Garden Touring

Villa Adriana: Hadrian's Villa

Outside Rome, a bit southwest of the town of Tivoli in Lazio Province, the monumental Roman ruins of Villa Adriana stand as a testament to the ambitions and fancies of Emperor Hadrian. Based upon the emperor’s design and built in the 2nd century A.D., the site presents a remarkable fusion of ostentatious architecture – a vast complex of buildings and courtyards, canals and thermal baths – cradled within hundreds of acres of green terrain.

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Historic Gardens

Enchanted Ninfa : Travel Italy

Ninfa Photo © Alice Joyce

Ninfa is a landscape where gardens rise up on the site of a once-prominent 8th-century town. The present-day gardens were shaped by the creators: Three generations of the Caetani family responsible for the landscape one sees today. In particular, three ladies of English and American ancestry – laudable, artistic figures who contributed to the gardenscape. The wistful romanticism of ancient stone walls is not easily captured in words; the stone surfaces a honey-hued canvas for fading frescoes. Ninfa opens to the public on a limited basis, offering guided tours.

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