A small museum in a cardinal's summer villa, with Bernini's marbles that seem to move and six Caravaggios. Two hours is all you get, and all you need.
Cardinal Scipione Borghese, nephew of Pope Paul V, built this villa in the 1610s to show off his collection. He was the young Bernini's first great patron.
The ground floor holds the sculpture: Bernini's Apollo and Daphne, her fingers turning to laurel leaves, and the Rape of Proserpina, Pluto's hand pressing into marble thigh. Canova's reclining Paolina Borghese lies in the next room.
Upstairs, the picture gallery has six Caravaggios, Raphael's Deposition and Titian's Sacred and Profane Love.
Entry is €18 in five strict two-hour slots a day. There are no walk-up tickets, and slots sell out weeks ahead in season. It is closed on Mondays.
Two hours in the villa, then the park.
Pick up tickets and leave bags in the basement cloakroom before your slot.
David, Apollo and Daphne and Proserpina; walk all the way round each one.
Canova's Paolina, then Caravaggio's Boy with a Basket of Fruit and David with the Head of Goliath.
Raphael, Titian and Correggio, with the second hour to go slowly.
Walk through the park to the terrace above Piazza del Popolo for sunset over the domes.
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Book on the official site as soon as the calendar opens; the 9am slot is the calmest.
Bus 910 from Termini, or Metro A to Spagna or Flaminio and a 20-minute walk through the park.
Photographs from Wikimedia Commons and Pexels under their licences.
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