One of the places I KNEW we had to visit when we went to Italy was Villa d’Este. While the Villa d’Este in Lake Como is possibly more famous I am not talking about that one – I am referring to the 16th-century villa in Tivoli, just East of Rome. I had been to this magical gardens more than 10 years ago and knew that I wanted to go back. Even though it rained on this visit, as opposed to the beautiful blue skies on my first visit, we still had an amazing time.
Like many of the places I have visited this villa is a UNESCO World Heritage site and I loved reading the criteria as to why it made the list; an outstanding examples of Renaissance culture, its influence of garden design throughout Europe, and it is an exceptional example of Renaissance design and aesthetics. And in case that was not enough; “the Villa d’Este, with its palace and gardens, bears exceptional testimony to the Italian Renaissance and has been a source of artistic inspiration ever since its creation.” per their site.
And it is true, the building is gorgeous but seeing as I have more than 100 photos of the gardens and they are the key highlight, I am going to share my favorites of those. The villa was built as a palace by the governor of Tivoli in 1550 with the highlights for it being a true water garden. This was clearly as a success because more than 450 years later hundreds of fountains and water jets still flow in addition to gorgeous waterfalls. without further ado, the gardens:
While you can not see all of the 398 spouts, 364 water jets, 64 waterfalls, and 220 basins but I think these photos can give you a sense of the vast amount of water (and begin to imagine the half mile of canals that allow this water to flow).
Would you want to visit the gardens of Villa d’Este?
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Hanna says
I always give special consideration to places that are UNESCO World Heritage sights. They never steer me wrong when I am traveling and deciding whether to add a spot to my travels.
This certainly merits the designation and glad that you got to go there on your wonderful visit to Italy.
Marylou says
Oh I am so jealous of all of your wonderful travels. I would love to be your plus one or when I get super rich, have you personally plan my get a ways. You do a great job of hitting all the obvious must see spots but you go to little out of the way gems like this that really bring the country to life. You have a great knack and I always feel like I am right there with you capturing all the uniqueness that your experiences have to offer.
Good job and yes I want to go there…NOW!!
Kate says
I had to go through this post three times to figure out which spot I would spend the most time at. The engineering required to pull this magical place off in those days blows my mind.
The artistry, touch of greenery and the variety is spectacular so to answer your question, for sure I would want to visit and take my sketch pad and just get lost in the beauty. I bet the sound of the water was pretty amazing too.
Loni says
Oh my this place looks like a movie set and I definitely want to go there next time I get to Italy.
What a clever person to design this all and so long ago. Spectacular!
Michelle says
It’s one of my favorite places in the world. Too bad it’s so overlooked. A close shot from Rome and it should be on everybody’s list. Can’t read enough about it.