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Did you know Tivoli, a small city 15 miles east of Rome, boasts 3 Unesco sites? On this tour, we are going to visit 2 of them: Hadrian’s Villa is an archeological park set amidst beautiful olive groves, once the residence of the emperor Hadrian; Villa d’Este has won the award for being the most beautiful garden in Europe, and was once the residence of a wealthy cardinal, Ippolito d’Este, in the mid-1500s.
The emperor Hadrian lived in the 2. century, at the time when the Roman Empire had reached its largest extent. Hadrian’s Villa, his residence near Tivoli, covered 200 acres, and included the palace, guest houses, baths, 2 theatres, libraries, garden pavilions, barracks for the imperial guard, housing for hundreds of servants, a farm and even a lighthouse to signal the presence of the emperor all the way to Rome. It was an incredible place, with hundreds of statues, artworks everywhere, mosaic floors in most rooms, precious marble facing the walls. Most of the decoration is gone (about 700 statues originally from Hadrian’s Villa can be seen in different museums in Rome and around the world), but the remains are truly spectacular and the idyllic setting in the Roman countryside is really enjoyable after the hustle and bustle of the big city.
A short drive, and we reach the small town of Tivoli, where we’ll visit Villa d’Este, the residence of Cardinal Ippolito d’Este, son of the infamous Lucrezia Borgia and grandson of pope Alexander VI Borgia. He was appointed governeur of Tivoli in 1550 and decided to build this magnificent mansion surrounded by gardens which are rightly considered to be among the best in the world. Hundreds of fountains, a water-organ, fishponds, centuries-old trees and colorful flowers will take us back to the time when cardinals, princes and even the pope walked down the shady paths of this wonderful garden.
