Borghese Gallery in 2 hours: the essential route

The route: 9 stops in 2 hours

Room order can change because of installations or loans; staff at the entrance will point you in the right direction. Timings are approximate and the slot is fixed, so do not linger at the start.

1. 1

   0:00 · Ground floor · entrance hall

   Pauline Bonaparte as Venus Victrix (Canova)

   Start with Napoleon's sister, half-draped on a marble sofa whose cushion looks genuinely soft. Canova carved her around 1808 for her husband, Prince Camillo Borghese. Look up at the painted ceilings while you are here.

2. 2

   0:10 · Ground floor

   Aeneas, Anchises and Ascanius (Bernini)

   Bernini carved this in his early twenties: three generations of one family, from child to old man. It is a first taste of the genius in the next rooms.

3. 3

   0:20 · Ground floor

   The Rape of Proserpina (Bernini)

   Pluto grips Proserpina and his fingers sink into her thigh as if the marble were flesh. Walk around it: the sculpture changes from every angle.

4. 4

   0:30 · Ground floor

   David (Bernini)

   Where Michelangelo's David stands calm, Bernini freezes the moment before the throw. By tradition the tense face is the sculptor's self-portrait.

5. 5

   0:40 · Ground floor

   Apollo and Daphne (Bernini)

   The masterpiece of the collection: Daphne turns into laurel just as Apollo reaches her. Look at the leaves sprouting from her fingers, carved impossibly thin for marble.

6. 6

   0:55 · Ground floor

   The Caravaggios

   The Caravaggio room has Boy with a Basket of Fruit, Sick Bacchus, Madonna dei Palafrenieri, Saint Jerome and David with the Head of Goliath, where the painter gave Goliath his own face.

7. 7

   1:15 · Upper floor · picture gallery

   The Deposition (Raphael)

   Go upstairs to the picture gallery. Raphael painted this at 24 with an almost theatrical composition of grief over the dead Christ.

8. 8

   1:25 · Upper floor · picture gallery

   Sacred and Profane Love (Titian)

   One of the most enigmatic paintings of the Venetian Renaissance: two near-identical women, one clothed and one nude, seated at a sarcophagus turned fountain. Scholars still argue about its meaning.

9. 9

   1:35 · Upper floor · picture gallery

   Danaë (Correggio) and Antonello da Messina

   Finish with Correggio's delicacy and Antonello da Messina's small portrait. If minutes remain, head back to Bernini: it is the part worth seeing twice.

Tips to make the most of your slot

• Arrive 20 to 30 minutes early: the 2 hours run from your entry time, not from when you cross the threshold.
• Spend your first block on the ground floor, which is what most people come for and deserves the unhurried time.
• There is no re-entry: once you leave, you cannot return.
• Scan works outside the route with AnyArt to hear their story without an audio guide.

If you have time to spare

The salons have frescoed ceilings and Roman mosaic floors that hardly anyone looks at. If you can stretch your day, stroll Villa Borghese's gardens afterwards and climb to the Pincio for sunset over Rome.