The tour depart from Civitavecchia port/area and after about an hour’s drive you will arrive to Palazzo Farnese. It is situated directly above the town of Caprarola, dominating its surroundings. Caprarola has always been an expression of Farnese’s power, the palace is one of the finest examples of Renaissance architecture. You will be able to walk the spiral staircase called Scala Regia or the “Royal Stairs” and see the Piano dei Prelati floor, which leads to the broad terrace. You will be witness the wonderful frescoes of the winter suite, the famous “Room of the World Map” or “Sala del Mappamondo”, displaying the world as it was in 1574 when the frescoes were completed. Gaze at the depiction of the continents on one side of the wall, while the wall opposite the planisphere is devoted to the lands where Christianity and the church originated, Judea and Italy. The Royal Staircase is next and is already being hailed as a masterpiece of Vignola's, having been imitated several times throughout history. The most original aspect of the structure is its helicoidal structure, inspired by Bramante's great “snail” in the Vatican. The gardens of the villa are as impressive as the building itself, a significant example of a Renaissance Italian garden. They sit behind the palace and are divided into a winter garden and a summer garden. A walk through the chestnut woods leads to the “giardino segreto”, or secret garden, with its 28 statues.
After the experience in Caprarola you arrive after 25 minutes by car in Bagnaia. Villa Lante is one of the greatest masterpieces of the Italian sixteenth century (22 hectares). Its extraordinary peculiarity is the predominance of the garden over the architectural building: the residence is divided into two small buildings that are symmetrical to the central axis of the garden that dominates the entire composition through the water path. The water comes from a triumph of geometries designed by evergreen hedges and Peperino statues and follows a path that creates special pools and water features.
At the end, we ready to go to the last beauty: the Monsters Park at Bomarzo. It is also called “Sacred Wood”, and was designed by Prince Vicino Orsini and the great architect Pirro Ligorio in 1552.
The park is unique and represents refined Italian style gardens that follow geometric and perspective rationality with embellishments such as wide terraces, fountains with water games and mannerist sculptures. You will also discover here eccentric wood blocks of peperino, emerging from the ground and sculpted into enigmatic figures of monsters, dragons, mythological subjects and exotic animals. At the end it's time to come back to the port.