Villa D'Este


About 15 minutes from our agriturismo, in the town of Tivoli, you can admire Villa D'Este.

Considered the masterpiece of the "Italian garden," it is listed by UNESCO as a world cultural heritage site. With its impressive concentration of fountains, nymphaea, grottoes, water features and hydraulic music it constitutes a model emulated many times in the "European gardens" of Mannerism and Baroque. The villa was built by Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este, governor of Tivoli in 1550, who wanted to revive the splendor of the courts of Ferrara, Rome, and Fontaibleau. Ippolito II immediately caressed the idea of a garden in the precipitous slope, which he was only able to have built after 1560. Work continued even after the cardinal's death in 1572 and resumed a century later, between 1660 and 1670 under the direction of the great Baroque architect Gianlorenzo Bernini. 

https://villae.cultura.gov.it/en/the-locations/villa-deste/