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EspañolGuided Tours in Gardens and Villas of Lazio.
Villas and Gardens
- Villa Farnesina - Chigi
- Villa e Galleria Borghese
- Villa Celimontana
- Caprarola
- Bomarzo
- Bagnaia
- Ninfa
- Giardini della Londriana
- Oasi of San Liberato
Villa Farnesina - Chigi
It is the first of the suburban villas, built on the right side of the Tiber just outside the city, by the powerful banker Agostino Chigi of Siena. He was the richest man of his time.
For the building of his villa he used the precious collaboration of an artist of his hometown, Baldassarre Peruzzi while the interior decoration was done with frescoes. Several artists participated among which Sebastiano del Piombo and Giovanni da Udine. The most famous fresco is the "Galatea" of Raphael.
After visiting the villa we suggest a walk to San Pietro in Montorio. The church is a superb example of a Renaissance church done by Bramante.
Tour length: 3 hours.
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Villa Borghese
Nowadays it is one of the biggest public parks of Rome. So big that inside we have squares, fountains, statues, lakes and small porticoes that live to the imagination how it should have been in the past.
Started by the Pope Paul the V Borghese in the 1605, which he passed on to his nephew Scipione, who was in reality the mind of the project. The building of the villa, a jewel of art, is due to Flaminio Ponzio, and then after his death to the dutch Jan van Santen.
The cardinal Borghese was a refined cultivated person, he conceived the villa as a museum, ready to host the wonders that Rome was giving back from the underground as witnesses of the glorious past and also the main works of art of contemporary artists that he loved. Among the pieces we can mention only a few, because to list them all we would need hundreds of pages.
Among the paintings: "Entombment" of Raphael, "Sick Bacchus", "Boy with a basket of fruit", "Madonna dei Palafrenieri", "St. Jerome", St. John the Baptist" e "David with the head of Goliath" of Caravaggio.
Among the sculptures:: "Sleeping Hermaphrodite" I century A.D., "Bust of Cardinal Scipione Borghese", "Bust of Paul V", "Goat Amalthea", "Aeneas and Anchises, " Rape of Proserpine", "Apollo and Daphne", "David", "La Verita'" all of Gian Lorenzo Bernini and "Portrait of Pauline Bonaparte as Venus Victrix" By Antonio Canova.
Tour length: 2 hours.
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Villa Celimontana
It is one of the most fascinating parks of Rome. It is set on one of the 7 hills the Celio. The villa was bought in 1553 by the Mattei family that arranged a wonderful Italian style garden, ideal museum for the displaying of the precious collection of ancient statues. It is the perfect place for a picnic or a break after visiting the colosseum (which is just few minutes away).
Our tour includes the visit to the church of St. Stephen Rotondo, the most ancient church with a circular shape in Rome (V century), and the church of St. John and Paul (with the chance to see the underground part with the ancient Roman houses in the Celio).
Tour length: 3 hours.
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Caprarola
40 ml north-east of Rome.
Small medieval village its current asset is due to the Farnese family that restyled it with Vignola, putting in evidence the Palace at the top in the perspective point of Via Nicolai that divide the village in two perfect parts.
Palazzo Farnese
It is said that when St. Carlo Borromeo was archibishop of Milan, was invited by the Cardinal Alexander Farnese to visit the Palace in Caprarola and he exclaimed "So what about heaven?" Another contemporary of the Cardinal Farnese: Giorgio Vasari would say:" marvellous thing".
For those of you who are interested in getting the idea of what would have meant to be part of the nobility of the 1500 this is a must. The refined cultures where conveyed through architecture, paintings and sculptures in front of the extremely selected guests of the Cardinal. What can we say more of these old fashion atmospheres: music, hunting, fashion, fireworks, theatre performances, vanguard?
After the visit we suggest a break along the Vico Lake.
Tour length: 4 hours.
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Bomarzo
54 ml north-east of Rome.
Sacred Wood (Monsters Park) we are in the mid of the XVI century. Europe is devastated by religion wars. The Renaissance is leaving the place to the Mannerism: the political instability, the uncertainty of tomorrow, the war, the foolishness, the taste for grotesque but also the heroic values, spiritual love and faith are the key words of this historical period.
In this peculiar garden we can find all of these elements reinterpreted by the creator: Vicino Orsini, feudal overlord of Bomarzo, soldier, literate but most of all deeply in love with his wife, Giulia Farnese who died very young.
At the beginning of the 1900 the place was discovered, several artists came to visit such as Salvador Dali' linked to the new vanguards of the century, they brought back this place to life after its disappearance for more than 4 centuries.
Tour length: 4 hours.
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Bagnaia
49 ml north of Rome.
It is a picturesque elliptic village, famous for spring's abundances. For this reason the name Bagnaia which recall the Baths. It consists of a medieval nucleus with tower, palace of the bishop and two beautiful churches of the XVI century which are linked to the Villa.
Villa Lante
It is famous mainly for its Italian-styled garden and the fountains. Wanted by the bishops of Viterbo at the end of XV century that used it as a summer residence, it has in the interiors some frescoes by Antonio Tempesta, Raffaellino da Reggio, Marzio Ganassini and Cavalier D'Arpino.
The gastronomic speciality of the area is game. The visit can be combined with the one of Sanctuary of the Virgin of the Oak (see section "Place of the Soul") or the city of Viterbo (see section "Discovering Lazio").
Tour length: 4 hours.
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Ninfa
49 ml south-est of Rome
The oasis of Ninfa, crossed by the homonymous river, is at the bottom of the Lepini Mountains, in a full bloom valley. It is famous not only for the thousands of different species of plants and flowers but also because in this valley from the 1680 there was a small town of medieval origins for which the roman families of the Frangipane, Colonna and Caetani (the last owners) were competing. It was completely abandoned at the end of the XVII because of the malaria.
In the following centuries it was covered by the vegetation that nobody remembered it up to the discovery by the heirs of the Caetani family at the end of the XIX century. The historian Ferdinand Gregorovius defined it "Middle Ages Pompei".
We suggest the visit in April or May when the blossoming is on (especially roses). We can combine the visit with the close town of Sermoneta.
Tour length: 4 hours.
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Giardini della Londriana
22ml south of Rome
They are part of a bigger property of the Marquise Taverna and they are more than 10 acres wide.
The peculiarity of the park is that it is divided in "rooms" each one with a specific botanic characteristic that made it unique, such as the valley of the ancient roses with the lake, the orange garden, the white path, the olive trees garden, the blue grass, the Spanish basin and many more to discover along the guided tour.
The garden has been conceived by the architect Russell Page.
Tour length: 4 hours.
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Oasi of San Liberato
24 ml north-ovest of Rome
It is in a breathtaking position over the Bracciano Lake. The place where the ancient Forum Clodii should have been, small settlement built by the Emperor Claudio in the I century A.D. The only monument left in the garden is from the medieval time, a small church built at the end of the IX century, of which the bell tower was told to be the oldest of Lazio.
The complex as we can see it today was arranged in the 1961 under the commission of the Princess Maria Odescalchi and her husband the Count Donato Sanminiatelli that gave the work to the architect Russell Page.
We suggest to visits the oasis on spring or fall and to combine it with the one of Bracciano (see section "Discovering Lazio").
Tour length: 4 hours.
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