The Palazzina Gambara visit at Villa Lante

Why it is on the list

Villa Lante is eighteen hectares of park and formal garden, which the Ministry of Culture counts among the foremost garden designs of the sixteenth century; it was named Italy's most beautiful park in 2011.¹ Cardinal Gianfrancesco Gambara began it in 1566 on Cardinal Riario's old hunting reserve, to a design attributed to Vignola; water runs down the terraces through a water chain, a stone dining table with a channel to cool the wine, and Giambologna's Fountain of the Moors in the square parterre.¹² The Palazzina Gambara is the first of the two casini, and its rooms carry landscape frescoes; its piano nobile is opened only on Wednesdays, to a small booked group.²¹

Restoration works are under way in the garden: some areas are only partly open and the fountains may be without water.¹ For a garden with its fountains running, take the gardens of Villa d'Este at Tivoli. Anyone content with the Palazzina Montalto needs no booking: its piano nobile opens on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11.00 to 12.00, and on Sundays other than the first of the month for the whole day.¹

How to get it

Write to vm-tuscia.villalante@cultura.gov.it or call +39 0761 288008, and ask for the visit of the piano nobile of the Palazzina Gambara on a Wednesday, at 10.30 or 14.30.¹ Booking is required by the day before; the group is at most 15 people, and the villa's own staff lead it.¹ While the works last, entry is a reduced EUR 5; tickets are also sold on the Musei Italiani app.¹ The villa is closed on Mondays, 1 January and 25 December; from 16 September to 31 October it opens 8.30 to 18.30, last entry 17.30, an hour earlier once winter time returns.¹ It may close in bad weather.¹

Bagnaia is a frazione of Viterbo.¹ By car, leave the A1 at Attigliano, take the SP Bomarzese, then the SS675 to the Bagnaia-Montefiascone exit; Fiumicino is 134 kilometres away.¹

Discretion

The piano nobile is shown only to the booked group of at most 15, by the villa's own staff.¹ Dogs and food are not allowed in the garden or the park.¹