This is the ideal tour that will take you away from the city chaos of Rome, for an inspiring countryside & cultural experience in Tivoli. This small town, located approximately 50 minutes drive from Rome, is home to Villa Adriana (Hadrian’s villa) and Villa d’Este which are both UNESCO World Heritage sites and masterpieces of opulence and delight. Your private guide will tell you how the “Ancient Versailles”, the Villa of Hadrian, was covered by wood and wild vegetation once abbandoned after the decline of the Roman empire and how the various marbles were recycled and used to build other complexes. Hadrian was the most widely travelled emperor as well as as amateur architect and the villa is full of innovative designs based on iconic places he had visited throughout the empire. Walk where thermal baths and dining halls became like wild greenhouses, feel the romantic estrangement that the Emperor sought when he created his Villa, marking the soil with beauty, forever.

Your private tour guide and driver will then take you to Villa d’Este, the most daring landscape building of the Renaissance, designed for Cardinal Ippolito d’Este by architects who forced a natural creek to run between thousand of fountains before reaching the valley. The intricate pattern carved by the waters makes a huge waterfall on the marble-tiled plain, often creating rainbow effects and blowing the pipes of a water organ, which plays at given times. This is a perfect opportunity to learn about the lavish and extravagant lifestyle of rich noble families during the Renaissance!  At the end of the tour, the driver will take you back to your accommodation, or if you prefer, to any other location in Rome.