This was a thorough and intense two hour tour of one of Rome's most famous art collections, something not to be missed when visiting this city. Our guide was a highly educated scholar of art history, BUT she offered so much detail, talking non stop, that we felt exhausted and overwhelmed at the end. Not being art experts at her level, we did not have the frame of reference to understand much of what she told us about each of the schools of art represented in the collection. A few good anecdotes might have made the experience more enjoyable and memorable. The art, of course, was memorable, but we would never take a tour with this guide again. It was exhausting!

Seeing the Borghese was the one thing I wanted to see in detail whilst visiting Roma and so I spent a little extra on a private tour, well worth it! Anna, my guide, was fantastic. Very knowledgeable, picked out a nice selection to focus on during our limited time (one could spend days there) and had some great stories to tell about how Borghese created his collection (hint, don’t say no to Borghese!). My fav thing to see was the Apollo and Daphne room where you can literally see Daphne transform into a tree! Back at my hotel which was the parc dei principi grand, suddenly all the random paintings on the wall came to life as many were copies of what I had explained to me in detail by Anna! Finally, one can only imagine the true splendore of the Borghese and all the grounds when it was in its original shape (like before Napoleon “borrowed a bunch of stuff”).

This was our second time back to the Borghese but the first time with a guide -- which we would recommend for first-timers. Seth was excellent: knowledgeable, personable, and clearly passionate about art. Although the focus was, as anticipated, on Bernini, other important works also noted and explained. We enjoyed the small group experience, especially as it was easier to manage in a crowd (Christmas-New Year-Epiphany holiday time).