Seeing the Borghese was the one thing I wanted to see in detail whilst visiting Roma and so I spent a little extra on a private tour, well worth it! Anna, my guide, was fantastic. Very knowledgeable, picked out a nice selection to focus on during our limited time (one could spend days there) and had some great stories to tell about how Borghese created his collection (hint, don’t say no to Borghese!). My fav thing to see was the Apollo and Daphne room where you can literally see Daphne transform into a tree! Back at my hotel which was the parc dei principi grand, suddenly all the random paintings on the wall came to life as many were copies of what I had explained to me in detail by Anna! Finally, one can only imagine the true splendore of the Borghese and all the grounds when it was in its original shape (like before Napoleon “borrowed a bunch of stuff”).

This was our second time back to the Borghese but the first time with a guide -- which we would recommend for first-timers. Seth was excellent: knowledgeable, personable, and clearly passionate about art. Although the focus was, as anticipated, on Bernini, other important works also noted and explained. We enjoyed the small group experience, especially as it was easier to manage in a crowd (Christmas-New Year-Epiphany holiday time).

Our two-hour tour of the Borghese Gallery was very impressive. There are many masterpieces to see and our guide did a great job of showing us the most important in the two-hour window that the Gallery gives to all visitors. (At the end of the two hours they clear the Gallery of all visitors so that the next group can come in.)