Borghese tour or on your own?

We did the museum on our own with a book from the gift shop. You can also rent audioguides, and guided tours are available through the museum:

http://www.ticketone.it/obj/media/IT-eventim/pdf/en/galleria-borghese-5-en.pdf

More info:
http://www.tosc.it/tickets.htm?affiliate=T2C&sort_by=event_datum&sort_direction=asc&fun=erdetail&doc=erdetaila&erid=912678&language=en

Whether a tour is "worth it" depends on your personal level of interest in the collection and whether you prefer moving along at your own pace or someone else's. As we like to spend more time with some pieces versus others, going without a guide works best for us in most cases.

The audio tour available at teh museum is excellent. After doing two tours without the audio support, we enjoyed the depth the audio guide provided.

"Gardens" are different in the case of Villa Borghese. The Galleria is surrounded by what is best described as a large park that includes a zoo. Good to wander on your own or rent a peddle cart. You can walk all the way to Piazza del Popolo.

The audio guides for the gallery are really very good. They are a great way to see the gallery and get more in-depth information.

Only you can decide if a private tour is worth the time and money.

Donna

I can't comment on the gardens, but the audio guide for the museum is excellent. I think the fact that they only let 200 or so people in at a time helps a lot in listening to the audio guide. You never feel crowded or part of a huge herd, unlike the Vatican museum.
Cynthia

Didn't use the audio guide or a private guide. Instead I used the free RS audio guide, which I thought was very good. While he didn't cover every piece of artwork, I found it to be sufficient to help me understand the art without overwhelming me.

We did the guided tour a few years ago and were lucky there were only 4 of us. The guide was great and we really enjoyed the two girls on the tour with us. However, we didn't really end up with enough time to do the 2nd floor. We are returning this April and are going to START our visit with the 2nd floor then go down to the main floor and use the RS Guide. If you start on floor 2 it will NOT be crowded and by the time you go downstairs and begin at the start, the crowds will be weeded out there also. We are planning on 30 or so minutes on the 2nd floor and the rest on the main floor. Most people tell me they make this museum a MUST stop on every return trip to Rome....it was, by far, my favorite site on our previous trip. The Musee D'orsay....the Rijksmuseum.....the Uffizi....the Borghese.....It doesn't get much better!

I remembered laminated info sheets in each room - describing the art all over the room.
Just did a google search and found that they are still there]
"You will see the plastic coated information sheets that are in the corner of each room."
We used them and really appreciated all the info, I seem to remember that they were offered in several languages.