We would like to get a gladiators door tour of the coliseum plus the related sites in a small group (not dozens of people) — and we’d like to go in through the gladiators door. Can you suggest?
Also wondering about skipping Vatican museum and its crazy crowds in favor of the borhgese museum. What do you think??
We've been to the Vatican and I swore I would never go again. The crowds were frightening and we were there on an early entry tour.
The Borghese is magnificent- I would return there no question. What is nice about Borghese is it is a timed entry with a 2 hour visit so crowds are well controlled.
YMMV, but I went to the Vatican museum on a timed ticket as early as I could. I walked past a long, long line of people waiting for tickets and was basically alone in the Raphael rooms. However, the Borghese gallery may just be a better museum, as crazy as that sounds.
Don't miss the Borghese museum! I also really enjoyed the surrounding park.
You don't mention the Capitoline Museum. This is a fantastic museum; bonus is that it tends to be less busy than other sites in Rome.
I think you should do both the Vatican museum and the Villa Borghese, if you have time for both. Just follow the fast visit itinerary stripe on the floor (you can choose 3 itineraries flowing the different color stripes) and concentrate on just a few things. Obviously you want to see the Sistine Chapel, that way you can put the Conclave into context (both the movie and the real Conclave since it is likely the ailing Pope Francis might resign soon).
Hands down I'd choose the crowd-controlled Borghese over the mob at the Vatican. The collection is wonderful, especially the Bernini sculptures. The trompe l'oeil decoration in many of the rooms is fascinating too.
Another vote for the Borghese! The shoulder-to- shoulder crowds at the Vatican museum make enjoying its splendors virtually impossible. Hopefully, it will someday have crowd control measures similar to the Borghese.
What time of year are you visiting Rome?
We returned to Rome for the umpteenth time this past late November/early December. After my last visit to the Vatican Museums in October, 2022, I swore I would never fight those crowds again…and this was a Friday evening visit. But since we were hosting our daughter’s in-laws and they had never been before and were uncomfortable going alone, I accompanied them. We had 3pm tickets and I was actually shocked! The museums were as uncrowded as I had ever experienced in the last 10 years…we actually had the Maps room and Tapestry room almost to ourselves. It did tend to get more crowded as we approached the Sistine Chapel and the Chapel itself was very crowded, but overall it was a wonderful experience. I do not know if this was because it was late afternoon in the late Fall…November 30th, but I am so grateful that my daughter’s in-laws were able to have a much more enjoyable experience than I had expected and had warned them about.
