When I was researching places to stay after we arrived at the Rome airport, I came across Tivoli purely because of the number of photos found on Google earth. I later found it was the home to Villa d’Este which Mark studied way back in undergrad architecture school. My cousin Luca also later told us that it was a great place to stop before the drive across the width of Italy on the A24/A25 which he said was a beautiful drive must done in the daytime.
We spent the night after arriving at La Panoramica, a beautiful little B&B with our own terrace and a beautiful view of room. We had a great dinner at Antica Trattoria La Falcone followed by a great night sleep and we got up the next morning to go seen the Villa d’Este. The villa is really not the main event, it’s the beautiful gardens that cascade down the hillside.
The gardens are feed from river water though pipes that run under them town to feed the garden’s fountains. At one time, no pumps or other modern devices were involved since it was originally constructed in 1550.
My sister has built a wonderful Italianate garden in her back yard but this one outside of Rome will give her some serious envy. There are some very in interesting axises in this wonderful garden. One leading down from the villa and another leading up to a giant multi-tiered garden at the top of the hill.
