In a town close to Roma (Tivoli) there are two magnificient places: Villa D’Este and Villa Adriana. In a beautiful sunny day I went to take some pictures there.
Villa D’Este is an italian Renaissance villa. Its main points of interests are the interior of the building and the magnificient garden, full of fountains of all kinds.
Particularly interesting are the interiors, of which the main floor was decorated and painted by a large group of artists.
The garden, the work of Pirro Ligorio, is articulated between terraces and slopes, with a central longitudinal axis and five main transverse axes, connecting and linking the different slopes of the garden, using an architectural scheme typical of Roman cities.
Villa Adriana was an extra-urban imperial residence, commissioned near Tivoli by Emperor Adriano (117-138). The site is magnificient and is located in a very large area.
It is the most imposing and complex Roman villa known. The complex contains over 30 monumental and scenic buildings arranged on a series of artificial esplanades at different heights and surrounded by gardens decorated with water basins and nymphaea (fountains). The whole covers an area of at least a square kilometre, an area larger than the city of Pompeii. Much of Villa Adriana is still unexcavated.
Both of them are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
