An ENCHANTING place...!

VILLA D'ESTE

Tivoli  is an ancient Italian town in Lazio, about 30 km from Rome. There are spectacular views out over the Roman Campagna. Tivoli's reputation as a stylish resort and the fame of the gardens of the Villa d'Este have inspired other sites named Tivoli.

Tivoli has a Mediterranean climate with warm and dry summers and cool and wet winters.The main sights of TIVOLI are:

• Villa Adriana, part of the UNESCO World Heritage site list from 1999.
• Villa d'Este, part of the UNESCO World Heritage site list since 2001.
• Villa Gregoriana

 The Villa d'Este is a villa situated near Rome. Listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, it is a fine example of Renaissance architecture and the Italian Renaissance garden.

The garden plan is laid out on a central axis with subsidiary cross-axes of carefully varied character, refreshed by some five hundred jets in fountains, pools and water troughs. The copious water is supplied by the Aniene, which is partly diverted through the town, a distance of a kilometer, and by the Rivellese spring, which supplies a cistern under the villa's courtyard. The garden is now part of the Grandi Giardini Italiani.

The Villa's uppermost terrace ends in a balustraded balcony at the left end, with a sweeping view over the plain below. Symmetrical double flights of stairs flanking the central axis lead to the next garden terrace, with the Grotto of Diana, richly decorated with frescoes and pebble mosaic to one side and the central Fontana del Bicchierone ("Fountain of the Great Cup") loosely attributed to Bernini, where water issues from a seemingly natural rock into a scrolling shell-like cup.