Woods, paths, ancient vestiges, natural caves, the Aniene engulfed in the rock and a spectacular waterfall: all this not far from Rome in a park built by Pope Gregory XVI in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Villa Gregoriana - renamed by the FAI after the restoration of the Villa Gregoriana Park - is a natural area of ??great historical and landscape value located in Tivoli, in the steep valley between the right bank of the Aniene and the ancient Roman acropolis.
The site is known above all for hosting the Great Waterfall, and can be considered a very particular example of a romantic garden, for its conformation and for its correspondence with the taste for the aesthetics of the sublime, so dear to romantics.
The entire route within the area was recovered by the Italian Environment Fund starting from 2002, and was reopened to the public in 2005.
The visit itinerary runs through the entire Valle dell'Inferno: it starts from the Gregorian Bridge, descends along the valley, arriving with a small detour to the terrace next to the large waterfall (nowadays however rarely visible in its ancient flow, via of the works mentioned above), and then continue to descend into the shadow of the gorge, meeting along the path the grotto of Neptune and that of the Sirens, and various examples of karst landscape, against a background of dense vegetation.
At the bottom, go up from the opposite side of the ancient river bed to the acropolis, on whose esplanade there are two temples dating back to around the 1st century BC, one rectangular, called the Sibyl but actually of uncertain attribution, the other round, said of Vesta.
This ensemble is recurrent in the landscape iconography of Tivoli since the eighteenth century, and was one of the canonical destinations of the romantic Grand Tour, as the memories of illustrious visitors still show in the ancient inn that stood on the acropolis (now a restaurant).
Villa Gregoriana Park
Address: Largo Sant'Angelo, 1, 00019
Phone: 0774332650
Site:
https://www.fondoambiente.it/luoghi/parco-villa-gregoriana?utm_source=gmb&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=gregorianaLocation inserted by
CHO.earth