Borghese Gallery tickets

Why you have to plan this one

Most Rome museums let you turn up and buy a ticket. The Borghese doesn't. Every visitor needs a booking, free entries included, and the booking fee is €2 per ticket. A handful of people are exempt from the fee, such as disabled visitors with a companion and children up to 5, but not from booking.

Slots start on the hour and each one lasts two hours. A maximum of 180 people enter per slot, which is why the rooms feel calm and why slots run out. You can buy up to five tickets per order.

Official prices: €16 full, €11 for the last slot at 17:45, €2 for EU citizens aged 18 to 25, free for under-18s of any nationality, always plus the €2 fee. Special exhibitions can raise the price. The official sales channel is linked from the museum's "Info biglietti" page; there's also a phone line, +39 06 32810, Monday to Friday 9:30–18:00.

When the official slots are gone

Try the 17:45 slot first. It's cheaper and shorter than the standard two hours, but enough to see the Berninis and the Caravaggios properly if you focus.

Then try the phone line. Talking it through with a person can be quicker than refreshing the online calendar.

Then look at resellers. Tiqets, GetYourGuide and Headout sell reserved entry, entry with an audio guide, and guided tours. They cost more than the official ticket, and the museum's own page tells visitors to buy through official channels and to beware of unauthorised sellers and "skip the line" tickets. So be clear about what you're getting from any reseller: a place in an hourly slot, just like the official ticket, possibly with a guide or audio guide on top. Nobody gets in before their slot, because skip-the-line simply doesn't exist here.

A guided tour makes the most sense if you haven't read up beforehand. Two hours go quickly, and a guide takes you straight to the works that matter.

Using your two hours

The visit is split over two floors. The ground floor holds the sculpture: Bernini's Apollo and Daphne, The Rape of Proserpina and David, Canova's reclining Pauline Borghese, and the Caravaggio paintings. Upstairs is the picture gallery, with Raphael and Titian among others.

It's easy to spend almost all your time downstairs and rush the paintings in the last twenty minutes. Decide the split before you go in: roughly an hour on each floor works.

Arrive a few minutes before your slot. Entry happens on the hour, and your two hours end at the same time even if you arrive late.

Discounts, free days and getting there

The €2 reduced rate for ages 18–25 is for EU citizens, citizens of non-EU countries with reciprocity, and non-EU residents with an Italian permit. Under-18s go free. Teachers, some EU arts and architecture students, and ICOM members also enter free, but all of them still book.

On the first Sunday of the month, 25 April, 2 June and 4 November, entry is free for everyone. You still book and pay the €2 fee, tickets are released 10 days in advance, and there are no last-minute tickets on those days.

The gallery is open Tuesday to Sunday, 9:00–19:00, and closed on Mondays, 25 December and 1 January. It stands inside Villa Borghese, the big public park above the Spanish Steps and Piazza del Popolo. Allow around twenty minutes on foot from Spagna or Flaminio metro stations (line A), or take a bus to Via Pinciana.