Touring Villa Giulia and Villa Borghese

After a busy first week of classes, we spent a rainy Saturday touring Villa Giulia and the Villa Borghese gardens. We began the day with a long walk from our hotel to Piazza del Popolo, which is located on the edge of the city and served as an entrance point to the city hundreds of years ago.

Piazza de Popolo and churches created by Bernini.

An Egyptian obelisk in the center of Piazza de Popolo.

We spent a couple of long hours at the Etruscan museum located inside the villa, which is the subject we have been discussing in class this past week. A highlight of this museum visit was the possibility that our group was on national Italian news! For what? Well, in one of the exhibition rooms a contemporary Italian artist was creating a work of art out of paper, so we were allowed to go inside and take a sneak peak. When the Italian news came, they wanted shots of people walking around the exhibit admiring the work (or at least looking interested), so they asked our professors if our group could be the "extras" for their news story.  Of course, all of us thought it was funny that they wanted 34 obviously American women who all looked the same age to walk around, but everyone deserves their 15 seconds of fame on national Italian news! We have yet to find the news story online, so we don't know if it ever broadcasted. 

Villa Giulia, which holds the Etruscan Museum.

We then ventured into Villa Borghese as the sky opened up to reveal a beautiful Saturday. Set on a hill, Villa Borghese is the Rome equivalent to New York City's Central Park, with a lake, gardens, walkways, beautiful scenic views of Rome, and museums, including the famous Borghese gallery (which we hope to visit soon!). We had a quick lunch at one of the many bars and explored the quiet park, which seems to extend forever in all directions. We found some outlook points on the edge of the hill with some amazing sights of city, where we could see all the way to the Vatican and the Colosseum!

View from an outlook point in Villa Borghese. 

Looking over Piazza del Popolo.

While walking through the park, we found ourselves on top of the Spanish Steps, which provided us another view of the city and of the busy piazza below. We spent the rest of the day leisurely walking back to our hotel along Via del Corso, one of the main high-class shopping streets (we only 'window-shopped'). For dinner we were craving something other than traditional Italian cuisine and found out that a local supermarket had made-to-order large salads for only €4! You always find the deals when you're a college student! 

At the top of the Spanish Steps.