Cardinal Alessandro Farnese could not have chosen a better place to impress the world with his family’s merits and his own stature: the place where the history of Rome began in the 8th century BC, chosen by Romulus – or the real person behind that legendary figure – to found Rome, on the hill whose name inspired the Italian word “Palazzo”, “palace”, symbol of power.

We refer, of course, to the Palatine Hill. This is where in 1565 the grandson of pope Paul III – like a “new Romulus”, as some called him – started building the Horti Palatini Farnesiorum, known today as the Farnese Gardens.