ROME TOURS

PRIVATE

TIVOLI, HADRIAN'S VILLA AND VILLA D'ESTE

CASTELGANDOLFO, FRASCATI AND CASTELLI ROMANI

Depart from Rome with your guide passing the old Ostiense Gate, the ancient city walls erected by Emperor Aurelian in 270 AD and the huge marble Pyramid of Caio Cestius dating from 1st century BC. After 12 miles reach Ostia Antica Excavations situated at the mouth of the River Tiber on the Mediterranean coast and visit the maritime port of ancient Rome. Only rediscovered in the 19th century and excavated largely form 1920s to 1940s, Ostia was founded probably in the 7th century BC for salt extraction from marshy swamps but later in the 4th century BC it became a military and naval port protecting the Tiber access to Rome. With Rome's growing power it turned into a thriving and vital commercial port which for centuries imported wheat, grain, foodstuffs, luxurious exotic goods, spices, multicoloured marbles, Egyptian obelisks and innumerable wild animals for the amphitheatre games from Africa and Asia. The inhabitants were traders, shipbuilders, mariners, warehouse workmen, slaves, public officials and wealthy patrician families all busily engaged in intensive commerce and transportation over sea, river and land. Many of the freedman and slaves were of different origins, languages and religions: Greeks, Phoenicians, Iberians, Gallic, Egyptians, Frisians and recently a Synagogue dating from 1st century BC was unearthed. The superb typical Mediterranean setting of the excavations, covered with majestic umbrella-pines and cypresses, is as fascinating as Pompeii but without crowds and just 20 minutes out of Rome. 34 hectares have been excavated from the time it suddenly became a ghost town when an epochal flood changed the course of the Tiber. With intriguing and entertaining explanations recounted by your erudite guide you will experience how life was in this ancient sea-port, discovering various types of dwellings and tenement-flats (insulae) of the middle and lower classes and visit residences of the wealthy during your stroll along the network of intact streets. Explore the interiors of temples, roman baths, shops, mills, taverns and public cloakrooms all with vivid mosaic floors, frescoed walls, stuccoed decorations and statues, rendering to the traveller a full idea of the teeming frenetic life of the port. Return to Rome by swift highway. 4 hour duration.

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TIVOLI - HADRIAN'S VILLA AND VILLA D'ESTE

At Tivoli see by the huge quarries, where in antiquity, thousands of slaves and prisoners toiled in dangerous and brutal conditions to excavate large travertine lime-stone blocks used for constructing the Colosseum, the Theatre of Marcellus, numerous aqueducts and bridges, all still surviving in Rome today. Proceed to the close by Villa of Hadrian, erected between 118AD and 125AD, a fabulous imperial dwelling-complex, quite probably designed by this highly sophisticated, intelligent and art-loving sovereign, which sprawls over low valleys and slopes shaded by magnificent umbrella pines, olive tress and cypresses. The extraordinary variety of edifices, loose adaptations of prestigious monuments which inspired Hadrian during his extensive voyages throughout the vast territories of the Roman Empire were partially unearthed in the Renaissance. Its buildings influenced many great architects like L.B. Alberti, Bramante, Michelangelo, Raphael and later, in the baroque age, fascinated Bernini and Borromini . Some 500 beautiful ancient Greek and Roman statues were dug out in the grounds and are now in the Vatican and Capitoline Museums and other prestigious European Museums. Your expert but entertaining guide will unravel and show the grounds, bringing alive the imperial court's daily life under Hadrian, a capable emperor, who though often indulged in dissolute and licentious activities. See the Maritime Theatre, Greek and Latin Libraries where the emperor enjoyed intellectual discussions in the company of philosophers, poets and artists, the Throne Room, Imperial Palace Wings, Palaestra, Poikile, the Stadium, Greater and Smaller Roman Baths and the famous Canopo Water-Canal surrounded by arcades and ancient statues where high visiting political dignitaries were entertained and which was named after a branch of the Nile river in which Antinous, an adored youthful companion, tragically drowned in mysterious circumstances.

Then visit Villa D'Este a dream-like fairytale renaissance palace with gorgeously sculptered gardens which belonged to Cardinal Ippolito II, son of Lucrezia Borgia menber of one of the most infamous families in the history of the papacy. Specifically created to console this cardinal after his unsuccessful attempt at being elected pope in the 1550 conclave. You will witness the opulent way of living of one of the wealthiest men of his time and stroll through the gardens filled with fountains of cascading gurgling waters, with hundreds of hissing jets, a setting worthy of kings, popes and princes who were regular guests of the cardinal's splendid court. One of the very first Italian renaissance styled gardens, it was laid out by a great antiquarian Pirro Ligorio who retraced descriptions and documentation on the "Ars Topiaria" (landscape gardening) developed by the ancient Romans in republican and imperial times. The ingenious hydraulic systems invented by Ligorio to funnel the huge volumes of water from Tivoli's Aniene river to feed all fountains and to produce the strong pressures needed for the jets of water are astonishing even today. Be enveloped by the fragrances, cool sprays and inebriating scents of the lush and relaxing vegetation and feel what it was like to live as renaissance prince and discover how Franz Litzt was bemused and stimulated into composing his "Fountains of Villa D'Este". Search out the distant dome of St.Peter's on the horizon before returning to Rome. Duration 4 hours.

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CASTELGANDOLFO, frascati and CASTELLI ROMANI

Following the long sequences of mighty archers running through Rome's outskirts and countryside, we will visit the Aqueduct Archaeological Park to see the massive aqueducts which have powerfully withstood time and to hear detailed accounts of the hydraulic engineering abilities attained by the ancients to canalize huge amounts of water to Rome. In antiquity 11 aqueducts furnished quality water to thousands of public baths, fountains, homes, imperial and patrician gardens and to the population's needs. Continue your way to Castelli Romani area celebrated for landscapes beloved by poets, painters and writers of the 19th century Romantic Era, to see the Pope's Summer Palace perched on the slopes of an extinct volcano whose crater holds a superb lake. Visit charming Castelgandolfo where the Pope meets pilgrims in summer and then Nemi with its medieval castle overlooking a smaller enchanting lake where Emperors Caligula and Nero used to orchestrate refined sumptuous banquets and feasts on luxuriously rigged rafts to entertain and surprise visiting foreign dignitaries. This famed area is considered one of the most beautiful spots in Italy and is the bronze-age cradle of the Latin peoples and language who later were to found Rome on the banks of the Tiber river. Renaissance popes and cardinals dotted these lush landscapes with splendid country palaces and estates and after passing Grottaferrata and Marino where during the October Wine Festival all public fountains spout, instead of water, jets of wine, we descend to picturesque Frascati, a delightful hill-town. Here, taste the famous local white wines produced on the surrounding mineral-rich and fertile volcanic soils which give them a particular component supposedly excellent for nerves. Visit Cardinal Aldobrandini's Villa, begun in 1598, a monumental country palace-estate with baroque sculptured gardens and art-work and after an opportunity of pleasantly mingling with the natives of Frascati to enjoy the warm and communicative Italian village way of life, maybe shop for a traditional "Pupazze" ,a woman-shaped symbol of fertility with three breasts. After which head back to Rome by rapid highway.