If you love art, you will love Borghese Gallery in Rome.
Once a private collection of a wealthy cardinal, today Borghese is one of the most famous art galleries in the World.
This highly-rated attraction gets more than half a million tourists every year.
In this article, we explain everything you must know before buying Borghese Gallery tickets.
Top Borghese Gallery Tickets
# Borghese Gallery Fast Track tickets
# Guided tour of Borghese Gallery
# Private tour of Borghese Gallery
Table of contents
- How to reach Borghese Gallery
- Borghese Gallery tickets
- Opening hours
- Entry restrictions
- Best time to visit Borghese Gallery
- How long does Borghese Gallery take
- Enter Borghese Gallery for free
- How to book Borghese Gallery tickets
- Is Borghese Gallery worth it?
- Borghese Gallery with Roma Pass
- Audio guide
- Gift shop
How to reach Borghese Gallery
The Borghese Gallery is on the Pincian Hill, in Villa Borghese.
Villa Borghese has the third largest public park in Rome.
By Metro
Board Line ‘A’ and get down at the Spagna station, the closest station to the art gallery.
Once you exit the station, you can follow the signage towards the Gallery while taking in the Roman air.
This 1.5 km (almost a mile) long walk to the art museum is a bit of an uphill climb.
The other option is to get down at the Barberini Metro station, 20 minutes by walk from Borghese Gallery.
By Bus
You can get onto any bus that goes up to Via Veneto.
The Borghese Gallery is 1 km (0.6 miles) from Via Vento, and you can walk the distance in seven minutes.
We recommend route numbers 52 or 53.
If you prefer private transport, go for a taxi.
From the city center, Borghese Galleria is just a five mins ride.
Villa Borghese is a massive park, and visitors tend to get lost. We recommend Google maps for directions.
Note: Borghese Gallery is 5.2 Kms (3.2 Miles) from the Vatican Museums and 6 Kms (3.7 Miles) from the Colosseum.
Borghese Gallery tickets
There are two ways to explore Borghese Gallery – with or without an expert art guide.
As soon as you make the purchase, these Borghese Gallery tickets get delivered to your inbox.
On the day of your visit, show the tickets in your email on your smartphone and walk in.
There is no need to take printouts.
Fast Track tickets
The Fast Track tickets are the most popular and cheapest way to experience Borghese Gallery.
With this ticket, you can access the complete Art Gallery and ongoing temporary exhibitions.
Since you won’t be with a guide or a group, you will explore the masterpieces at your own pace.
Ticket price: €27 per person
Guided tour of Borghese Gallery
Real art lovers book guided tours at art galleries because that helps them gain a better insight.
The local art experts narrate stories and anecdotes about the various pieces of art, making the visit far more memorable.
The Expert English-speaking guide also ensures that you don’t miss out on any of the masterpieces on display at the Gallery.
All visitors get audio headsets so that you can always hear the guide.
Once the guide has taken you through Borghese Gallery, they will lead you through the manicured lawns, fountains, lakes, and monuments of the magical Villa Borghese Gardens.
The two-hour guided tour ends with a breathtaking view from the top of the Pincio Terrace.
Ticket price
Adult ticket (15+ years): 69 Euros
Kids ticket (4 to 14 years): 64 Euros
If you want to enjoy the personal attention of a private guide, check out this 2-hour private tour of Borghese Gallery.
Opening hours
From Tuesday to Sunday, the Borghese Gallery opens at 9 am and closes at 7 pm.
The last entry into the art Gallery is at 5 pm.
Borghese Gallery remains closed on Mondays, 25th December, and 1st January.
Entry restrictions
Only 360 visitors are admitted into Borghese Gallery at a time for a two-hour visit.
Batches of visitors start entering at 9 am and continue till 5 pm.
The slots are 9 to 11 am, 11 to 1 pm, 1 to 3 pm, 3 to 5 pm, and 5 to 7 pm.
At the end of the two hours, visitors must exit the Gallery.
You must reach Borghese Gallery 30 minutes before the entry time mentioned on your ticket. Else you can be denied entry.
That’s why we recommend you book either the self-guided Borghese Gallery ticket or the guided Borghese Gallery tour well in advance.
Best time to visit Borghese Gallery
The best time to visit Borghese Gallery is 11 am, and since this slot is very much in demand, you must book your tickets at least two weeks in advance.
The next best time is either the 1 pm slot or the 5 pm slot, and to get these slots, you must book at least a week in advance.
If you don’t book your Borghese Gallery tickets a few weeks in advance, you will most likely get the not-so-popular time slots.
How long does Borghese Gallery take
Borghese Gallery allows visitors to spend up to two hours exploring its galleries, after which they must exit so that the next batch of visitors can enter the attraction.
This two-hour rule applies to both the self-guided and guided tours.
Since you must be at the Gallery at least 30 minutes before the time mentioned on your ticket, at max, your tour of Borghese Gallery will take two and a half hours.
Depending on the season, many visitors follow up their visit to the art gallery with a quick tour of the Borghese Gardens.
Enter Borghese Gallery for free
Borghese Gallery offers free entrance every first Sunday of the month.
You must call the venue (+390632810) beforehand and book your ticket.
However, we don’t recommend it because it is the busiest time to visit.
Interested in free entry to the Colosseum, Vatican Museums, St Peter’s Basilica, and Sistine Chapel? Buy the Omnia Card
How to book Borghese Gallery tickets
There are three ways to reserve your visit to Borghese Galleria – by phone, via e-mail, or online.
We recommend booking your tickets online because that’s much faster.
By phone
To book Borghese Gallery tickets by phone, you must call +390632810. Here +39 is the country code of Italy.
You can talk to the operator in Italian or English.
The phone line opens from Monday to Friday from 9 am to 6 pm and on Saturdays from 9 am to 1 pm.
The line remains closed on Sundays.
While booking the tickets, be ready with your mode of payment or Roma Pass details (more on this below).
If you have Roma Pass, you must mention it while booking your ticket over the phone.
Once your booking is confirmed, you will get a booking code.
This code is needed to pick up your tickets on the day of the visit.
The operator might ask for your e-mail id, to send you a confirmation via mail.
By email
Booking your Borghese Gallery tickets by email is much easier than booking them by phone.
You must send an e-mail to info@tosc.it with all the details.
You must mention the date of your visit and preferred time slot, including the number of people and their age.
You must also mention an easier way to contact you if they fail to contact you via mail.
Within 48 hours of your e-mail, you will receive confirmation.
If you don’t get any confirmation, do call them back again.
Booking tickets online
The best way to book Borghese Gallery tickets is to buy them online.
You don’t have to talk to an agent on the other end continuously (as in a phone booking) or have multiple email conversations (as in email booking).
To book your Borghese Gallery tickets online, choose the kind of ticket you want and go ahead and book them.
Online tickets get emailed to you.
To gain entry to the Borghese Gallery, you show the email on your smartphone at its entrance.
Is Borghese Gallery worth it?
Many tourists in Rome have this question “Is it worth visiting Borghese Gallery?”
They wonder because they have already seen Vatican Museums with masterpieces from across the world and want to know if yet another art gallery will be worth their time.
Here is our short answer: Yes, Borghese Gallery is worth your effort, time, and money.
For the long answer, continue reading:
1. Best of Bernini is at Borghese Gallery
Bernini’s sculptures are scattered all over Rome.
However, his best works – The Rape of Proserpina, Apollo and Daphne, and David are on display at Borghese Gallery
With a limited number of visitors in at a time, this is also the only Museum where you can see the master sculptor’s work up close.
2. Best of Caravaggio is in Borghese
Caravaggio wasn’t a regular painter.
For starters, he has a murder registered against his name.
But he was a brilliant painter, and during his time, was regarded as the best in Rome.
The Borghese Gallery has almost one dozen Caravaggio paintings.
The most famous of them being – ‘Boy with a Basket of Fruit,’ ‘David with the Head of Goliath,’ ‘Self- portrait as Bacchus, ‘Madonna and Child with St Anne’ and ‘Portrait of Pope Paul V.’
All this is over and above the other painters of the Renaissance and Baroque on display here.
3. Borghese Gallery offers the best art experience
Borghese Gallery is what we would call a premium art gallery.
Three things together offer the most satisfying ‘art experience’ at the Borghese Gallery.
- It houses the best of art from all over the World
- The Museum building itself is an attraction
- Since only 360 visitors are allowed inside at a time, you see art as you have never seen before – it almost seems like your private collection
Check out the video below to see how stunning the insides of Borghese Gallery can be –
Since Borghese Gallery is relatively small, with only 20 rooms, one doesn’t get the feeling of getting lost amongst the art.
4. The Gallery is in a beautiful park
This tourist attraction is in the corner of one of the most beautiful parks in Rome – Villa Borghese park.
Once you have explored the artwork, you can step out and enjoy the Borghese gardens.
Away from the city lights, these Gardens offer an opportunity to experience Rome in silence.
Borghese Gallery with Roma Pass
It is criminal to be in Rome and NOT know about Roma Pass.
Roma Pass is a great tool to save money while holidaying in the city.
With this Roma Pass, you can gain direct and FREE entry to the Colosseum, Capitoline Museums, and Castel Sant’Angelo.
You can also enter the Borghese Gallery for free, but you must book your arrival in advance (by call or email).
You only need to buy Roma Pass for visitors above ten years of age.
Kids under ten can use public transport and visit all museums for free if they are accompanied by Roma Pass holding adults.
This Pass comes in two flavors –
72 hours: Direct entrance to two museums of your choice, unlimited travel with all public transport (excl. trains) for three days. Price: €52
48 hours: Direct entrance to one museum, unlimited travel with all public transport (excl. trains) for 48 hours. Price: €32
The hours start getting counted from when you first use your card.
Audio guide
If you don’t want to spend the extra money and book a guided tour, the next best thing is to get Borghese Gallery’s audio guide.
You can’t book the audio guide in advance – you must pick it up on the day of your visit.
It costs 6 Euros per person and comes highly recommended by visitors who have used it before.
Image: Etpharm
In this guide, excellent narrators explain the important (and numbered) pieces of art spread all over the Museum.
Gift shop
After finishing your trip through the Borghese Galleria Museum, you can buy Borghese souvenirs from the gift shop.
Since the gift shop closes at 7 pm, visitors booked for 5 to 7 pm time slot can visit it before they tour the Gallery.
Sources
# Freetoursbyfoot.com
# Tourscanner.com
# Romecolosseumtickets.tours
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