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Villa D'Este vs. Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli

Posted by (Netherlands by way of UK, EST, GR, USA, JO, Africa and Central America.) on

Yesterday we visited both starting with Villa D'Este (€13). Beautiful spring weather of blue skies, warm sun and cool breeze 22 degC. We followed RS guidebook advice not to linger in the rooms but head for the garden. Walls of wisteria in full bloom. Incredible and varied fountains. A photographer's dream. Spent 2.5 hours and loved every minute.

After a panini lunch, headed for Hadrian's Villa (€10). A pleasant park but, for us, the ruins themselves are too dilapidated to get much out of, compared to Pompeii and Herculaneum which we thoroughly enjoyed. We spent more than 2 hours walking the entire site.

Result:
Villa D'Este = wow
Hadrian's Villa = dull

Our Oct 2019 RS guidebook says, "Those with limited time should focus on Hadrian's Villa." We suggest Villa D'Este would be the bigger hit.

What do you think?

Posted by
57 posts

Agree totally and the village of Tivoli is well worth a visit itself

Posted by
15798 posts

I visited both on a small group day tour from Rome. With a guide, Hadrian's Villa is excellent and, as the guide explained, Villa d'Este was built using Hadrian's Villa as the model, which made me appreciate Villa d'Este even more.

Posted by
7987 posts

For my money, Villa d'Este comes first. But if you (for example) would see both Pompeii and Herculaneum, you should give serious consideration to Hadrian's Villa. The latter is more work to get to, and more work to visit. But like the Neapolitan area towns, it has had its own influences on western art and architecture. We saw the first on our first trip to Italy, and did Hadrian's fifteen years later.

Hadrian's Villa has more shade than Pompeii, but it is still grueling in Summer. That's one reason it's so hard to do both Tivoli sites in one day.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/hadrian-s-villa-annoyances-and-directions#top

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