We booked the "Private Borghese Gallery Tour with Hotel Pick-up and Drop-off" from Eyes of Rome on…read moreOctober 21, before the Omicron variant placed our present trip to Rome very much up in the air. Happily we were able to make it to Rome and to experience this wonderful, personalized tour of what I think is the greatest collection of treasures in Rome on December 26. We were picked up on-time at our hotel by the tour's driver who was well-informed and effective with regard to the current COVID protocols, helping us to ensure we had the appropriate type of mask required and our physical vaccination proof (we had assumed digital versions would suffice, but this is not currently the case in Rome or at least not for the Villa Borghese). Another tour operator probably wouldn't have checked for these items and we would have missed the entire experience.
We were dropped off at the Villa Borghese and met immediately by our personal guide, Silvia, who greeted us warmly and immediately started setting the context of what we were about to see with the history of the Aurelian wall, Roman life in the 1600s, and the concept of the "villa suburbana," all of which is quite necessary for a full appreciation of the wonder that is the Galleria Borghese. She explained to us the relation of the Galleria's founder Cardinal Scipione Borghese and his position as the Cardinal Nephew to Pope Paul V, which gave him political power over the Papal States. Silvia told us of the original plan of the gardens and the vivarium, which housed species from all over the world- plants and birds respectively, which was foundational to understanding the art collection to come.
For context, I have twice visited the Galleria Borghese in 1996 and 2010, but it was my husband's first visit to the Galleria and, in fact, to Rome. Our tour impressed, entertained, and satiated the curiosity of both of us equally- not an easy feat, for sure. We appreciated that Silvia structured the tour as much as possible as the Galleria was meant to be experienced (unwinding, if philosophically, the changes to the sequence of rooms necessitated by current COVID protocols). Silvia was knowledgeable, personable, funny, and very well-versed in the history of the Borghese family, the Papacy as related to it, and the artists (Bernini, Carvaggio, etc.) and their works featured in the museum.
Among the highlights for us:
*A very informative but also witty and humorous study comparing the depiction (and by extrapolation the characterization) of Venus painted with Cupid by two artists- Cranachi (il vecchio) and Brescianino, an eye-opening discussion about the differing regional attitudes toward women at the time
*Revealing the technique but also the humanity of Caravaggio with a thorough education on the 'Madonna dei Palafrenieri.' Some of why the painting would have been a shocking portrayal of Mary, Jesus, and St. Anne may be obvious, but understanding all the details- Mary's plainly visible underskirt- contemporary of the artist's time, the wrinkled, withered portrayal of St. Anne (the Vatican chapel bearing her name being the intended destination for this work, where it was ultimately rejected), and the still-astounding use of light in darkness was extremely interesting and enriching to our experience
*A 360-degree analysis of Bernini's Baroque masterpiece Apollo and Daphne (starting with Silvia ensuring we averted our eyes to view the sculpture first from the right-hand side, as intended by the artist himself prior to the statue being moved) gave us a complete understanding of this work. Viewing the sculpture- which I had seen before but never from the vantage point encouraged by our guide- this way gives the complete story of Daphne's encapsulation into the tree depicted here and Apollo's (non-)reaction. When the delicately carved, paper-thin tree bark was pointed out to us, you could almost feel the heartbeat that Apollo would have felt as his hand grasped it. I appreciated the details of the windswept hair turning into leaves, which also stemmed from her hands, and the roots emanating from her foot, details I had not really fully appreciated before.
I would highly recommend Eyes of Rome and specifically our guide Silvia. I cannot enumerate with words how much more I appreciated the Galleria Borghese with her expert and naturally flowing guidance and historical context. We had a fantastic time that we will not soon forget.
