Our Guided Tours: The Three Villas (Tivoli, Italy)
excursions
Excursions & Day Trips
Tivoli, Italy : the three villas
Description:
San Gregorio da Sassola is only 16 km from one of the 5 municipalities in the world to include more than one Unesco site in its territory: the city of Tivoli with its 3 famous villas: Villa Adriana, place of the heart of the emperor Hadrian, Villa d'Este, the fruit of Cardinal Ippolito d'Este’s love for culture and art and Villa Gregoriana, a sublime romantic garden.
Villa d’Este
This Guided Tour Can Start In The Early Morning Or In The Early Afternoon — explore these historical Villas With your Experienced Local Guides.
Three villas, three historical periods, but all in an ideal solution of continuity: Roman classicism of the second century AD, Renaissance humanism and nineteenth-century romanticism.
The flow of continuity between Villa Adriana and Villa d’Este is evident: just think that the author of the very first topography of the first was the architect of the second, Pirro Ligorio.
Villa Adriana (Hadrian’s Villa)
Villa Adriana is the architectural manifesto of the emperor Hadrian's imperial idea: built with functions of imperial residence, representation and service for the innumerable staff, it uses all the most advanced Roman construction techniques and covers an area of 120 hectares, practically a city. Through evocative architectural suggestions Adriano wanted to represent inside the villa the monuments of Greece and Egypt that had most impressed him in his numerous travels. Thus we have monuments, boardrooms, spas, service areas. Walking today with one of our local guides through this villa gives us the opportunity to understand the imprint that Rome has left on the western world and on the idea of harmony, balance, power.
Villa d'Este
Villa d'Este, like Villa Adriana, a Unesco heritage site, is the fruit of the Renaissance rediscovery of classical art and culture, however revisited with an already modern sensibility: a sumptuous palace, but above all an immense Renaissance garden in which the water from the the Aniene river is the absolute protagonist, enriched by tree essences arranged according to a precise pattern, fountains with water-based sound effects, terraces, exedras. In its full splendor, the garden, extending over 35,000 square meters, had 250 jets, 60 pools of water, 255 waterfalls, 100 pools, 50 fountains, 20 exedras and terraces, 300 sluice gates, 30,000 seasonal rotation plants, 150 tall trunk, 15,000 perennial ornamental plants and trees, 9,000 m2 of avenues, driveways and ramps.
Villa Gregoriana
Finally Villa Gregoriana, less known than the others but no less interesting, a union between nature, hydraulic engineering and archeology. Co-financed by Pope Gregory XVI in 1835, the villa is a simple accessory to the main work: the construction of two artificial tunnels that diverted and channeled the floods of the Aniene river, saving the city of Tivoli from the dangers of frequent flooding. Against the background of the ancient acropolis of Tivoli and its two splendid Roman temples, we will visit some mighty 130 metres high waterfalls generated by the flow of water into the underlying Valle dell’Inferno which we will descend downwards describing an itinerary characterized by dense vegetation, karst landscapes, caves and the ruins of the Roman villa of Manlio Vobisco carefully restored by the authors of the complex in the 19th century.
A mere 2 miles west of Tivoli set on almost 300 acres of Italys lush hillside is Villa Adriana otherwise known as Hadrians Villa. Created in the classicist architectural style , combining architectural elements of the Greek, Roman and Egyptian cultural designs, the exceptional Villa Adriana complex offers plenty to see and do. Free admission on the first Sunday of the month.