated to the myth of Marilyn Monroe, one of the century’s most iconic and captivating figures, on the occasion of the centenary of her birth. The icon capable of withstanding time and the transformations of contemporary culture is presented through a parcours of photographs by leading figures in international photography, including Elliott Erwitt and Henri Cartier-Bresson, with the support of Magnum Photos who captured the American diva, revealing her complexity beyond the public image. The exhibition is enriched with video materials and documents about the actress’s life, offering the public multiple perspectives on her personality and story.
“Already in life he created the myth of what a girl from a poor, troubled background could achieve. For the whole world she became the symbol of eternal femininity” (Lee Strasberg)
Egypt in Rome
The Ara Pacis Museum in Rome hosts from November 5 to May 2, 2027 the exhibition The Power of the Portrait. Egypt and Rome. The Faces of Fayum, a fascinating comparison between ancient masks and portraits from El Fayum, a locality about 130 km southwest of Cairo, and other regions of Egypt. Through over 110 works including panels, shrouds, funerary masks, marbles, plaster casts, and ancient jewelry, the exhibition recounts one of the most captivating expressions of ancient art. The Fayum portraits are among the best-known yet rare images from antiquity: just under a thousand pieces survive worldwide, on thin wooden boards painted with tempera or encaustic on a wax-based ground, placed on the face of the deceased within the mummy’s wrappings. Delicate works, rarely loaned: a unique opportunity to see a substantial nucleus gathered together, including the famed Tondo dei Due Fratelli, one of the supreme masterpieces of ancient painting, restored in Egypt by Italian conservators as part of the exhibition project.
The Scapigliatura in Monza (MI)
From November 6, 2026 to March 14, 2027, the Orangerie of the Royal Villa of Monza hosts an exhibition focusing on the life and work of Luigi Conconi (1852-1917), one of the protagonists of Milan’s creative scene between the 19th and early 20th centuries and a leading figure of the Scapigliatura movement. The show gathers more than 150 works by Conconi, including paintings, drawings, and etchings, drawn from major public and private collections, offering the public a chance to rediscover and appreciate one of the most original personalities of the Scapigliatura and a lively interpreter of Milan’s cultural life of his era.
Steve McCurry in Perugia
From October 30, 2026 to January 10, 2027, the Pietro Vannucci Academy of Fine Arts in Perugia hosts the Steve McCurry Workshop Spirituality exhibition featuring 30 unpublished photographs by the American photographer, who returns to tell Umbria through its landscapes, faces, and daily gestures. Alongside him, seven professional photographers and two students from the Perugia Academy worked. Spirituality is not confined to churches, monasteries, or ritual settings; it can emerge in the quiet of a landscape, in the dignity of a face, in a chance encounter, in that quiet connection that ties people to the places they inhabit. The photographic project encompasses five territorial areas—from Valnerina to Orvieto, from the northeast of Umbria to Lake Trasimeno, and the Middle Valley of the Tiber—offering a less-visited Umbria that often lies beyond the standard tourist routes.
Roberto Capucci in Turin
From November 6 to February 28, the Accorsi-Ometto Museum of Decorative Arts in Turin hosts a splendid monographic devoted to the designer Roberto Capucci, titled Vestire le muse. Through 50 outfits, extraordinary women from the worlds of culture, art, science, and aristocracy become the original interpreters of Capucci’s inimitable fashion. Among Capucci’s muses, the garments worn by legendary actresses for charm and personality will be displayed, including Silvana Pampanini, Lucia Bosè, Catherine Spaak, Valentina Cortese, and notable lyrical performers like Raina Kabaivanska and Katia Ricciarelli, as well as among the era’s brightest minds, Rita Levi Montalcini.
From Canova to Kiefer in Vicenza
The exhibition opens on November 13, marking Italy-Germany collaboration as part of the grand project for the Basilica Palladiana of Vicenza. In the Veneto city, Ispirazione Europa Dialoghi d’arte tra il XIX e XX secolo (Inspiration Europe: Dialogues of Art between the 19th and 20th centuries) emerges, a cycle of exhibitions intended to tell, through art, the birth and development of the European spirit in the modern and contemporary eras. Da Canova a Kiefer – Painting and sculpture between the 19th and 20th centuries brings together more than 150 works by Canova, De Chirico, Boccioni, Dix, Kandinsky, Fontana, Burri, Vedova, Beuys, Baselitz, Richter, and Kiefer, on view until May 2, 2027. The narrative will continue with Italia Francia in 2027 and Italia Spagna in 2028. Across the itinerary, paintings, sculptures, photographs, works on paper, and documents will intertwine the history of art with the political and social history of Europe.
