Rome: Villas, Parks and Palaces

The Villa dei Sette Bassi belongs to the Appia Antica Archaeological Park and dates back to the 2nd century AD. The archaeological remains present suggest that the villa was among the most majestic in the Roman countryside, together with the Villa dei Quintili. The name “Sette Bassi”, attributed to the villa already in the Early Middle Ages, seems to derive from the emperor Caracalla, Lucius Septimius Bassianus, who apparently united this villa with that of the Quintili in a single imperial estate.

Villa Farnesina could not be missed among the most beautiful villas to visit in Rome. A masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance in the Trastevere district through which to learn about the “arms and loves” of the rich banker Agostino Chigi who commissioned the project to the architect Baldassarre Peruzzi.

The villa, built between 1506 and 1511, houses artistic masterpieces by Raphael and his school, by Sodoma, by Sebastiano del Piombo and by Giulio Romano. Visiting each of the rooms reserves great surprises: in the Hall of Perspectives, for example, you can still see the graffiti signs left by the Lanzichenecchi of Charles V in 1527.

Today Villa Farnesina is home to the Accademia dei Lincei.

In addition to being one of the most beautiful villas to visit in Rome, Villa Medici is also located at the highest point of the entire capital. It is located in one of the most panoramic places in Rome: on the Pincio hill, very close to Trinità dei Monti and the famous Piazza di Spagna.

The history of the villa is very ancient and complex. In fact, it unfolds from 1564 until 1803 when Napoleon signed the purchase contract, transferring the French Academy there, which is still based there today. The garden of Villa Medici, so called because it was the Medici who completed the works in 1576, commissioning the project to the architect Bartolomeo Ammannati, still retains the appearance that was given to it in the 16th century.

Villa Glori is located in the Parioli neighborhood. It is one of the 10 most beautiful villas to visit in Rome because it is different from the others: it is the only historic municipal villa that does not have noble origins. The estate, in fact, was used for viticulture and hunting and the oldest structure, with a rustic appearance, dates back to the 17th century.

Owned by the Glori family in the 19th century, the estate was the protagonist of events related to the Unification of Italy. Purchased in 1923 by the Municipality of Rome, it became the Park of Remembrance, dedicated first to the fallen of the Great War and then to all Romans who fell for their country.

Today, in the park you can admire various contemporary art installations, by artists such as Jannis Kounellis, Giuseppe Uncini, Mauro Staccioli, in dialogue with the greenery in which they are immersed.

Villa Ada, thanks to the large park that constitutes it, is among the 10 most beautiful villas to visit in Rome. The entire complex of the villa (about 160 hectares) is located in North Rome, in the Parioli district.

Its origin dates back to the 17th century but it was Vittorio Emanuele II, from 1872, who made expansions and improvements. When the Savoys sold the villa to Count Giuseppe Telfener, administrator of their assets, the latter decided to name it after his wife, Ada.

After long vicissitudes, starting from the decision of the Savoys to buy back the estate in 1903, the villa is now the seat of the Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt.

The park of Villa Ada is very rich in flora and fauna, just think that it also hosts a rare metasequoia planted in 1940

The entire Villa Torlonia complex was built following the project of the architect Giuseppe Valadier for the banker Giovanni Raimondo Torlonia in 1806. The history of the estate followed the course of the following years and the disastrous war events.

Having fallen into a state of abandonment in the mid-twentieth century, in 1978 it was purchased by the Municipality of Rome which transformed it into a public park.
It is one of the most beautiful villas to visit in the Capital because it reserves unique discoveries, among curious buildings, such as the Casino delle Civette, false ruins, small temples, tournament fields, a small lake and lush nature.

Among the most beautiful villas to visit in Rome, it was a must to include Villa Sciarra, located between Trastevere and Monteverde Vecchio. Villa Sciarra with its 7 hectares is an urban villa whose history begins in the 16th century and continues until the 19th century when the Sciarra family took care of the expansion of the villa.

Since 1930, the estate has become a public park and is now home to the Italian Institute of Germanic Studies.

The Spada Palace in Rome is the building that today houses the Council of State and the Spada Gallery, located in Piazza Capo di Ferro, near Piazza Farnese.
It was built in 1540 for Cardinal Girolamo Capodiferro and acquired in 1632 by Cardinal Bernardino Spada who had it embellished by Francesco Borromini.

The Gallery houses the ancient private collection of Cardinal Bernardino Spada, which includes paintings (especially from the 17th century), ancient sculptures, antique furniture (in particular, there are works by Guercino, Baciccia, Orazio Gentileschi, Guido Reni). In the courtyard you can admire the famous perspective gallery by Borromini.

Palazzo Braschi, located in the heart of Renaissance Rome, between Piazza Navona and Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, was commissioned to the architect Cosimo Morelli at the end of the 18th century to be the residence of Luigi and Romualdo Braschi-Onesti, nephews of Pope Pius VI (1717 – 1799), elected pope in 1775.
The façade of the palace is made of travertine, with a rusticated ground floor and a mezzanine. The windows on the ground floor are decorated with lion heads holding pine cones in their jaws, while those on the first floor, arched, are adorned with festoons of oak leaves and small stars.
Inside, there is a majestic staircase of honor, adorned with ancient statues and stucco, with its 18 columns in red granite. The capitals of these columns bear the coats of arms of the Braschi and Onesti families.
At the corner of Piazza del Pasquino, stands Rome’s famous talking statue, the Pasquino.

The Napoleonic Museum occupies the ground floor of the Palazzo Primoli, which dates back to the 16th century. It belonged to the Godefroy family, then to the Filonardi family at the end of the 18th century, and was purchased by Count Luigi Primoli around 1828.
During major transformations in the area, with the construction of the banks of the Tiber, the renovation of the building was entrusted to the architect Raffaele Ojetti.
The old façade on Piazza Orso was demolished and a building was erected on the corner of the new Via Zanardelli, with a monumental entrance, and a new façade on Piazza di Ponte Umberto.
Giuseppe Primoli donated the ground floor to the city in 1927 to house the Napoleonic collections in the city of Rome. There are painted ceilings from the 18th century and friezes along the walls from the early 19th century. The friezes of rooms III and V, including the Primoli “lion” and the Bonaparte “eagle”, were created after Pietro Primoli’s marriage to Charlotte Bonaparte in 1848.

The palace also houses the Primoli Foundation and its library, consisting of over thirty thousand volumes of literature, history and art.
Since June 1995, the third floor has housed the Mario Praz Museum, part of the National Gallery of Modern Art, with over a thousand works ranging from the end of the 18th century to the first half of the 19th century.

This elegant 16th-century Renaissance building was built between 1520 and 1523 for the Breton prelate Thomas Le Roy, who arrived in Rome in 1494 in the retinue of Charles VIII. Ownership of the building is attested by inscriptions and decorative symbols, including the lilies of France and the ermines of Brittany, which adorn the facades of the palace. Erroneously, the building was designated as “Farnesina ai Baullari”, since the lilies were incorrectly attributed to the Farnese family.
Some scholars attribute the design of the building to Jean de Chenevières, the architect who also designed the church of San Luigi dei Francesi, reinforcing the hypothesis of a stylistic and chronological link with the French context of the time.
In the 17th century, the palace passed to the Silvestri family, who made it their residence.
However, significant transformations occurred between 1886 and 1900, during the urban planning works for the creation of the axis of Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, with a destroyed wing and a new facade. Much of the original building was demolished and subsequently rebuilt to adapt to the new needs of the modern city. Since 1948, the palace has housed the prestigious Barracco collection, a treasure trove of ancient sculptures.

Located at the intersection of Via del Corso, Via della Gatta and Piazza del Collegio Romano, the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj dates back to the 16th-18th centuries. Constantly renovated and expanded, it is today one of the largest private palaces in Rome.
Initially built by Cardinal Fazio Santoro, it later became the property of the Della Rovere family and then of Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini in the early 17th century. In 1647, Olimpia Aldobrandini brought it as a dowry to Prince Camillo Pamphilj, nephew of Pope Innocent X. Since then, it has remained in the possession of the Doria-Pamphilj family, direct descendants of the Pamphili family.
The collections on display, accessible to the public, are distributed across several rooms, including the chapel designed by Carlo Fontana and the sumptuous Gallery of Mirrors.

Located at the foot of the Quirinal Hill, near the Church of the Holy Apostles, its construction began in the 14th century, when one of Rome's most influential families, the Colonna. Originally from the village of Colonna near Rome, they decided to build a residence on the foundations of ancient medieval structures, including houses and forts belonging to the Counts of Tusculum, ancestors of the family.
Over the course of five centuries and twenty generations of residence of the Colonna, the palace expanded and transformed, integrating different architectural styles both inside and out.
From a family fortress in the Middle Ages until the 16th century, the palace gradually became a key example of Roman Baroque from the 17th century onwards, thanks to the contribution of great artists of the time such as Antonio del Grande, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Carlo Fontana and Paul Schor. It was during this period that the famous Galleria Colonna was born. In the 18th century, some rooms were embellished by artists such as Pompeo Batoni and Pietro Bianchi.
The palace extends over several wings, with Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque elements that testify to the evolution of tastes over the centuries.