Borghese Gallery in Two Hours, with a Guide or an App

Two hours inside the gallery, which is not an editorial choice: it is the length of the entry slot the museum sells. Everyone leaves when the next group comes in, so how the two hours are used is the only variable, and this listing lets you decide it. With the live guide, the route is chosen for you and the commentary is answerable: you can ask why the marble looks like that, and get a reply. With the audio guide you set your own order, stand where you like, and spend twenty minutes in front of one thing if you want to. Either way the works are the same. Bernini's Apollo and Daphne, caught at the instant the bark closes over her. Caravaggio's Saint Jerome, a man reading in the dark. Raphael. The rooms themselves, painted and gilded, are part of what you are looking at. The host waits by the drinking fountain outside, the Fontana dei Mascheroni, in a purple Crown Tours shirt. Arrive fifteen minutes early: latecomers may not be admitted, and with timed entry there is no next slot to slip into.