Unofficial visitor guide · Rome
Official audio guide · English Yes · 6 languages · €5
The Galleria Borghese (Borghese Gallery) lets you in for two hours at a time, so it helps to know what's on offer before you go. Its audio guide comes in six languages. If yours isn't one of them, or you'd rather have the labels read to you, here is what helps.
Independent guide by the makers of Tales of Museums. Not affiliated with the Galleria Borghese.
Checked on 21 October 2026 from the sources linked above. Museums change their guides and rules; confirm on the official Galleria Borghese website before you go.
Checked on 21 October 2026 from the sources linked above. Museums change their guides and rules; confirm on the official Galleria Borghese website before you go.
Swipe for the works and stories worth knowing before you go.
Analyses during the 1997 restoration showed that Bernini wrapped the thinnest parts of the marble in temporary plaster cushions while he carved, so the vibration of later work would not snap them. Look at the leaf-thin laurel sprigs sprouting from Daphne's hands and hair: that padding is why they survived.
Smuggled out of San Francesco al Prato in Perugia with the friars' help on the night of 18-19 March 1608, this altarpiece was rushed to Cardinal Scipione Borghese in Rome. Perugia got a copy and five silver lamps in part payment. A 2019 study found Raphael had painted out a woman, seen from behind, beside Mary Magdalene.
In 1607 the painter Cavalier d'Arpino was accused of illegally keeping firearms, and gave up his 107 paintings to win his release. Pope Paul V passed them to his nephew Scipione Borghese, whom the museum calls the presumed mastermind. Two early Caravaggios came with the haul: Boy with a Basket of Fruit and Sick Bacchus.
collezionegalleriaborghese.it: Boy with a Basket of Fruit · collezionegalleriaborghese.it: Sick Bacchus
Caravaggio delivered this altarpiece to St Peter's on 8 April 1606; eight days later workers were ordered to take it down. Scipione Borghese bought it that July for 100 scudi, 25 more than the painter's fee. The museum's catalogue lists the objections critics point to, from the Virgin's low neckline to the naked Child.
A Turin-made mechanism hidden in the couch lets the statue turn a full 360 degrees, and it has worked again since its 1997 restoration. Canova finished the marble with acqua di rota, the water used to cool grinding wheels, for a rosy sparkle. After 1814 it was even shown at night by torchlight.
collezionegalleriaborghese.it: Pauline Bonaparte as Venus Victrix
As Bernini finished his first bust of the cardinal, a flaw in the marble opened into a crack across the forehead. He carved a replacement in 15 nights according to his biographer Baldinucci, or three days according to his son Domenico. Both busts are on show in Room 14, and the second has a faint crack of its own across the cape.
collezionegalleriaborghese.it: Bust of Scipione Borghese (first version) · collezionegalleriaborghese.it: Bust of Scipione Borghese (second version)
According to his biographer Baldinucci (1682), Bernini finished David in about seven months, while Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, the future Pope Urban VIII, held a mirror so the sculptor could copy his own face. Check the left heel: it was missing and was added in 20th-century restorations.
In 1650 Iacomo Manilli was the first to note that Caravaggio gave Goliath's severed head his own face. Look closely at the sword blade for the letters H.AS O S, which scholars from Maurizio Marini onwards read as a Latin motto meaning 'humility kills pride'.
collezionegalleriaborghese.it: David with the Head of Goliath
A repaint once turned Raphael's young woman into St Catherine, with a heavy cloak over her shoulders and a spiked wheel in place of the unicorn. X-rays in 1933 revealed the original, and the overpaint was removed with a scalpel. Later X-rays found a dog, a symbol of marital fidelity, hidden beneath the unicorn.
According to a 1995 International Herald Tribune article, the English Rothschilds offered the Borghese family 4 million lire for this painting alone, more than the 3.6 million the Italian state agreed to pay for the whole collection. Camillo Borghese offered to give it all away free if he could keep and export the Titian, in vain.
International Herald Tribune (Roderick Conway Morris, 1995) · collezionegalleriaborghese.it: Sacred and Profane Love
Tales of Museums reads the label in front of you aloud in your language, for any label you can photograph. Bring headphones and mobile data, and keep your phone on silent.
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The museum's audio guide (€5) is listed in English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese and Ukrainian, not in Japanese, Korean, Russian or Portuguese. The museum also runs 90-minute guided tours in Italian and English for €8 on top of the ticket. galleriaborghese.cultura.gov.it: services · galleriaborghese.cultura.gov.it: guided tours
Yes, for non-commercial use, without flash, tripods or stands. The museum can ban photos in particular cases, such as loans in temporary exhibitions, which hang along the permanent route; check the signs in each room. galleriaborghese.cultura.gov.it: photos and video
Yes. Every ticket must be booked, even free ones, with a €2 booking fee. Entry is on the hour and each slot lasts two hours; the 5.45 pm slot lasts 1 hour 15 minutes. The ticket office sells a few last-minute tickets from minute 20 of each hour, for a 1 hour 30 minute visit (1 hour for the last one, at 5.50 pm), but entry on the day is not guaranteed. Children up to 5 do not pay the €2 booking fee. galleriaborghese.cultura.gov.it: FAQ · galleriaborghese.cultura.gov.it: tickets
Yes. The museum runs 90-minute guided tours in Italian and English for €8 on top of the ticket, for up to 15 people. Booking is required. galleriaborghese.cultura.gov.it: guided tours
Only small pouches and handbags up to 21 × 15 cm. Backpacks, medium and large bags, umbrellas and selfie sticks go in the cloakroom at the entrance, so keep your phone and headphones in a pocket or small bag. The cloakroom takes suitcases only up to cabin size, and only while space lasts. galleriaborghese.cultura.gov.it: FAQ · galleriaborghese.cultura.gov.it: services · galleriaborghese.cultura.gov.it: visit (luggage)
Yes: the first Sunday of each month and 25 April, 2 June and 4 November are free. Under-18s from the EU, from countries with reciprocal agreements or with a regular residence permit enter free every day. You still have to book and pay the €2 reservation fee, and no last-minute tickets are sold on free days. galleriaborghese.cultura.gov.it: tickets · galleriaborghese.cultura.gov.it: visit
Take Metro line A to Barberini, then bus 63, 83, 52 or 53 to the Pinciana/Museo Borghese stop. From Termini station, buses 910 and 92 go to the same stop. The gallery is open Tuesday to Sunday, 9 am to 7 pm, with last entry at 5.45 pm. galleriaborghese.cultura.gov.it: visit
Yes. A stair lift to the left of the front steps leads to the ticket office, café and toilets, and the sculpture floor is fully accessible. The lift to the painting gallery upstairs is too small for large wheelchairs, so the museum lends a small one for the ride; call +39 06 6723 3753 before you go. Disabled visitors and one companion enter free. galleriaborghese.cultura.gov.it: accessibility (Italian)
There is a café with 50 seats, open 8.30 am to 7 pm, and you can use it without a ticket. Food and drinks, including water, are not allowed in the galleries, and strollers are allowed only for children up to two years old. galleriaborghese.cultura.gov.it: services (Italian) · galleriaborghese.cultura.gov.it: FAQ (Italian)
The museum's educational service offers themed family itineraries, the 'Stories of the Borghese', designed for different ages including the youngest visitors, and its website has short animated videos for children aged 4 to 8 to watch before you go. Strollers are allowed only for children up to two, and under-18s from the EU enter free (the €2 booking fee still applies). galleriaborghese.cultura.gov.it: education · galleriaborghese.cultura.gov.it: services (Italian) · galleriaborghese.cultura.gov.it: tickets
Book a timed slot before you go: every visitor needs one, and the Galleria Borghese sells no skip-the-line or fast-track tickets. For security, entry is allowed only at the start of each hour, so a queue forms at each entry time, but the museum says the wait is generally short and the line moves quickly. galleriaborghese.cultura.gov.it: tickets (skip-the-line tickets) · galleriaborghese.cultura.gov.it: info and FAQ ('Is there a fast-track ticket?')
Tales of Museums is an independent app and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to the Galleria Borghese. Translations, narration and the extra facts use AI and can contain mistakes, so for anything important, check the museum's official information and the linked sources. Please follow the museum's photography rules.