Gardens of Vatican City

This guide to the Gardens of Vatican City in Rome tells the story of Hanno, an elephant sent from Portugal in 1514 as a gift to the newly elected Pope Leo the Tenth. It follows Hanno's welcome at the papal court, the days he spent living in these gardens, and how Leo commissioned Raphael himself to paint the animal that had become the talk of Rome. Leo wrote that Hanno excited the greatest astonishment to the whole world, and visited him in these gardens often.