gateway of the Villa Borghese outside the Porta del Popolo was 

 originally the entrance to the Villa Giustiniani. 



Together with the Pincio, which it adjoins, it is the favourite 

 evening promenade of the Romans, especially since it has become 

 public property; it is also perhaps the best known of all the Villas, as 

 visitors must pass through it in order to reach the Borghese Gallery. 



At one time the property of the Altemps family, this villa was 

 much enlarged about the year 1608 by Scipio Caffarelli, who took 

 the name of Borghese, when his uncle Paolo V. gave him the 

 Cardinal's hat. The Borghese family have from time to time enriched 

 the gardens and palace by the addition of a number of statues and other 

 works of antique sculpture. Happily, many of these still remain, though 

 the empty pedestals that encircle some of the minor fountains tell the 

 tale of statues destroyed or carried away to already overcrowded 

 galleries. 



The gardens were planted by Domenico Savino di Monte Pulciano, 

 the architectural work being entrusted to the Lombard architect, 

 Girolamo Rainaldi, and the water- works are said to have been designed 

 by Giovanni Fontana. 



These grounds are a most fortunate combination of the formal 

 garden and the park. The principal roads and alleys are straight, and 

 as a rule at right angles with each other. At their intersection there is 

 often placed a fountain, a temple, or some other architectural feature 

 to give point and interest. A pleasant shade is given to these roads 

 by avenues of ilex of sturdy growth, gnarled and twisted with age, 

 which originally formed hedges clipped square. According to old 

 prints, some of them were cut in two stages ; the lower portion 

 was a square cut hedge about breast high ; then came an opening 

 free from leafage and only broken by the stems of the trees, and above 

 this another square mass of foliage : the idea of this arrangement 

 being to get the additional shade provided by a higher hedge, without 

 the disadvantage of shutting out the prospect and the air. 



High box hedges, broken at intervals by pedestals carrying vases 

 and statues, also played an important part in the laying out of the 

 gardens, in the higher part of which stands the palazzo, built for 



12 



