Archive for 'Latium'

Chiostro del Bramante, as the name may suggest, is an architectural gem by the Renaissance master, Donato Bramante. The main architect employed by Pope Julius II, and the only one to rival Michelangelo, he was an extremely talented architect. The Chiostro is the cloister of what was originally a monastery complex commissioned by Cardinal Oliviero Carafa around 1500.

Today, the building has a different use, as a cultural centre used for various purposes, but this remarkable central structure remains unchanged despite this. It is still a harmonious space made up of elegant geometric lines and perfect proportions, according to Renaissance ideals, which revived classical Greek and Roman aesthetics. Light, bright, airy, and an oasis of calm, it is free to visit and just steps away from the famous Piazza Navona. If you were considering spending time in the city, be sure to browse our luxury villas in Rome, and then carve out some space in your schedule for a trip to this extraordinary space.

There are lots of lots of beautiful and famous parks and gardens dotted all over Italy from the gardens attached to palaces like the Boboli Gardens and the gardens at Villa Toepliz in Varese, to great botanic gardens like the Hanbury Botanic Gardens attached to Genoa's University, to magical gems like the Giardino di Ninfa, a once abandoned gem in a Medieval ghost town. Amongst amongst these incredible beauties, however, there is one public park and garden that cannot go unmentioned: Rome's lovely Rose Garden. If you love blooms, beautiful settings, and gardening and you have found a luxury villa in Rome, then it truly is a must-see.

Located on the eastern side of the Aventine hill, the gardens date back to 1931 when an American countess named Mary Gayley Senni managed to secure a site near the Colosseum from the city authorities for a municipal rose garden and planted it with around 300 flowers. This original iteration was, sadly, destroyed during WWII but was reborn and given a new home in its current location, the former site of a Jewish graveyard that had been transferred to the cemetery at Campo Verano in 1934.

While it might sound a bit strange or macabre, if you have found a vacation rental in Rome and are planning on spending a Valentine's break in the city, then you have to make time to go and see St. Valentine's skull...

Or, what, at least is claimed to have been the skull of St. Valentine. The tricky part is that there were two saints by that name in Italy at the same time (around the 3rd century AD) and a third in North Africa. After the creation of a feast day for St Valentine on the 14th of February by Pope Gelasius I in 496, the stories of the three seem to have merged together and by the 14th century this singular entity had become a patron saint of lovers, who (according to the newly created mythology) had helped early Christian couples marry in secret.

Art and good food and coffee are a given if you have found a luxury villa in Italy and are planning a vacation in the country. However, if you like to combine those things, all at the same time, then a vacation rental in Rome is a good idea as there is somewhere where you can find it all under one roof: the “art restaurant” of Canova Tadolini.

Located on via del Babuino, in the heart of the city, Canova Tadolini is a museum combined with a restaurant and café. On display, all throughout the space, you will find busts, sculptural panels, sculptures and more that were created by the artist family that lived in the house until 1967: the Tadolini family.

An old factory is not where one might expect to find masterpieces from antiquity and, yet, that is exactly what you will discover with a vacation rental in Rome if you head to Centrale Montemartini, a new exhibition space for the Musei Capitolini.