When to fit in a visit to the Borghese Gallery on our Best of Venice, Florence & Rome trip

Are you flying out the last morning of the tour? If you are in Rome for at least one more day that is when I would schedule the Borghese tickets. We are staying in Rome post-tour and have tickets for the Borghese Gallery after our VFR tour. I read somewhere that the Vatican day of the tour is not ideal for Borghese tickets, and it seems they are closed Mondays anyway.

I suppose I should have mentioned that we're planning on taking a train to Napoli on the morning of the fourth day in Rome, so fitting the Borghese Gallery in then isn't feasible. It seems that the gallery might be closed some Sundays, possibly limiting our options to only Tuesday anyway!

Phillip, that tour is doesn't spend 3 FULL days in Rome. According to the published itinerary, you'll be coming in from Florence on day 7, with a wine-tasting along the way so that's a partial day. As Anne said, the Borghese is closed on Mondays (outside of rare exceptions) so if your Day 9 is Tuesday and you're leaving for Naples on the morning of Day 10, your best opportunity to visit will be Tuesday.

https://galleriaborghese.beniculturali.it/en/visita/

..had planned to add Palatine Hill and the Capitoline Museums on day
nine (Tuesday). However, the latter can be moved if the Borghese
Gallery would be better to fit in on day nine instead.

I don't think I'd try and do the Capitoline on the same day as the Vatican Museums (Day 8); that would be a LOT of museum-ing to take in on one day!!! It does make sense to do the Palatine on Day 9 as, if the tour includes the Forum, you're RIGHT THERE for the connecting Palatine; no further tickets needed unless you've booked a ticket for S.U.P.E.R. sites within the Palatine. I wouldn't buy that anyway given the complex schedule of open/closed hours for those sites; you couldn't fit some of them into your tour schedule. You might need to weigh which is more important to you - Capitoline or Borghese - for the remaining part of Day 9?

Hi Philip, this is actually answered for us if you go to the Pre-Tour Planning section of your tour account.

"The best time to book your visit is after 12:30 pm on Day 8 or between 1:30 - 6:30 pm on Day 9."

Since Day 8 is a Monday and the gallery is closed, you can only book that 1:30-6:30 pm on Day 9.

I'm actually on the same tour and the same days of the week (we may be on the same one exactly, I have a Phil on my tour roster). I booked 4:00-6:00 on Tuesday myself. I wanted to give myself some time to eat lunch and walk over after the Ancient Rome tour.

Thanks Kathy and Alexandra, for your input!

So it definitely sounds like Tuesday day 9 is best all around for the Borghese Gallery; now, would Palatine Hill and/ or the Capitoline Museums fit in on Sunday day 7? Or is that too ambitious?

Further follow-up to Alexandra: if you are going the first week of September, it is quite possible we are on the same tour. If so, I look forward to meeting you (along with the rest of our group)!

Regards,
Phil

Phil, I've not done the RS VFR tour but looking at the published itinerary, you don't really have time to do the Palatine or Capitoline on Sunday, or probably not without skipping the group walk, anyway. Remember, that it's only a PARTIAL day in Rome, according to the online itinerary, and I'll assume the walk begins in the afternoon after everyone is checked into the tour hotel and settled. Dinner follows at the completion of the walk.

Again, as you'll essentially be AT the Palatine after you finish the Forum on Day 9 (I'll assume they do that one AFTER the Colosseum), as they're connected inside the security fences, it doesn't really make sense to do it on a different day, especially as it would involve a ticket to do so. The only one which might work is the Capitoline but again, it depends on what time the tour arrives in Rome, and how much time you'd have between arrival, check-in and group walk/dinner.

Editing to add, as Alexandra's material states that, "The best time to book your (Borghese) visit is after 12:30 pm on Day 8" and there's no mention of Day 7, I might assume there's no time for the Borghese on Day 7, should Day 8 be a Monday. That indicates that there's no time for the Capitoline either.

OK thanks Kathy. I did see your previous comments concerning day 7 being a partial day. I was just hoping there might be time to fit something in then as well, but it sounds like that day is mostly full. Thanks again for all the info!

Phil

Ah okay Phil! You are not the Phil on my tour as I am going in May :) Happy touring though! I'm very excited!

Edit:

It is correct there is no free time on Day 7. We have a four hour bus ride, a stop at a winery, and then a walking tour after we get checked into our hotel, a dinner, and more walking it seems.

I currently am scheduling my Capitoline museums tentatively on Day 8 after the Vatican, since I don't plan on spending all day at the Vatican.

I found it very helpful to use Excel/Google Sheets to plan out my itnerary. Blocking off all the estimated areas of when we are busy with tour things (time estimations of morning, afternoon, and evening based on the tour itinerary description) and then being able to visually identify the blocks of time that are free.