AETAS VIAGGI – tel. + 39 06 71 58 40 64 – [email protected] – www.aetasviaggi.com

GARDENS OF ROME & surroundings 4 DAYS/3 NIGHTS

Day 1 : Arrival at the airport of Rome Fiumicino, welcome and departure by private bus GT to the city center. Guided sightseeing starting from the Basilica of St. Paul Outside-The Walls, the Pyramid, Circus Maximum, Lungotevere, Temples of Vesta, Bocca della Verità, Synagogue, Bridge Vittorio Emanuele, Via della Conciliazione, arrival at the entrance of the Vatican Gardens. The Vatican Gardens occupy two-thirds of the State of Vatican City (23 hectares). The gardens are a place of rest and meditation of the Roman Pope since 1279. The period of greatest architectural development of the Gardens is, however, between the sixteenth and the seventeenth century, when artists and architects working as Donato Bramante and Pirro Ligorio (the Casina Pio IV ), as well as painters and engravers that portray the beauty of the place, including Antonio Tempesta , Giovanni Maggi and Giovanni Battista Falda . In the gardens, consisting of an Italian garden, an English garden and the Horto of the Pope, there are sections of the Leonine Walls, cottages, fountains, temples, caves and shrines dedicated to Our Lady, such as the one dedicated to Our Lady Guard or the reproduction of Lourdes Grotto. Plants, trees, flowers, shrubs, climbers from all over the world complete the garden. After, you will have the opportunity to visit one of the most famous museums in the world, the Vatican Museums, with a unique collection of ancient and modern art and the magnificent Sixtine Chapel. And to visit the most important church of Catholicism in the world, St. Peter’s Basilica, built and decorated by the greatest artistes of all time. Overnight.

Day 2 : After breakfast, transfer at the Aventino Hill for the visit of the Magistral Villa of the Order of Malta, well known by tourists for its celebrated ‘Buco della Serratura’, a keyhole framing the dome of St Peter’s Basilica. Entering the villa and the beautiful Italian garden, we discover the corridor of bushes that creates the perspective on the dome of St. Peter. In the middle of the garden, there is biggest Lebanon cedar in Europe. it is more than six hundred years old and it is said that Michelangelo used to rest and draw under his shadow! After the visit, transfer to another wonderful Villa, Villa Wolkonski, the Roman residence of the British ambassador, immersed in a property that covers eleven hectares of the Esquiline hill, just inside the Aurelian Walls. Inside there are the thirty-six arches of Nero's aqueduct, built by the emperor as a connection to the Claudio Aqueduct of 52 AD. to supply the Domus Aurea and the nymphaeum with the water coming from Subiaco at the temple of the Divo Claudio. Roman tombs are also present. The extensive landscaped gardens are also home to the annual Queen's birthday party, the British national holiday. A recent census of plants and trees has listed the presence of about 200 different species. After the visit, time at leisure to visit the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano, the Holy Stairs or make shopping in Via Appia. Overnight.

Day 3 : After breakfast, departure to Tivoli, a pretty town about 30 kilometres east-north-east of Rome, at the falls of the Aniene river where it issues from the Sabine hills. Guided visit of Villa d’Este, masterpiece of the Italian Garden, 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 within the larger –and altogether extraordinary-- context of Tivoli itself: its landscape, art and history which includes the important ruins of ancient villas such as the Villa Adriana, as well as a zone rich in caves and waterfalls displaying the unending battle between water and stone. 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. The addition of water-- including an aqueduct tunneling beneath the city -- evokes the engineering skill of the Romans themselves. After the visit, transfer to Castelgandolfo, pretty village of the Roman hills. Visit the papal gardens of Palazzo Barberini. In fact, from the 1st March 2014, Pope Francis opened the door of the papal summer residence to the public (upon reservation). The manicured gardens are full of pines and cypresses, holms oaks and lemons, roses and violets, hydrangeas and magnolias. A true show of colors and perfumes. Embellished with fountains, balustrades and baroque stairways, statues and Roman ruins that emerge from everywhere. The whole complex insists on the ancient Domitian's Villa, most remainder is the gigantic cryptoporticus hundreds of meters long. A curiosity: inside the Pontifical Villa there is a small model farm, that produces several hundred liters of cow's milk and eggs a day, fruit (cherries, figs, kiwi and the famous peaches of Castel Gandolfo), vegetables, and olive oil produced by 900 olive trees, including the historical one donated by King Hussein of Jordan to Paul VI during his trip to the Holy Land in 1964. Return journey to Rome. Overnight.

Day 4 : After breakfast, transfer to the airport. Before leaving Rome, stop at the Rome Rose Garden, located opposite the Circus Maximus on the Aventine Hill, established in 1931. Over 1100 varieties of roses are grown there, many of them gifts from countries around the world. The Rome Rose Garden covers 10,000 m square and each section has rose varieties characteristic of, or grown in, the respective variety. The park also has an experimental section where new varieties of roses are tested for their suitability for public and private gardens in Italy.