We then walked through the sprawling park to reach our final sightseeing destination, the Galleria Borghese. While the park is enormous, it's far from tranquil. Since it was a Sunday, most of Rome was out playing in the park, and there's a lot to see, including several museums, a zoo, and some schools. In fact, all these buildings, and lots of roads, sort of defeat the purpose of having a park, since in parts it just looks like the city with trees. But we eventually made it to the Galleria, which was built in 1609 and, like the Villa Giulia, wasn't meant to be a residence but more of an entertainment center. The building is wildly ornate and often competes with the Borghese family's art collection, which is displayed throughout the museum. Very nice, but at this point we'd been walking all day and hadn't slept in days, so I'm not sure we fully appreciated the magnificence of the artworks.

Via Veneto leads up to the sprawling park and gardens that occupy most of northern Rome. The bulk of the land was acquired in 1600 by the Borghese clan, which produced some of history's most colorful popes. Villa Giulia, our first stop, was a neighboring estate that was subsequently acquired by the Borghese in full empire building mode. Villa Giulia also had papal roots, having been built by Pope Julius III in 1550 as his pleasure palace, where he could pursue his interest in young boys away from the prying eyes of cardinals who may have had more traditional interests. He decorated the villa with pornographic images that were removed by more prudish popes, but was used as something like a summer getaway for the popes until it was acquired by the Borghese. It was subsequently converted into Italy's best Etruscan museum. The collection is impressively large, but disappointingly displayed, considering the surroundings, which steal the limelight from the rows and rows of Etruscan vases.