I will be on a Rick Steves tour of Venice, Florence and Rome in mid-June. I will be staying a day extra and plan on going to the Borghese Gallery. Before I make an appointment, I wanted to get opinions on what time slots are preferable/recommended. The day I plant to go to the Gallery is a Sunday -- possibly not the most ideal day. I was thinking of making the appointment for the 9-11 or 3-5 or 5-7 time slots. What do you think?
Posted by
Oak Park, Illinois
4535 posts
Whatever works best for you. The art is all the same in each slot. It will be crowded no matter. I suppose the morning is nice because you'll have the rest of your day free.
Make sure to reserve well in advance - weekend slots fill up quickly.
Posted by
Seattle, WA
1317 posts
Any slot should be ok. They only allow a certain number of people in at a time (hence the strict two hour gaps). Whichever you choose, allow enough time to get there, as they may give away your reservation if you are late.
We did 5-7 and that was nice because we toured the Colosseum area in the morning, took a break, then went to the Borghese in the evening. We lost some time due to a power outage, but oh well. When we left the museum, we went and had a nice dinner by our hotel around 7:30-8pm.
Posted by
Dallas, TX, USA
1170 posts
I have found that going during the 9-11 time slot (weekdays), there is a lot of traffic in the morning and the buses are loaded with people. My last trip to the Borghese, the bus took forever to arrive at our stop, and I was late and had to beg my way in. No matter the day, they will only let a maximum of 200 people in per time slot, so it will never be more crowded than that.
Posted by
Tel Aviv
15791 posts
You need to be at the museum at least 30 minutes before your appt time. It takes that long to wait in line to pick up your tickets, then to check all your belongings - including ALL cameras, then to rent an audio guide and make a quick bathroom stop (there are bathrooms upstairs in the museum, but who wants to waste precious minutes). If you aren't on time to pick up the tickets, they will sell them to the hopefuls waiting on the edge. If you have few spare moments before your entry time, there is a small cafe and a gift shop you can browse in.