Borghese Gallery or National Museum of Rome / Itinerary Help

Hi Wanda, I might be misreading something but I notice 2 issues.

1) As far as I recall, the Vatican Museum is not open on Sunday, except the last Sun of the month when it is free and PACKED. I think you would be lucky to fit in the museum and St. Peters before 12 noon on a normal day.

2) Are you leaving to the cruise Monday (bottom of your post) or Tuesday (top of your post)? If Tuesday, I would move the Vatican visits to Monday and visit both the National Museum and the Borghese on Sunday. Otherwise I'm not sure you really even have time to fit in one of them.

That said, while I haven't been to the National Museum, the Borghese is fantastic and you can only spend 2 hours there. The Borghese is more Renaissance art, especially Bernini, while the National Museum is more focused on ancient Roman artifacts.

Borghese! You will be blown away by Bernini sculpture. It is breathtaking. How'd he do that?? But it looks like you'll may need to switch around your Sunday and Monday itinerary.

Hello,

So sorry. I will be departing on my Cruise on Tuesday. Gosh I missed the fact that the Vatican Museum is closed on Sunday. I will have to change my agenda and see the Vatican City on Monday with Museums on Sunday.

Is there anything else that you suggest that should not be missed other than the places noted above?

Perhaps I can take a half day trip to Ostia Antica on Sunday after visiting the Museums. Any feedback on Ostia Antica?

"The Borghese is more Renaissance art, especially Bernini."

Probably better to think of the Borghese collection as broader than "Renaissance art" (Bernini is a Baroque, not a Renaissance, artist). The Borghese contains art from a number of periods: Baroque works by Bernini and Caravaggio; Neoclassical sculptures (e.g. Canova); a number of Anient/Classical sculptures; as well as Renaissance paintings (e.g. Raphael and Titian).

And it's more than just a great museum: a beautiful villa set in the green surrounding gardens!

On the Vatican museums, by all means, reserve your tickets ahead of time. It will allow you to spend your time enjoying the museum, rather than being in line for a very long time.

Look at the Borghese's website, to see what you'll see there. I love the sculptures there (including Bernini's). You can only visit in two-hour blocks, which are always booked ahead of time, so you will need to reserve tickets online for the Borghese, as well. Once you have your reservation, you can plan the rest of the day around that reservation time.

The National Museum of Rome is in several buildings around town. On our last trip, we went to the Barberini Gallery, at via delle Quatro Fontane, 13. I love Renaissance art, and they have several very good pieces, including Raphael's "la Fornarina."

As others have noted, visitors can make reservations for a two hour time slot to see the gallery. All visitors have to exit after two hours. I went during the last time period--the 5-7pm time slot--the gallery closes at 7:30pm. This turned out to be a perfect time. There were very few people there during this time. I was able to get right in front of the statues with no one blocking my view. It was awesome. I would highly recommend going at this time. Allow at least a half hour to walk from the Spagna metro exit to the gallery. Have a great time!

Could someone who has visited the National Museum talk about your experience there and why you did or did not enjoy it? Thanks.

@Kent, thanks for being more precise for me! I have a bad habit of dividing into medieval, renaissance, and modern, and me being a huge art fan. Shame on me. :-)

@ Wanda: The Borghese is fabulous so I definitely do recommend you try to get there. Apollo and Daphne sent chills down my spine.

I loved Ostia Antica, and I do think you could do that as a half day on Sunday. But I don't know if you could realistically fit that, Nat'l Museum of Rome, AND Borghese in one day. Probably pick 2.

You might be able to fit the Borghese into your Saturday if you take the late 5pm reservation and you are efficient. We did Colosseum > Palentine Hill > Roman Forum in one day (from about 8am to 2pm which included getting really really lost), then went up to the Borghese by 5. Squishing the Pantheon in there as well might be asking for trouble, but you could probably fit the Pantheon into Friday night since your night walk will take you right past there. Just go a little early before it closes.

The caveat to that suggestion being we didn't do any tours so we could leave when we pleased. Also, it was November so things weren't very crowded.

I liked the National Museum of Rome but I am quite a fan of mosaics. It was also dead quite when I was there which I really appreciated. They are what I would call different kettles of fish... I like that both are convenient to the train station so if you are staying near there, perhaps both would work. I seem to remember the hours being longer that at some places but you would want to check that.

Thank you for the wonderful feedback. We have decided to just do the Borghese Gallery and save the National Museum of Rome and Ostia Antica for another visit. We will be visiting Turkey during this vacation and will be seeing Ephesus. I will be travelling with my sixteen year old daughter and a good friend and want to have some down time to just walk around, shop and just enjoy people watching at some of the Piazzas once we do all the major sites. Hopefully one day I will return to see the countryside and the lakes.

Is it best to make reservations for the National Museum of Rome? I will be traveling there soon and am unsure weather it is necessary in order to avoid the long lines.

Don't think you need a tour guide for the Collesuem. When we visited, we rented an audioguide. Audioguide was pretty good. Saw things at our own pace and enjoyed it. The Borghese is incredible. Follow Rick's advice and go to the painting gallery first. You can then view the incredible Bernini sculptures without the crowds.