Villa Borghese Gardens
Italy
Included in this tour is a visit to the Borghese Gardens: once the Cardinal’s private park, now a favorite spot for locals to relax among sculptures, plants and water features and get away from it all.
Contents
9 sections · tap a section for its opening lines1Orientation
Welcome to Villa Borghese, the 'Green Heart' of Rome and its third-largest public park. As a scholar of landscape architecture and history, I invite you to explore this 80-hectare (roughly 200-acre) masterpiece that serves as a…
Listen in the app2Borghese Gallery: A Sensory Overload of Art
Our first major stop is the Borghese Gallery, a place that many consider to be the most magical and awe-inspiring site in Rome. Originally built as a Country Villa for Scipione Borghese, it was designed specifically to house his…
Listen in the app3Fontana Oscura and the Path of Poets
As we walk away from the gallery along the Viale delle Sculture, we encounter one of the park's most mysterious features: the Fontana Oscura, or the 'Dark Fountain'. Its name is derived from its shaded position, hidden among…
Listen in the app4Piazza di Siena and the Horse Racing Tradition
We now enter the grand Piazza di Siena, a natural amphitheater that has been the center of Rome's social and equestrian life since the 18th century. The square is named after the city of Siena because the Borghese family…
Listen in the app5The Lake Garden and the Temple of Aesculapius
Perhaps the most romantic spot in all of Villa Borghese is the artificial lake, created in the late 1700s as part of the English-style garden renovation. In the center of the lake sits the Temple of Aesculapius, a neoclassical…
Listen in the app6The Water Clock and the Pincio Gardens
As we head toward the edge of the park, we encounter a true marvel of 19th-century engineering: the Hydrochronometer, or Water Clock. Created in 1867 by a Dominican priest, Giovanni Embriaco, this clock is powered entirely by…
Listen in the app7Pincio Terrace: The Ultimate Roman Panorama
Our journey concludes at the Pincio Terrace, offering what I believe is the most iconic and breathtaking panorama in the entire city of Rome. From this vantage point, you can gaze across the Piazza del Popolo with its central…
Listen in the app8Villa Borghese Gardens
As we conclude our walk through the Villa Borghese Gardens, I hope you have enjoyed this journey through Rome's 'Green Heart.' We have traversed the centuries, from Scipione Borghese's obsessive art collecting to the romantic…
Listen in the app9Closing
As we conclude our walk through the Villa Borghese Gardens, I hope you have enjoyed this journey through Rome's 'Green Heart.' We have traversed the centuries, from Scipione Borghese's obsessive art collecting to the romantic…
Listen in the app
What is Villa Borghese Gardens?
Villa Borghese Gardens is a place in Italy with 9 story sections on Tellby. You can read the opening of each section on this page; the sound plays in the app.
| Location | Italy |
|---|---|
| Type | Heritage |
| Story sections | 9 |
| Text language | English |
| Coordinates | 41.9145, 12.4830 |
| Last updated |
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