Tivoli is a town about an hour outside of Rome, which made it the perfect day trip. Since I’ll never get all of the history of the Villa D’Este estate right, here’s an official blurb:
"Villa d’Este, masterpiece of the Italian Garden, is included in the UNESCO world heritage list. With its impressive concentration of fountains, nymphs, grottoes, plays of water, and music, it constitutes a much-copied model for European gardens in the mannerist and baroque styles.
The garden is generally considered within the larger –and altogether extraordinary-- context of Tivoli itself: its landscape, art and history which includes the important ruins of ancient villas such as the Villa Adriana, as well as a zone rich in caves and waterfalls displaying the unending battle between water and stone. The imposing constructions and the series of terraces above terraces bring to mind the hanging gardens of Babylon, one of the wonders of the ancient world. The addition of water-- including an aqueduct tunneling beneath the city -- evokes the engineering skill of the Romans themselves.
At the outbreak of the first world war the villa became a property of the Italian State, and during the 1920s it was restored and opened to the public. Another, radical restoration was carried out immediately after the Second World War to repair the damage caused by the bombing of 1944”.
The Villa was the residence of many Cardinals, but as the description says the gardens were even more magnificent. It was a perfect, sunny day and we spent hours going through them and exploring the amazing fountains and ways that they were using water. I have to add- the town was also adorable, tiny and quaint. We didn’t get to go to Villa Adriano, the second villa in town, but Villa D’Este was one of my favorite things I’ve done in Italy!
"Villa d’Este, masterpiece of the Italian Garden, is included in the UNESCO world heritage list. With its impressive concentration of fountains, nymphs, grottoes, plays of water, and music, it constitutes a much-copied model for European gardens in the mannerist and baroque styles.
The garden is generally considered within the larger –and altogether extraordinary-- context of Tivoli itself: its landscape, art and history which includes the important ruins of ancient villas such as the Villa Adriana, as well as a zone rich in caves and waterfalls displaying the unending battle between water and stone. The imposing constructions and the series of terraces above terraces bring to mind the hanging gardens of Babylon, one of the wonders of the ancient world. The addition of water-- including an aqueduct tunneling beneath the city -- evokes the engineering skill of the Romans themselves.
At the outbreak of the first world war the villa became a property of the Italian State, and during the 1920s it was restored and opened to the public. Another, radical restoration was carried out immediately after the Second World War to repair the damage caused by the bombing of 1944”.
The Villa was the residence of many Cardinals, but as the description says the gardens were even more magnificent. It was a perfect, sunny day and we spent hours going through them and exploring the amazing fountains and ways that they were using water. I have to add- the town was also adorable, tiny and quaint. We didn’t get to go to Villa Adriano, the second villa in town, but Villa D’Este was one of my favorite things I’ve done in Italy!