Two UNESCO villas, one hilltop — Hadrian's retirement palace and d'Este's Renaissance water gardens, 30km from Rome
Tivoli is one of the great day-trip destinations from Rome — within walking distance of each other are two extraordinary UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Villa Adriana, the vast country estate where Emperor Hadrian recreated his favourite buildings from across the Roman Empire between 118–138 CE, and Villa d'Este, the 16th-century Renaissance garden where Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este built 500 fountains powered by a single aqueduct. Together they represent 2,000 years of garden design and the continuing Italian obsession with water as spectacle. The hilltop town itself has a picturesque gorge, wat…
Tivoli (ancient Tibur) was a fashionable retreat for wealthy Romans — Horace, Catullus, Maecenas, and Caesar Augustus all had villas here, but none came close to Hadrian's. Villa Adriana covered more than 120 hectares and contained baths, theatres, libraries, a maritime theatre on an artificial island, and faithful reproductions of famous sites from Alexandria, Athens, and Canopus in Egypt. After Rome's fall the villa was quarried for building material for centuries; systematic excavation began only in the 18th century. Villa d'Este was built by Cardinal d'Este in 1550 when he was denied the…