The Nature Reserve of Villa Borghese is in a rugged park of about 40 hectares, half-way between Anzio and Nettuno, looking over the sea. It was built, with the name Villa di Bell'Aspetto, in 1648, under the direction of Cardinal Vincenzo Costaguti (1612 - 1660), member of a family of bankers from Genoa, which had been established in Rome since 1585. His brother, Cardinal Gianbattista (1636 - 1704), built the Chapel of S. Carlo ai Catilinari and the villa at Porta Pia, both in Rome. In 1697, Cardinal Costaguti hosted Pope Innocent XII there, during his visit to the palazzo Pamphili of Nettuno. Among the illustrious guests who stayed there was Queen Christina of Sweden. The villa remained the property of the Costaguti until 1818, when the marchese Luigi sold it to Giovanni Torlonia. Soon after, it was sold again to Camillo Borghese. The founder of that family, originally from Borghi di Siena, whose heraldic symbols are the eagle and the dragon, was Marcantonio I (1504 - 1574), a noteworthy jurist. His eldest son Camillo (1552 - 1621) became Pope under the name of Paul V. On 3 May 1832 Camillo bought the seat of Nettuno from the Reverenda Camera Apostolica, who needed money to improve the finances of the Pontifical State under Gregory XVI. Camillo left the property, including the villa di Bell'Aspetto, to his brother Francesco Borghese-Aldobrandini (Salviati from his mother). On 29 May 1839, the property was inherited by the son Marcantonio V (1814 - 1886) and it then passed to his son Paolo (1844 - 1920). The park was designed around 1840. In 1895, Paolo came close to losing ownership in a bankruptcy case. His brother Giuseppe came to the rescue, re-purchasing the property at auction and giving it as a dowry to his daughter Genoveffa. When Genoveffa married her cousin Rodolfo (1880 -1963), the son of Paolo, the villa returned to the main hereditary line of the family. On 19 August 1899, Paolo sold the artistic collections from the family’s Gallery and Museum to the Italian State, so as to retain ownership of the buildings. Steno was the product of the marriage of Rodolfo and Genoveffa. After Genoveffa’s death, Rodolfo married again, marrying Giulia Frascara, who was in turn the mother of Giovannangelo, the current owner. Rodolfo, then, became the owner of the villa in 1903, when Gabriele D'Annunzio spent the summer and autumn here, with his daughter Cicciuzza (Renata Montanara Albissola) and Eleonora Duse. He wrote "La figlia di Jorio" and other lyrical works here. Then came a period in which the villa was rented out to various different families. For a time the park was open to the public, on purchase of an entrance ticket. In two years there were more than 1,200 visitors. The visits were suspended for hay-cutting time and for quail hunts. In 1925 it was declared a panoramic location by the Ministry of Public Education and was visited by Benito Mussolini. In 1944 the secluded villa housed the advance headquarters of the 6th Corps of the 5th US Army. In 1978 Steno Borghese donated four hectares of the park to the Municipality of Nettuno, in the mountain area, for use as public green land, while the park and the villa have been recognised and set out as a national monument. In the park there is the little castle and octagonal tower (‘tower of winds’ or ‘tower of the oven’), with the cupola vault, provided with an oculum and a circular turrett. At the end of the eighteenth century, Marcantonio III dedicated these lines to the villa: "Whoever you be, o stranger, be a free man. Do not fear the chains of law here. Wander where you please, take what you wish, leave when you feel like it. Everything here is for the enjoyment of strangers, even before that of the owner. " (from the volume "Anzio delle delizie - Le dimore nobiliari" - by Cesare Puccillo - Centro Studi Neptunia - August 1997).
