Borghese Gallery

Cardinal Scipione Borghese was the nephew of a pope, shameless in his methods (he had Caravaggio's dealer jailed to seize paintings, and the Cavalier d'Arpino's entire studio confiscated), and the best eye of his century. His villa on the Pincian Hill holds the collection he extorted and commissioned — above all the marbles he ordered from a young Gian Lorenzo Bernini that remain the most astonishing carved stone in existence.

Bernini first: Apollo and Daphne, the moment of transformation with laurel leaves drilled so thin they ring when tapped; the David, mid-slingshot with a face Bernini carved from his own mirror scowl; The Rape of Proserpina, where Pluto's fingers press into marble thigh as if into flesh. Each sits in its own room, meant to be circled. Then the Caravaggios, six of them: the Boy with a Basket of Fruit, the self-portrait as sick Bacchus, David with the Head of Goliath — the giant's severed head another self-portrait, painted while the artist was on the run for murder. Upstairs, Raphael's Deposition and Titian's Sacred and Profane Love.

The gallery admits around 360 people per strictly-enforced two-hour slot, which is exactly why it's the best museum experience in the city: you can actually see everything, and the rooms never crush. The flip side is that slots sell out one to three weeks ahead in season — book on the official site before you book your flights, more or less. The 9 AM slot with morning light through the villa windows is the one to get.

It sits inside the Villa Borghese park; rent a rowboat on the laghetto afterwards or walk ten minutes to the Pincio terrace for the sunset view over Piazza del Popolo — the standard, and correct, way to end the visit.