Borghese Gallery on the first Sunday of May

Personally I stay far away from all of the free days. The locals love them, can take advantage of them, so crowds can be huge. Good opportunity to rub shoulders with the locals while waiting in long lines. Pay the price and make a reservation for Tuesday it will be so much better.

Thanks Frank but unfortunately that Sunday is the only day that works for us schedule wise. I’m also not worried about it since it’s the Borghese Gallery - my understanding is that they still only let 200-250 people in at a time regardless of it being a free Sunday.

hi guys Im new to this, I tried to book tickets but the site I found is only in Italian, its taken so long to understand it too

This is the English site. https://www.tosc.it/tickets.htm?affiliate=T2C&sort_by=event_datum&sort_direction=asc&fun=erdetail&doc=erdetaila&erid=912678&language=en

You do have to call about free Sundays. They don't offer it online. Maybe try it again and hopefully you will get someone who speaks English or have a script ready (Hello, I want to book x free tickets for May 6 at X time - in Italian)

Or, since the free first Sunday program is changing so that attractions can set their own free day, maybe the Borghese Gallery has not figured that out yet and that is what the person you talked to meant.

thats very helpful thanks

I typically use Firefox as my browser, but Chrome will automatically translate sites from Italian to English. Also, on most of these sites, you'll find (sometimes it's a bit of a search) an option for the English language page OR you might see a UK flag icon. Click on that and you're good to go, too.

I tried calling and I didn’t quite understand what the employee said,
but it was something about not knowing if there will be free
reservations yet.

I would call them again. According to this translation from the Italian version of the website, the first Sunday in May is not supposed to be a free day. Tickets are still not showing as book-able on May 5th, though. They may have nailed down this schedule VERY recently and tosc.it has not updated the calendar yet.

http://galleriaborghese.beniculturali.it/it/news/nuove-gratuita-2019

"For the year 2019, the Borghese Gallery is planning a new and rich
calendar of gratuities, to promote its heritage and make it more
accessible to the public. There will be a total of 20 free entry
dates, some distributed in different time slots throughout the course
of 2019.

As part of the free Sundays at the museum, it starts with Sunday 3
March, and then resumes on Sunday 6 October, 3 November and 1
December.With the "Museum Week", from 5 to 10 March, you can access
free of charge for a whole week. The last 3 rounds of every second
Wednesday of the month (shifts of 1.00pm, 3.00pm and 5.00pm) and the
days of April 25th, Anniversary of Liberation, and May 1st, Labor Day,
will also be free. Please note that access to the Galleria Borghese,
even on free days, requires reservations according to the usual
methods: by calling +39 06 32810, from Monday to Friday 9.00-18.00 and
Saturday 9.00-13.00, or online by clicking on BUY."

For anyone who is wondering, I was able to make a reservation on the website for my original date. What's new is that apparently they are no longer offering free entry for these peak-season 1st Sundays -- I had to pay full price.

Right. As I'd posted earlier, there are no more free 1st Sundays at the Borghese during high and shoulder seasons. This change also applies to other State museums throughout Italy so you need to check their individual websites to see what their schedules for free days will be.

Just a FYI- in 2016 I tried to get tickets to Borghese and they said full but I showed up early and waited in line and my daughter and I got tickets!. The grounds were beautiful if you do not get in but worth a chance. I would not go on free day either.
Good Luck!
Victoria