Description
The Vatican Gardens are the pope's park: 23 hectares of lawns, groves, fountains and small temples that take up about half of Vatican City. Italian gardens, English gardens and a vegetable garden alternate with medieval towers and Renaissance villas.
Along the paths you come across the Casina of Pius IV, a villa by Pirro Ligorio, stretches of the Leonine Walls with the Gregorian Tower and a copy of the Lourdes grotto. The most curious fountain is the Galera, a galleon that shoots water from its cannons; the Fountain of the Eagle is the showpiece of the Acqua Paola.
Popes have strolled here since 1279, when Nicholas III had an orchard, a lawn and a garden planted. Urban VIII celebrated the Galera with a Latin couplet: the popes' war machine doesn't shoot flames, but the sweet water that puts out the fire of war.
Along the paths you come across the Casina of Pius IV, a villa by Pirro Ligorio, stretches of the Leonine Walls with the Gregorian Tower and a copy of the Lourdes grotto. The most curious fountain is the Galera, a galleon that shoots water from its cannons; the Fountain of the Eagle is the showpiece of the Acqua Paola.
Popes have strolled here since 1279, when Nicholas III had an orchard, a lawn and a garden planted. Urban VIII celebrated the Galera with a Latin couplet: the popes' war machine doesn't shoot flames, but the sweet water that puts out the fire of war.