It is a museum dedicated to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, his Italian Journey and his life at Rome in the years from 1786 through 1788. During his journey Goethe wrote a journal and also many letters which would be published in 1816-17 as the Italian Journey.

The museum is located in the house and in the same rooms in which Goethe lived with his friend the German painter Johann Wilhelm Tischbein during his stay in Rome.

The permanent exhibition covers his life in Italy, his work and writing, and also about his private life and shows original documents concerning his life. The second exhibition, which is always a temporary exhibition, often refers to arguments and themes which connect somehow the Italian and German cultures or talks about artists like Max Beckmann, Heinrich Mann and Thomas Mann, Andreu Alfaro, Günter Grass and Johann Gottfried Schadow and their experiences in Italy as well as their examinations of Goethe. The museum owns a library, which includes also the collection of Richard W. Dorn.