Borghese Gallery question

I was able, I think, to book tickets for the Borghese Gallery at this site: http://www.rome-museum.com

They sent me an email confirmation for the booking, but they also sent this additional email:

"Dear Sirs, Thank you for your request. Your order will be confirmed about one month before the requested date and we will immediately then send you the voucher. Actually Borghese Gallery gives booking codes only one month before the date of the visit, not before."

So it sounds as if the booking is for real, although it will not be "official" until later, when I receive the voucher.

I just looked at the site Joel linked to (I'm going to Rome next month). It is selling tickets for €21 and the regular price, including the booking fee, through the Borghese website is only €15 (though right now it's higher because of a special exhibition, but still not €21).

I wouldn't worry about not getting tickets for the time and day you want. There are 360 places for each slot and 5 slots a day. Just start looking at the official site a couple months in advance. BTW if you are planning to use the Roma Pass you can't book online. You have to phone them or you can email your hotel with your preferred time/day and ask them to book it.

That site is quite a scam. They get your money now, but the above posted message really means: "You're paying use to check the official site on your behalf and get tickets. But we could not succeed in getting the tickets you want as we are just a re-seller".

Nicole, If anybody else can purchase tickets why worry? Wait two months out and save money. "Keep it simple", the golden rule while travelling.

Chani, thank you. Never occurred to me that I'd be getting overcharged, another travel lesson learned. It's a done deal now, but I'll keep your advice in mind since, after researching for the upcoming trip, there is no question wife and I will need much more time in Rome in future trips.

Joel - consider it a cheap lesson!

Don't feel bad. A few months ago the NY Times had an article about the chaotic condition of ticket bookings for the major museums in Florence. It has to do with bureaucracy and turf wars among city officials, museum directors, etc. I don't know a good solution, but apparently nobody else does either.

the best way to book this gallery (and the florence museums) is to do it by phone to the actual museum. The web sites are very confusing as google allows people to masquerade as official sites and it is fairly difficult to weed out the scam jobbers who charge more for less. You can call the museum directly and reserve just as you can call the Uffizi directly and reserve.

The site booked by the OP doens't have tickets. They are planning to get them a month out and maybe they will and maybe they won't.

There is a trick, but you will pay about 100% over ticket face value: Go to a ticket broker site. I use one fairly often, rather than wake up in the middle of the night to try to get tickets when they first go on sale at the official site. Brokers often have tickets available before they are posted on the official site.

But to repeat Chani's post above, TicketOne is the official ticketing site for the Borghese.

Repeating again:
http://www.gebart.it/

We ordered our tickets from the site when we went a couple of years ago, and didn't have any difficulty.

Yes, agreeng with Kathy and Chani, definitely use the official site to book - others are a ripoff. A good idea is to get familiar with the site now, including how to search for days and times. Then when their window of time for advance purchase comes up you can jump on it without having to figure out how to navigate their website. Sometimes the credit card will be rejected and you have to try a few times, maybe with a different card. This happened to me on my most recent visit to Borghese in November even though I had verified that travel alerts for Italy purchases were indeed attached to my cards. I think the 3rd time it went through so don't give up if this happens.

I agree with Susan. She suggests what I did. It was able to purchase tickets when I wanted to. Remember, you need to show up about an hour before your entry time! I saw some Americans be refused entry because they showed up about 20 minutes before entry time.

I think they suggest at least 30 minutes before your time slot so as to have time to check belongings and whatnot. We did arrive earlier than that so as to have time to browse the bookshop and choose a printed guidebook to use during our visit and as reference later.

Books from the museums/attractions tend to be among our favorite souvenirs as we use them over and over again after our trips. The suitcases have gotten a little heavy by the time we fly home but we pre-plan for that! They're also nice to have when the museum/attraction doesn't allow photographs.

Be sure to book your tickets within the first few days that they become available. Summer is high season and the Borghese will sell out. You should be able to get the tickets you want at the two month window, I just wouldn't wait until a week before leaving to try to book. Use the official booking site and you should have no issues. Show up at least a half hour early so that you can check all your bags and get your entry tickets.

Donna