Hi,

I must do my reservations for the Borghese Gallery tomorrow and I was wondering if it would be a good idea to visit it along with Vatican City on the same day.

That would be Borghese Gallery in the morning at 9 am and then, around noon, after having a light lunch, Vatican City in the afternoon.

My main priority in Vatican City is the Sixtine Chapel and St. Peter's Cathedral. I don't expect to visit all the museums because I know that it takes more than half a day to do so.

Does this seem like a hectic day?

Thanks for your opinions!

IMHO, that's a super ambitious day. The Borghese Gallery is lovely and you'd want to be able to take your time. Also, there is often a LONG queue for the Vatican, so will probably take some time to get in there. If you could spread it out over 2 days, I would.

Your plan is exactly what we did two years ago. We arrived at Borghese Gallery at 8:30am for our 9am reservation. The Borghese Gallery blew me away!! After our allotted time, we walked to Piazza Navone where we had an early lunch. Then we took a taxi to the Vatican. We arrived at 1pm and there was no line...we walked right in. We went straight to the Sistine Chapel and then worked our way back through the museums. We then walked over to St. Peter's. We only had one day in Rome and these were our priorities. Worked great for us. I will tell you that we knew we were not giving enough time to Rome and are going back next year to spend more time there.

Granbury,

What time of year did you visit Roma?

Shadrach,

What is your capacity for museums and art viewing? My concern would be overload, and that you might actually appreciate what you are going to see more if you give yourself a break between the experiences.

We did both tours on separate days. It depends on how many nights you'll be in Rome and how rushed you like to be. Personally, we liked that we spread it out so not too seem too rushed. It gave us a chance to walk around and discover other things in the area.

IMO it can be done.

The Borghese, as great as it is, is small and you can "do" it in a couple of hours and yes, you can enjoy it. Some folks like to linger and some don't.

I would go as EARLY as possible so as to leave myself enough time to do the Vatican stuff.

The danger is, I think, of being enchanted with the whole Borghese thing..not just the museum but the surroundings, etc., which are, IMO, one of the nicest parts of Rome.

We did the Borghese Gallery and the Vatican on the same day. As I recall, the Borghese limits your reservation time to 2 hours in the building. We then strolled the grounds and made our way to the Vatican, on foot, for our 1:00pm private guide tour of the Vatican. We even stopped for lunch on the way.

Long day, no doubt, but it was terrific.

Hello,
I think this is a great plan. We did this exact same thing. I love the Borghese gallery and visit it each time I am in Rome. You can make a reservation for a tour of the Vatican Museums through their website and bypass any line. These tours are great, they last about 2 hours and end with the Sistine Chapel. You get a headset so you can hear everything the guide says. They give a brief history of the sistine chapel and the paintings inside, then you go into the museum, thru certain rooms and then on into the chapel. After the tour you can go into St. Peters. It really is a great way to spend the day.

Beware of Stendahl Syndrome!

You only get a two hour time slot in the Borghese, so what's the big deal about doing another tour on the same day?

And I do hope you're getting to the crowd-breaking Raffaello exhibit at the Borghese, over by Sept. 10th. -otherwise, you don't really need to make reserv. until you get there.

nessundorma - our brief visit to Rome was the first of June. We only had one day and knew we were just giving ourselves an "overview".

The Borghese Gallery and grounds were stunning. Much more than I could process in one visit. Once we got the the Vatican museums, I was on sensory overload. Now we are going back next year and will take our time seeing some of Rome's treasures.

I'll spend 5 nights in Rome. Even though some of you have done it, and, since I have more than one night in Rome, I've decided to visit such museums in two different days.

Thanks everybody for having shared your opinion!