Tivoli & Thermal Baths Tours: Day Trip from Rome

Tour 2: The Villas of Tivoli and Olive Oil Tasting

Villa Adriana (Hadrian's Villa)
The Villa Adriana is an exceptional complex of classical buildings created in the 2nd century A.D. by the Roman emperor Hadrian. It combines the best elements of the architectural heritage of Egypt, Greece and Rome.

The Emperor Hadrian built this country villa for himself and his court, and it bears unique testimony to the grandeur and architectural and decorative characteristics of the period. Today it exists as an immense park, extending over 80 hectares and dotted with several Roman ruins as well as spas and houses from the 1700s and all set in an environment charged with ancient fascination.

The grounds also contain the “Teatro Marittimo”, an artificial island which was a private residence of the Emperor as well as other interesting locations such as “Canopo”, a huge rectangular pool encircled by sculptures which recall the Serapeo and a museum which houses an extraordinary collection of various decorative objects from the villa itself.

Excavations, still in course, have brought to light an intricate system of roads which lead to the imperial residence.

Olive oil testing and lunch at “Azienda Agricola Centani”
The “Centani” estate is located on the historic grounds of the Villa Adriana and part of the estate is surrounded by an original Roman wall in “opus reticolatus”.

The tradition of outstanding oil production is continued today by the Centani, an olive-growing family that harvests the fruit of Villa Adriana with a pride and a passion that are reflected in the fragrant oils they create.

After being handpicked (absolutely no mechanized processes are used during coltivation), the Centani cold-press the olives of the villa before submitting the resulting oil to a natural decanting process that last three months.

The result of these traditional production methods is a refined, aromatic oil that showcases the lightly fruit flavours of the brocanica, montanese, carboncella and rosciola olives harvested by the Centani.

Such qualities make olio di adriano an ideal accompaniment to any mediterranean cuisine, adding not only nuanced flavours to pasta, vegetable, fish and meet disches, but also providing the consumer with “good” monounsaturaded fats.

Our tour will continue with the visit to your choice of:
Villa D’este Or Villa Gregoriana

Villa d'Este
History Villa d’Este, masterpiece of the Italian Garden, is included in the UNESCO world heritage list. With its impressive concentration of fountains, nymphs, grottoes, plays of water, and music, it constitutes a much-copied model for European gardens in the mannerist and baroque styles. The garden is generally considered one of the largest and extraordinary example of “giardini all’italiana” The imposing constructions and the series of terraces above terraces bring to mind the hanging gardens of Babylon, one of the wonders of the ancient world. Cardinal Ippolito II d’Este, after the disappointment of a failed bid for the papacy, brought back to life here the splendor of the courts of Ferrara. Governor of Tivoli from 1550, he immediately nurtured the idea of realizing a garden in the hanging cliffs of the “Valle gaudente”, but it was only after 1560 that his architectural and iconographic program became clear—brainchild of the painter-architect-archeologist Pirro Ligorio and realized by court architect Alberto Galvani. From 1605 Cardinal Alessandro d'Este gave the go-ahead to a new progam of interventions not only to restore and repair the vegetation and the waterworks, but also to create a new series of innovations to the layout of the garden and the decorations of the fountains. Other works were carried out from 1660 – 70; these involved no less a figure than Gianlorenzo Bernini.

Villa Gregoriana
A public park commissioned by Pope Gregory XVI, Villa Gregoriana was founded in 1835 following the reclamation of the old bed of the River Aniene after the disastrous floods in 1826. The Monte Catillo tunnel protected the town of Tivoli against flooding by channelling the water through a new artificial duct that in turn created further down the valley the majestic and bubbling spectacle of the The Great Waterfall, more than 100 metres high. The old bed of the river became popular as a sturdy walk along the valley, with steep paths, woods and tunnels as far as the belvedere by the Great Waterfall and the Grottos of Neptune and the Mermaids which wind along what had once been the bed of the famous waterfalls. Throughout the 1800s, Villa Gregoriana was popular with travellers, poets, artists, kings and emperors enchanted by the "man-made" beauty of the park.

See also our tour of Tivoli and its thermal spa. Or contact us and we can create a personalized itinerary based on your interests.