<what is the point of them having a ticket selling site when they do not do any updates>

Welcome to Italy.

My husband and I just returned from Italy(Rome, Venice, Florence)last week. Our hotel booked for 10:45 am but We went to Borgese in the morning 9 am, purchase the tickets right there (without our reservation #)and got in with no problem.

Think we may be successful! My husband tried Italy Museum-Rome Museum and at a cost of 29 Euros we appear to have a numbered voucher. I realise that this is only a booking fee and we will have to pay at the museum but hopefully we will be OK now. Thanks so much to all your responses. We will be there on the 21st October - my birthday!

Anne, I'm glad you got your reservation for the day you wanted, but I must ask if you tried the telephone and what results you got from that? Would you kindly tell us of the problems you encontered with your phone call, because until now I'd not heard of failures with that method (and the cost of a phone call would be at most a few dollars, nothing close to 29 euros). Thanks for any info that may help with my next Borghese visit.

We went to the Borghese in June. I phoned and got a reservation just a week before for three people with no trouble. Yes, you can get lucky and just walk in but not always - the day we went it was quite crowded outside and reservations only.

We were able to join an english-speaking tour that was suggested to us at the cashier when we picked up our tickets. I think it was either complimentary or just a few Euros. (You only have 2 hours to see the museum so some tour or audio can help focus things.) I think we were there on a Thursday. You may want to ask about this.

I loved this museum - one of my favorite few hours in Rome, but for me the tour was really helpful to my enjoyment. Have fun!

29 Euro and the ticket still to buy? Talk about a waste of money! October reservations for the Galleria Borghese are now open - I believe as of today.

Why, why, why do people get so panicked about nailing everything down weeks and months in advance? If October reservations are not open on September 23, there is no way that you will not get a reservation for your chosen date on September 24!

There may be a few exceptions - maybe the Last Supper in Milan, the Cappella degli Scrovegni in Padua - that accept reservations a longer time in advance,
but for the rest, just chill, people!

I've got to agree with Zerlina
the 29 Eu fee is a rip-off.
For 20Eu you can get a Roma pass and see the Borghese plus another site for free(with other sites at half price).
Plus,you get 3 free days of bus/metro use.
Oct.25 should be no problem. After all, if you weren't able to book it,no one else could.

I booked a tour with context rome for the 10th of oct
i will post our experience when I return on the 13th

And to continue on Zerlina's theme... Why do people keep making expensive international phone calls or paying internet booking fees? Unless you're staying in an apartment, your Rome hotel would be happy to make reservations for you. Just give them a couple of options of days and times.

P.S. Just to throw more panic into the mix, I've seen that the Domus Aurea (Nero's Golden House) is open until the end of December 2007 with no re-opening date announced as yet. A rare chance to see an interesting excavation.

Perhaps the problem is you are trying to reserve dates for a week they are going to be closed. It was reported on another thread so you can search for the dates.

Many things can be booked with Pierrici or ticketclic.it for a very small fee (a few Euro). The ticket prices are not marked up.
http://www.pierreci.it/

A phone call from the US to europe to make a museum (or hotel or restaurant) reservation can be made for under one dollar by using a 1010- or 1016- dialaround number from your home landline. A typical charge is about 50 cents for the connection plus 10 cents or less per minute -- I usually complete my call for 70-80 cents. But even if it takes 15 minutes, that is still only $2, considerably less than many internet booking fees (which sometimes apply per ticket, not per call).

Thanks to all those who helped us with this - as I posted earlier we emailed our hotel but they replied that they would not be able to help with bookings - perhaps only top class hotels will do this? In reply to the poster who said as the bookings were not yet open then no-one else would be able to book either - then how was it that the agency we went through was able to get us our reservations? I was under the impression that there are only a limited number of people allowed through so we could easily have been unable to reserve when the official site was updated. Anyway, we leave for Paris on the 13th October then on to Italy, really looking forward to the Borghese.

anne5: I would be curious to know which hotel refused to make a booking call to someplace as popular as the Borghese. Would you share?

Hello - yes, it was the Hotel Fiorini, their reply was exactly as as follows and the capital letters are theirs. "I AM SORRY IS NOT POSSIBLE THANKS HTLSERENA".

Thanks for the answer, Anne. I'm really glad you get to go to the Borghese on your birthday. You will utterly love it. Happy birthday in advance!

Here is the thread saying the gallery is closed Oct. 11-17.
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35070701

we did this reservation by phone - as I recall it took a bit to get through but once we did it was easy.
good luck!

Also, I don't think the OP is phoning from the US, but from OZ. I'm not sure what costs would then be.

I have a new calling plan that allows me to make international calls and send international faxes for only an extra 5 USD a month, by the way. Tbhis is a good deal for me.