The Villa Borghese has such a magical feel to it, like a secret garden in the middle of Rome. I first stumbled upon it the first week I was in Rome, while on a quest to find the Spanish Steps. I couldn't stay too long, since it was almost time to head back to my apartment complex to meet with my class for dinner, but I knew I must come back to this enchanting place.
A few weeks later, a couple of girlfriends and I stopped by the supermercato on our way back from class to pick up some picnic victuals: bread, cheese, prosciutto, chocolate, and wine. The next day we did not have class and we wanted to make the most of the Roman sunshine, so we were planning on taking an excursion to the Villa Borghese. The next afternoon, the sun was out, the birds were singing, so we grabbed our picnic basket (actually it was a grocery bag, but it sounds more romantic to say basket) and hopped on the metro. We walked a little bit through the park to find the perfect spot, and while we were walking, we saw some random guy practicing break dancing in the grass, kind of hidden by the bushes. We decided to creep on him a little bit, whilst pretending to study the map of the park, but he saw us snooping and stopped dancing, so we moved on after a little while. We found our perfect picnic spot under a monument to Umberto I. We sat on the steps, sipping wine and nibbling cheese.
We were amused/annoyed by a whole arsenal of yappy little dogs bounding around the trees, barking shrilly up at the branches. We were trying to decide what was catching their attention, but came to the conclusion that squirrels were out of the question, since our Italian teacher told us there were no squirrels in Rome. But then, one of the girls recalled that a guy in our class claimed to have seen both squirrels and parrots in this park. "No no," I said, "he must be mistaken. There are no squirrels here. Ms. B said so." But lo and behold, when we got up to walk to the bicycle rental stand, in the span of 5 minutes, we not only saw a flock of parrots fly by, but also a squirrel (not flying by though). We called it our "Big Tail" sighting. I have photographic evidence that there are indeed squirrels in Rome.
We all rented some bicycles and rode around the park. It was a glorious feeling to have the wind in my hair and the ground slipping effortlessly behind me. And my bicycle bell "bringed" beautifully. :) Once, I pretended to run over a pigeon, but I discovered that pigeons are inordinately slow at moving out of the way of swiftly approaching wheeled vehicles. I didn't actually run over it, but I came too darn close, so no more pigeon assassinations were attempted after that.
We biked around the park once, and started feeling a bit hot and sweaty, so we decided to call it a day, and brought our trusty wheeled steeds back to the rental kiosk. All in all, it was a truly glorious day, and I think we all agreed it was one of our favorite afternoons spent in Rome.
