Villas & Gardens Around Rome

See the Eternal City as you have never seen it before!

Image courtesy of Kirker & Shutterstock

• DAY 1 – FLY TO ROME

  We fly from London to Rome and transfer to Frascati where we stay for five nights at the 4 star Park Hotel Villa Grazioli.

• DAY 2 – DISCOVERING ROME

  The day will be spent in Rome starting with a visit to the Villa Borghese Gardens and Gallery which were formed in the early 17th century. We will have lunch in a local restaurant and then go to the Villa Torlonia, which recently reopened after a long period of restoration. This is a neo-Classical villa once owned by the Torlonia family, one of the grandest in Rome in the 19th century.

• DAY 3 – VILLA LANTE AND VILLA FARNESE

  Today’s gardens are the Villa Lante and the Villa Farnese. The Villa Lante at Bagnaia is one of the greatest of all Italian Renaissance gardens: its symmetrical design is absolutely perfect. The Summer and Winter Gardens of the Villa Farnese give way to a path which leads through a wooded landscape and eventually reaches the Casino, used by the all powerful Farnese family as a private refuge. This evening we will drive through vineyards to have dinner at the Cantina di Santa Benedetta. There will be a tasting of Frascati wine with the winemaker, followed by dinner in the lovely old farmhouse.

• DAY 4 – TIVOLI

  Today is spent in Tivoli with its two great gardens: the Villa D’Este and Hadrian’s Villa. The narrow terraces of the Villa D’Este create the effect of a dramatic hanging garden, opening out at each descending level.

• DAY 5 – LA LANDRIANA

  The garden at La Landriana was created over a thirty year period by the Marchesa Lavinia Taverna. The garden has over thirty separate compartments; some are devoted to a single species, some to a style and some to a colour. Our next garden is no less wonderful and even more romantic – the garden at Ninfa, planted a hundred years ago over the ruins of the 14th century walled town.

• DAY 6 – VILLA ALDOBRANDINI

  Before making our way to the airport we visit Villa Aldobrandini, given by Pope Clement VII to his nephew in 1598. This is the finest of all the Frascati villas where much use is made of water features. This is a fitting end to our discovery of some of Italy’s finest gardens.