Villa Borghese, Rome

Nice and easily accessible park, just north of Spagna and the famous and elegant Via del Corso. Home to the Galleria Borghese, Museo di Villa Giulia and - one of the newest attractions: a lift-up in a real baloon, to admire Rome from a bird's perspective. Location: Viale dei Cavalli Marini. Ticket price (have a sit and calm down!....): 15 euros for a 15-minute "flight".

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Villa Borghese is Rome's version of NYC's Central Park. It is an extremely large park that has numerous places to picnic, stroll, read, or whatever activity you chose. My favorite path is starting in Piazza del Popolo, up to Pincio, down Viale di Oblisk, across the highway on Viale Magnolie and on to Viale di Lago to the beautiful lake there. A wonderful way to enjoy this part of Rome.

I would be amiss if I did not write about the Borghese Gallery and Musuem. It is packed with stunning works by Bernini, Canova, Raphael, amongst many others. It is absolutely amazing to think that one man, Cardinal Scipione Borghese, a nephew to Paul V, owned all of these works. The house itself is a work of art, with its exquiste frescoes, painting and columns. The gardens are not to be missed as well, but spend your time inside with the 2 hour time limit you are given for each visit.

Tickets to the museum have to be reserved at least 2 days in advance, done by internet or phone, and you must pick up your tickets at least 30 minutes in advance. Please note, that, especially in the off-season, you can go directly to the museum and likely be able to get tickets for that day. I was able to go around noon and get tickets for the 3 PM entrance. It is the same price either way.

8.50 Euro for regular entrance

Villa Borghese is the biggest park in Rome - also a big park for any city standards. It's main entry is this beautiful double gate - Porta Pinciana. Villa Borghese is a park where you can walk away from the heat and crowds of the city, you can relax and clear your thoughts on a bench, listening to birds singing. Inside Villa Borghese there is also Galleria Borghese, an important Art Gallery (which I did not visit unfortunately because of the tight schedule)

The Villa Borghese is the largest public park in Rome. The park is located north of the Spanish Steps. Main entrances are at the Piazza del Popolo and the Porta Pinciana at the end of the Via Veneto. The park is a pleasant refuge from the hectic streets in Rome.
Walking through the park you may reach the terrace of Pincio, where you have a beautiful view of the town.
The park also houses the Borghese Museum and Gallery, with some important sculptures of Canova and Bernini and a collection of paintings from several masters including Titian, Rubens and Raphael.
Again, Villa Borghese contains the Modern Art National Museum.
What can I say? Relax and Culture!

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This is the private collection of the world famous Borghese family who produced many Renaisance Popes. It contains many of Bernini's best sculpture.

The museum limits the amount of visitors at one time and it is neccessary to get reservations for a day and time. To get reservations see http://www.ticketeria.it/quick_reserve-eng.html

No pictures are allowed inside so here are a few of the outside of this magnificent mansion.

This was an art gallery for the Borghese family. They also commissioned artists to do many of these great works. It is because of the patroniage of some of the rich families like this that we have much of this great art. Another unique feature is that here you can see the works displayed in rooms that they were created for. There are a lot of Bernini's sculptures here as well as paintings by Caravaggio, Raphael and Titian. A well known sculpture is of Pauline (Borghese) Bonaparte as Venus. It's by Antonio Canova done in 1808. She posed for the sculptor but once the statue was complete, her husband, Camillo Borghese, kept it locked up. Obviously he didn't want the world to see his wife naked. But now here she is with a whole room dedicated to her.

Our time to go into the Borghese Gallery wasn't until 1pm this afternoon so we spent about 3 hours exploring the grounds. There are monuments made to look like ancient ruins here such as this temple in a small lake. We took our binoculars and looked for birds. We only saw 18 different species so it wasn't as good as we had hoped. But then it is January. The most interesting birds seen were: Short-toed Tree Creeper, Gadwall in the lake, an Eurasian Kestrel chasing a Crow, Long-tailed Tit, Robin and Wren. There are a lot of those beautiful Umbrella Pines, gardens filled with Cyclamen, and beautiful statuary.