I had a wonderful couple sessions making this landscape painting at the Villa Sciarra, which is a a surprisingly quiet park in Rome, Italy named for the villa at its center. It is located bit up a hill from the neighborhood of Trastevere. It’s full of sculptures, gardens, fountains and a playground. I painted with my Roman painting friends that day, and they actually provided a small feast for our lunch. I was introduced to a delicious treat that day – dipping sweet cookies into red wine, which was unbelievably good!
The first owner of the park area was Cardinal Antonio Barberini who used it mainly as a farm. In 1811 the property was acquired by the Colonna di Sciarra, who gave the villa its current name. The last owners, George Wurts and his wife Henrietta , established the land as a botanic garden and aviary complex embellished with an original sculptural decoration coming from an 18th-century Lombard villa near Milan. The park was given to Benito Mussolini by the widowed Henrietta in 1932 on condition it became a public park.
Stephan Giannini 