The oval fountain, seen from the terrace - Villa-d'Este

Information plaque about the Oval Fountain - Villa-d'Este

The Oval Fountain or Fontana dell'Ovato - Villa-d'Este

The grotto behind the The Oval Fountain and no doubt a good place to play hide and seek in - Villa-d'Este

One of the many stairs in the garden and as you can see the holes underneath the decorative masks that water used to flow out of and along the channels on each side - Villa-d'Este

The Hundred Fountains - there are actually nearly three hundred spouts fed by three parallel canals, one above the other - Villa-d'Este

A d'Este eagle among the spouts in the Hundred Fountains - Villa-d'Este

A sphinx - half-women, half sea horse of which water emerges from the breasts and flows down one of the water channels of the garden - Villa-d'Este

The clever water system of the gardens allows water from the local town, Tivoli, to flow to all the fountains and power them through a series of channels throughout the garden visible like this and hidden- Villa-d'Este

The Fountain of the Dragons, this fountain was built specifically for a visit of Pope Gregory in 1572 in the last years of the Cardinals life - Villa-d'Este

The Fountain of the Owl which originally used to be a music fountain with birds singing from the flow of air and water through their beaks, these days the water system to the villa does not have enough pressure to power it - Villa-d'Este

The Rometta fountain, a miniature of ancient Rome and was the theatre of the Cardinal (it was bombed in WWII so some of the mountain design is missing) - Villa-d'Este

Statues symbolising the Aniene River (left) and Apennine mountains (right) - Villa-d'Este

The Fountain of Diana of Ephesus (also known as the Fountain of Mother Nature) - Villa-d'Este

Sculpted c. 1568 by Flemish sculptor Gillis van den Vliete and modeled after a classical Roman statue of Diana of Ephesus which had bulls testicles spouting water instead of the breasts we see here in his version for the Cardinal - Villa-d'Este

Fountain of the d'Este eagles - Villa-d'Este

The masterpiece of Villa-d'Este - the fountain of Neptune as seen from the fish ponds (each fish pond is 12 feet deep as the Cardinal loved to fish)

The three people standing at the bottom of this photo really put into perspective the scale of the fountain of Neptune - Villa-d'Este

Inside the grotto of the fountain of Neptune is a 16th-century torso of a statue of Neptune - Villa-d'Este

The impressive 'fountain of Neptune' was designed in such a way that rainbows can regularly be seen in the sprays - Villa-d'Este

View from the terrace of the fountain of Neptune - Villa-d'Este

Looking out from the terrace of the fountain of Neptune and across the fish ponds - Villa-d'Este

The Fountain of the Organ, which has a water-operated organ hidden behind it's vast exterior, sit's above and behind the The fountain of Neptune - Villa-d'Este

Detail of the Fountain of the Organ - Villa-d'Este

A metallic plaque that lists all the fountains in Villa-d'Este

The Villa-d'Este has a golf cart to help the elderly with mobility around the gardens

Rome, Italy - 2020 Trip

Historic Rome: Day Three – Villa d’Este, Tivoli – Part Two (Inc. Video)

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Photos of Villa d’Este, Tivoli

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During the autumn of 2020 I made a short trip for 5 days over to the city of Rome, Italy. At the time, due to the covid pandemic, flights and hotels were pretty cheap as tourism was virtually nonexistent in mainland Europe, Italy was one of the few places you could travel to with precaution and I must add everything went really smooth once I was there! temperature checks were in place at all attractions and masks were worn in public places during the day, everything felt safe and clean.

I had pre-booked tickets to some of the places I wanted to visit and in the end the trip turned out to be a kind of ‘historic Rome’ sightseeing tour! Italy on a whole is a fascinating place and Rome is like the centre hub of it all! this was not my first visit to Rome (check out the photos from that trip here) and as usual I can thoroughly recommend it – enjoy the photos! 🙂