Villa D'Este

The Villa d'Este is the most famous of all the Renaissance and Mannerist residences in Europe. It is not that much bigger or more luxurious than the Villa Lante, not that much more stunning than Bomarzo.
It is perhaps because of the famous guests who resided at the Villa d'Este.
In the 19th century, the Cardinal of Hohenzollern allowed his best friend to stay there. This friend was Franz Liszt.
Liszt would come to Tivoli regularly, over a period of four years. There, he has composed the famous "Jeux d'Eaux à la Villa d'Este".
During the 18th century, Hubert Robert and Fragonard have accompanied the Abbot of Saint-Nom on his Italian voyage. These two artists were made the most beautiful drawings to be found of the countryside. A century earlier, de Brosse wrote his most vibrant letters on Italian taste while residing there. Naturally, Montaigne visited the Villa d'Este. The Villa d'Este was commissioned and built by Cardinal Ippolito d'Este.

He was born in 1509. He was the son of Lucrezia Borgia and the grandson of Pope Alexander VI. He was the only Cardinal who could say that he was the grandson of the Pope. In 1572 Ippolito die.

In the garden of the Villa d'Este had worked some excellent artists like Pirro Ligorio who had collaborated with Ippolito for seventeen years.
The other artists are Thomaso Chiruchi, the best hydraulic engineer of the 16th century, and Claude Venard, the most extraordinary manufacturer of hydraulic organs in the world, has worked for the fountain.
Here has worked also three very good painters like Federico Zuccaro, Livio Agresti and Girolaio Luchiano.
Tivoli is very near Rome. The countryside is beautiful. In the countryside of Tivoli there is a big park where had lived the emperor Adriano: “Villa Adriana”.