It’s funny how close you can be to something and have no idea that it exists. I’ve been getting the urge to run out of the chaos of the city and not look back lately. I’m more of a trees and clean air kind of person. This is when we discovered the Villa Borghese. It’s super close to Temple’s campus and it’s amazing. If you walk towards Piazza del Popolo and go left instead of crossing the street, you’ll be walking towards Villa Borghese. It really is amazing. When you enter through that direction you come upon a huge park and there are TONS of dogs. My own personal heaven in my opinion. It’s funny to watch them play together and run around. When I walked in there were a group of teenage boys running through the park and three medium size dogs spotted them. It was funny to watch the boys try to outrun them…they didn’t stand a chance. If you keep walking into the park there are more and more trees. This place is huge. Super huge. There are all kinds of fountains and statues scattered all throughout it. And I can’t confirm this yet, but I have my suspicions that it connects with another Villa that we’ve stumbled upon that overlooks Piazza del Popolo with an amazing view of Rome. 
There are benches all over the place where people can sit and read. There was also a section that we passed that seemed to have some sort of maze of bushes. I think that we may have accidentally intruded on a couple that was taking the Italian PDA to a whole new level. Other than that and the usual couples showing each other how much they loved each other, everyone seemed to be in much more pleasant moods than they are when you pass them on the streets. I personally believe that it’s because of all the dogs running around, but to each his own. We sat and read for awhile before we moved on to another section of the gigantic park. As we were walking we passed an interesting little note that I thought was adorable. I’m not exactly sure what it says…my Italian skills are at the bare minimum, but I like to imagine that it’s something sweet. I attempted to translate some of it and it seemed like it was something with having faith and asking for a favor. I’m sure it’s something completely different than what I imagine though. Like I said…bare minimum Italian.
The park is also really great to see different kinds of nature in Italy. There are so many trees that are totally different than what we’re used to seeing. While I was sitting on a bench reading up on my outdated magazine, a couple passed me and they were pulling leaves off of different trees. I had an inkling to ask them what they were doing, but I found it easier to make up some extravagant reason in my head, something along the lines of them testing the trees to make sure it doesn’t give off a gas that will end the world…the “Happening” anyone? Anyway, seemed a little more exiting than finding out they were making a scrap book of European leaves.
