Blog - Life in Italy

The Hadrian’s Villa resides in Tivoli – a picturesque town 17 miles distant from Rome.

It was built in 117-128 AC by Roman Emperor Hadrian, involving a landscape of roughly 300 hectares, with the specific intent to become the imperial residence of the time. 

Its complex of over 30 buildings includes: palaces, thermae, theatres, temples and libraries as well as rooms for courtiers, praetorians and slaves. Some of the major and more well preserved constructions being the “Pecile”, the "Maritime Theatre", The “Hospitalia” and the unchallenged “Canopus Serapeum”.

Hadrian was definitively a passionate aesthete; he indeed built the residence in a very peculiar way, full of innovations and anticipating various architectural styles – the circular holes on the apex of domes, for instance, were later on adopted in other constructions such as Pantheon and Villa Torlonia. 

He also introduced the brand new concept of underneath passages network specifically committed to servants in order to avoid unpleasant circumstances such as having servitude walking around throughout the most exclusive areas of the residence.

In the 16th century large part of the marble and many statues of the Hadrian's villa were removed to decorate the nearby located Villa d'Este.