Piazza di Siena: a mix of top sport and history

CSIO5* Rome is about to start in 2 weeks time. The first edition of this horse show event was done just few years after the First World War and still going strong. Known simply as 'Piazza di Siena', the show’s charm remains unchanged as does its role of excellence in the world of show jumping.

The competition is now part of the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup series, which bring together the top world most prestigious eight CSIO5*.  Since 2014, the competition was titled "Master fratelli D'Inzeo" in honor of the two Italian riders Piero and Raimondo D'Inzeo, dead just before the edition number 82 of this competition.

In 1960 "Piazza di Siena" hosted Summer Olympics's dressage, jumping, and part of the eventing competition.

This prestigious Roman location, "Piazza di Siena" in the Villa Borghese, is rich in history and culture.

It owes its name to Siena, the original place of the Borghese family, who wanted that inside the villa was built a space that recalls the big Siena square, Piazza del Campo, the place where from the Middle Ages there was the famous "Palio of Siena".

Villa Borghese is a landscape garden in the naturalistic English manner in Rome, containing a number of beautiful buildings, museums (as for example the Galleria Borghese) and attractions. It is the third largest public park in Rome (80 hectares or 148 acres) after the ones of the Villa Doria Pamphili and Villa Ada. The gardens were developed for the Villa Borghese Pinciana ("Borghese villa on the Pincian Hill"), built by the architect Flaminio Ponzio, developing sketches by Scipione Borghese, who used it as a villa suburbana at the edge of Rome to house his art collection. The gardens as they are now were remade in the early nineteenth century.

Scipione Borghese (1 September 1577 – 2 October 1633) was an Italian Cardinal nephew of Pope Paul V, art collector and patron of the arts. A member of the Borghese family, he was the patron of the painter Caravaggio and the artist Bernini. His legacy is the establishment of the art collection at the Villa Borghese.

The Villa Borghese gardens were bought by the "comune" of Rome and opened to the public in 1903.

The best teams in the world will compete, just few months before the Olympic Games, in this unique location, so don't miss the opportunity to see this international top level equestrian event and to visit one of the most beautiful place in the world so rich in history!