One place that I will always remember is the Borghese Gardens in Rome.... It is located in the Northern Section of the Eternal City, just above the Piazza del Popolo ... and the Gardens are in the shape of a heart.
Source: http://borghesegardens.blogspot.com
Our original plan was to visit the famous Borghese Gallery Art museum located on the grounds of the Borghese Gardens to see the many beautiful sculptures of Bernini... and paintings of Raphael and Caravaggio. If we had time we would venture out into the gardens and see what we could see.
Bernini's first masterpieces, Pluto and Persephone, Apollo and Daphne, and David were commissioned for Borghese's suburban villa. These three sculptures are made of marble and freestanding in the round. - https://visit-borghese-gallery.com/bernini-sculptures/
It is incredible to walk around these statues that seem to move and transform as you move around them .... King David as he prepares to sling his rock at Goliath. The solid rocks appears to shift, stretch and contract ... something truly magical is happening as you view these masterpieces in the round. It is pure Theatre. I have never experienced anything like this when viewing a Sculpture at an Art Museum.
The other works are similar in their seemingly kinetic and mystical abilities. The marble on the transforming Daphne is carved so thin you can see light coming through the stone. The emotions on the faces of Apollo and Daphne seem to change as you move around them. From one angle Daphne seems terrified as she is being chased, but as you progress to the front of the Statue you can see that suddenly it is Appollo who looks horrified as he sees that Daphne is turning into a Tree. I have no idea how this done. Bernini was some kind of strange magician.
The paintings of Raphael and Caravaggio at the Borghese Gallery also had strange and mystical qualities. Obviously the intent of all these works was to create a sense of magic and mystery. The entire experience was like being in some kind of obscure and mysterious theatre of the absurd. Every sculpture, every painting more peculiar than the one before.
Source: https://visit-borghese-gallery.com/bernini-sculptures/
After the Museum you walk out into the beautiful Gardens. Actually called the “Secret” Gardens. I learned that they had been recently restored to the original and again you have a sense of magic and mystery as you penetrate the layers of dense greenery to open spaces and fountains. Many of the herbs, fruits and flowers were from the New World as the Americas were being discovered and these unusual plantings were carried back from these distant lands.
The Secret Gardens - Villa Borghese, Giardini Segreti:
The entire Borghese Gardens park was organized on a formal, symmetrical plan with lanes and small squares lined with statues and fountains. The giardini segreti (secret gardens) located on either side of casino were the most important and well-tended of the gardens.
The air is filled with the many scents of the boxwoods and other delightful herbs .... I created this short video to capture my memories of the Garden ...
Since the Renaissance, secret gardens, whose roots lie in the kitchen gardens of Medieval convents, have been a common garden type. Their name is an allusion to the fact that they are enclosed by walls that form outdoor rooms, thereby creating a private passage from the closed, interior spaces to the open air of the surrounding park. Between the gardens is a pavilion called “l’Uccelliera,” (the Aviary), which was constructed to house a prized collection of rare and exotic birds.
This aviary did not appear open to the Public when were there....
The restoration of the Villa Borghese to its seventeenth-century appearance was begun in 1997 and has been based on extensive historical research of numerous documents preserved in the Borghese family archives at the Vatican. The fountains and furnishings have been put away for safekeeping and replaced with copies made of cement and marble dust. The originals will eventually be exhibited in the Museum of Villa Borghese, which will be housed in the Clock House. Among the most important recent projects has been the refurbishment of the secret gardens known as the Flower Garden, the Garden of Blooms and Views, and the Garden of the Bitter Oranges.
We could even smell the wonderful fragrance of oranges and other citrus plants when we visited this part of the garden.
Within the three gardens, more than 250 varieties of plants permit three rounds of seasonal flowering that include rare and precious flowers that have disappeared from Roman gardens and have been reintroduced for the first time. These include such flowers as fritillaries, numerous varieties of antique tulips, old roses, many aromatic plants, and flowers such as the sunflower, marigolds, and four o ’clocks that were rarities in the seventeenth century because of their recent importation from the Americas. The gardens thus have returned to their original state as true living museums." Source: http://catena.bgc.bard.edu/borghese/text.htm
The Gardens were more beautiful than we could ever imagine and we go back to visit many times when we are in Rome and it has become our favourite place to be in Italy. So many wonderful things to see and discover. It is a great way to escape the congestion and intensity of the city. There is even a song about the Pines of the Villa Borghese, and these too are wonderful to lay back on a stretch of fresh cut grass and gaze up to watch as they sway gently in the Roman breeze.
Source: Youtube