A lifetime wouldn’t be enough to visit Rome and it’s surroundings. Not only in summer, but also during autumn and spring with milder temperatures, it is well worth taking a day trip out of town to some beautiful spots surrounding the city. We have selected five magical places that you can easily visit in a day.
Ostia Antica
Ostia Antica is a vast archaeological site that is easily accessible from Rome, it offers a close up experience on how daily life might have been like in a city of Imperial Rome. Built at the mouth of the Tiber River, it was the river and maritime port of Rome. The site is famous for the excellent state of conservation of its ancient buildings and for its magnificent theater. It is wonderful to stroll through the greenery and ancient paths. The Ostia Antica site is open from 8.30 to 15.30 in the winter months and from 08.30 to 18.00 in the summer months. To reach Ostia Antica take the metro line B from the Colosseum up to Piramide and from here take the train to Ostia Lido getting off at Ostia Antica.http://www.ostiaantica.beniculturali.it/
Tivoli
East of Rome, founded in the green hills of Sabina, an ancient Latin city by the name the name of Tibur, was named by Virgilio ” Tibur Superbum”, at site that boasts being more ancient than Rome. In Tivoli there are three sites of great beauty and charm: Villa Adriana, Villa D’Este and the Villa Gregoriana Park managed by FAI.
Villa Adriana
A UNESCO World Heritage site, the splendid Villa Adriana in Tivoli is a site of great fascination. Built by the Emperor Hadrian, it is an impressive residential complex, that continues to display the splendor of the centers of power of ancient Rome. Chosen by the emperor Hadrian as his residence from 117 AD, the Villa is made up of a series of connecting buildings, each of which had a specific function: a building with three exedras, the stadium nymphaeum, the building with a fishpond, to which the quadriportico, the small baths, and then the vestibule, the praetorium pavilion, were connected. In his sumptous residence, the emperor wanted to evoke the places and monuments that had enchanted him during his innumerable journeys to far away lands. Open every day from 9.00 am until one hour before sunset.
http://www.villaadriana.beniculturali.it/
Villa D’Este
Villa d’Este a masterpiece example of the Italian garden is included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites, with its impressive number of fountains, nymphaeums, caves, water works and hydraulic music, has been repeatedly been a source of inspiration for European gardens of the of the Baroque and Mannerism periods. The imposing buildings and the breathtaking terrace upon terrace, bring to mind the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, while the water supply, generated by an aqueduct and a tunnel that runsbeneath the city, recall the engineering skills of the ancient Romans. Cardinal Ippolito II d’Este (son of Lucrezia Borgia), disappointed by the failed election as pope, commissioned the project of the Villa and the gardens to the painter architect Pirro Ligorio, and here he revived the grandeur of the courts of Ferrara, Rome and Fontainbleau and he also revived the magnificence of Villa Adriana. Open Tuesday to Sunday from 8.30 to 18.45 or one hour before sunsetin winter.
http://www.villadestetivoli.info/
Villa Gregoriana
Located in a panoramic position at the foot of the Roman acropolis of Tivoli, this charming park boasts an immense naturalistic, historical and archaeological heritage. The incessant work of man and nature have contributed to create an environment of absolute naturalistic value, in which with its natural and artificial waterfalls coexist, ravines and caves, has been a source of inspiration for poets and artists – and offers fascinating walks immersed in the lush vegetation. The Park of the Villa Gregoriana develops on the two sides of a deep pit, in whivh the river Aniene made a fall of over 100 meters towards the Roman countryside: a particularly attractive point of the Tiburtine landscape, characterized by suggestive sceneries of cliffs, caverns, falls water, and full of evocative memories of classicism. The park represents a unique example that exemplifies the aesthetics of the sublime so dear to the romantic culture; natural and artificial blend so seductively as to become, in the nineteenth century, the main subject of the pictorial representations of Tivoli, and became a must see site for the Grand Tour. Open Tuesday to Sunday – winter 10.00am-4.00pm – summer 10.00am-6.30pm. Also open every Monday from 1 April to 31 October .
https://www.fondoambiente.it/luoghi/parco-villa-gregoriana
