1 PLACE YOU MUST VISIT OUTSIDE ROME
There are actualy more...!

We continue with a selection of places that are worth visiting for their culture and history; where family can be entertained, need for knowledge satisfied and, most important, children can get some fresh air and run around.

TIVOLI.
Located east of Rome, at less than 1 hour drive from the city center of Rome, it is a small town on thop of a hill.
The main attractions are (if you do not have the whole day to visit) Villa Adriana (Hadrian's Villa) and Villa D'Este. There is also Villa Gregoriana, a park developing into a gorge with a beautiful natural waterfall. A really tempting walk, as it is all downhill, but when you are looking back to return, it is a steep way up; you must consider it.
You can find some nice organized tours here, for Tivoli. You can arrange them on your own, or leave it to us. We suggest you have a look, however.

VILLA ADRIANA

The villa was constructed at Tibur (modern-day Tivoli) as a retreat from Rome for Roman Emperor Hadrian during the second and third decades of the 2nd century AD. Hadrian is said to have disliked the palace on the Palatine Hill in Rome, leading to the construction of the retreat. It was traditional that the Roman emperor had constructed a villa as a place to relax from everyday life. Previous emperors and Romans with wealth, such as Trajan, had also constructed villas. Many villas were also self-sustaining with small farms and did not need to import food.

The complex contains over 30 buildings, covering at least a square kilometre (250 acres, an area larger than the city of Pompeii), of which much is still unexcavated.

The complex of the villa contains many structures from different cultures. For example, the villa has a small Nile river running through it that relates back to the Egyptian Nile river. Also, the villa had Poikilos, which are Greek figures that were seen in ancient Greece. Within all the structures in the villa, there is also a grotto called Hades. All these structures relate back to where Emperor Hadrian visited during his reign.

VILLA D'ESTE

The Villa d'Este is a 16th-century villa in Tivoli, near Rome, famous for its terraced hillside Italian Renaissance garden and especially for its profusion of fountains. It is now an Italian state museum, and is listed as a UNESCO world heritage site.

The fame and glory of the Villa d'Este was above all established by its extraordinary system of fountains; fifty-one fountains and nymphaeums, 398 spouts, 364 water jets, 64 waterfalls, and 220 basins, fed by 875 meters of canals, channels and cascades, and all working entirely by the force of gravity, without pumps.

The result is one of the finest gardens of the Renaissance, rivaled only by the Villa Lante, the Villa Farnese at Caprarola and the Villas Aldobrandini and Torlonia in Frascati. The garden and water features were admired and imitated over the centuries in gardens from Portugal to Saint Petersburg.

More to come in our next blog; we like to know you travel prepared and have it planned ahed to maximize your fun, enjoy your holiday, and make all your family happy.

We are RHI, and we care about your time in our country; let's make it worth and pleasurable.