Rosa

Only in the months of May and June can you visit this special place. 

Rome's famous rose garden. 

Founded in 1931, and installed over the original location of the city's Jewish cemetery, over 1100 varieties (and growing in number, I'm sure) of roses grow here. 

At some point later, to commemorate the history of the place, the footpaths were designed to resemble the shape of the menorah.

There are climbers.

Plenty of bushes.

Every color and combination and cluster pattern imaginable.

And in those lovely months of the height of spring, Rome gathers here.
For a respite from the work day, an al fresco lunch, a moment in the sun.   

The scents are heavenly, when the breezes pick them up.

Photographers - ranging from pros who tote big fancy cameras to rare snapshot takers with junky old phones - cannot resist.

There is at least a bloom or two they have never seen before.

You can imagine carrying creamy pastels in a bridal bouquet.

Or purples and fuchsias occupying the garden of your dreams.

The dainty, modestly sized.

The pie-plate sized.

You mean to go somewhere, but you struggle to tear yourself away. 

And among the porcelain-quality, velvety petals of this faintly peach-cheeked bunch...

...is industry.

You don't want to work that hard, but you want this worker's view:  to be ensconced within this hidden world, suffused with scent.

And oh, I almost forgot to include red.