Borghese Gallery in a Group of Fifteen, Gardens Included

Skip-the-line admission, a group capped at fifteen, and a route that runs from the gallery out into the gardens. The Borghese sells out well in advance, and pre-booking is the only reliable way in. What waits inside is Cardinal Scipione Borghese's collection, assembled between 1579 and 1633 and never dispersed. The guide covers the Caravaggios, including the Young Sick Bacchus, painted while he was recovering from a fever and using his own face, and the Boy with a Basket of Fruit. Then the sculpture: Bernini's Apollo and Daphne, David and the Rape of Proserpina, and Canova's Pauline Bonaparte. Raphael's Entombment of Christ is on the route too. The rooms of the Casina Borghese are frescoed floor to ceiling, and the commentary covers technique as much as story, which is what separates a good gallery guide from an audio track. The walk ends in the gardens. The villa still carries the Latin notice its keeper had cut in marble. It says, roughly, that any free person may enter without fear, go where they like, ask what they wish and leave when they choose, since everything here was made for the guest rather than the owner. It ends by warning that anyone who abuses that courtesy through deceit may find the friendly words broken over his head.