Scipione Borghese, 10th Prince of Sulmona

Who was Scipione Borghese, 10th Prince of Sulmona?

Prince Luigi Marcantonio Francesco Rodolfo Scipione Borghese, commonly known as Scipione Borghese was an Italian industrialist, politician, explorer, mountain climber and racing driver.

He is best known for participating in the Peking to Paris race in 1907, accompanied by the journalist Luigi Barzini, Sr. and Ettore Guizardi, the prince's chauffeur, who apparently did most of the driving. Nevertheless, before 1907 he had already become known internationally as a traveller, explorer, diplomat and mountain climber. In 1900 he had finished a journey in Asia from Beirut to the Pacific Ocean. His book In Asia: Siria, Eufrate, Babilonia, published in 1903 and which proved a success, describes his journey from Beirut to Basra and the head of the Persian Gulf. Subsequently he also completed a journey across China, recounted in another book.

Tall and abstemious, he was a man of few words, cold, with calm and measured manners, and with great self-control. He was a deputy of the Partito Radicale in the Italian parliament of 1904 to 1913, fought bravely in the First World War, and began important improvement works in the "Agro Romano".