The Borghese Mondays: A Stroll in the Villa Borghese Park.

The park of Cardinal Scipione’s Villa Burghesia still allows one to perceive the beauty and pleasantness of life sought by its owner, and it is one of the few remaining testaments to the marvelous green crown of suburban villas that encircled the Aurelian Walls until 1870. The seventeenth-century arrangement of the gardens, desired by the Cardinal, is still visible, overlaid by the extensive late eighteenth-century intervention promoted by Marcantonio IV Borghese and executed by the architect Asprucci. This intervention introduced the innovation of the English landscape garden to Rome, coexisting with the formal Italian garden. Our walk will take us from Piazzale delle Canestre and the ancient Casino dei Giuochi d’Acqua (Water Games Pavilion) to the Garden of the Lake and Piazza di Siena, recalling festivals, strolls, and hunting parties. Then, skirting fountains and fake ruins, we will arrive at the Casino Nobile and the unique Grotta dei Vini (Wine Grotto).

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