The Bosco and Parnassus

Beyond the regular parterres begins the Bosco, a wild wood of holm oaks where the light turns rare and cool. It is reached by straight alleys, lined with herms and sarcophagi, that lead to Mount Parnassus.

This artificial mound, crowned by a little temple, gave the Medici both a belvedere and an allegory: the dwelling of the Muses, above the garden of men. Below it, the gypsotheca keeps the casts of the scattered antiquities.

Everywhere water is at work: basins, fountains, threads of water descending from the terraces. The garden of the Villa Medici is one of the rare Renaissance gardens of Rome preserved in its original design — a treatise on the art of gardens, at full scale.

Fragments of columns and sarcophagi set out on the lawn