early evening view from Villa Medici gardens towards Saint Peter's

…is one of my favorite places in the Rome – where I’m lucky to have some French friends of friends in residence who I can go visit – and today I was treated to a tour of the gardens by one of the French fellows, a landscape historian who took us to the 20m high artificial mound known as Mt. Parnassus, and them deep underground into the chambers beneath it – an academic interpretation of which was provided in great detail – in French – so I left with only a general sense of his insights, which was fine & a bit more mysterious. (links: Academie Francais, photo archive, and Wiki page)