He is best known for participating in (and winning) the Peking to Paris race in 1907, accompanied by the journalist Luigi Barzini Sr. and Ettore Guizzardi, the prince's chauffeur, who apparently did most of the driving.

Subsequently, he also completed a journey across China, recounted in another book, Catching Fire.

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".

Borghese was the eldest son of Paolo, 9th Prince of Sulmona (1845–1920) and his wife Ilona, Countess Apponyi de Nagy-Appony.