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The town of Tivoli is around 31 km northeast of Rome. It has been a popular summer resort since the days of the Roman Republic.
In the past many famous men owed a villa in Tivoli.
Among them are Horace and Cattulus (poets), Brutus and Cassius (Caesar’s assassins), the Emperors Trajan and Hadrian.
The main attraction of the place are the crystal clean air and the great location on the slopes of Tiburtini hills that offers an amazing views.
Also there are many beautiful springs and waterfalls. Among them are terrace of 100 Fountains in the gardens of Villa d’Este and the waterfalls of Aniene.
Villa d’Este is considered to be a masterpiece of the Italian Garden and it is included in UNESCO world heritage list.
Walking through the gardens of the villa you can notice an impressive concentration of fountains, grottoes, nymphs, plays of water.
In 16-th century the estate of an old Benedictine convent was developed by cardinal Ippolito d’Este. A palace was designed by Pirro Litgorio.
The villa fame though rests more on the gorgeous terraced gardens and fountains laid out by Ligorio and Giacomo della Porta.
A visitor gets a vivid impression of the great luxury which the princes of the church enjoyed.
Bernini’s Fontana del Bicchierone, the Rometta (little Rome), a model of Tiber Island with many figures and the legendary she-wolf.
The Rometta is at one of the ends of the Viale delle Cento Fontane – 100 fountains of the shape of grotesques, obelisks, ships and the Eagles of the coat of arms.
Recently many fountains has been restored. A famous one is the Fontana dell’Organo which is a water organ in which the force of the water pumps air through the pipes.
The gardens lowest level has flower beds and fountains as well as some splendid views out over the plain below.

How to get to Tivoli from Yes Hotel:
By Car: you have to take road S5 out of Rome to Tivoli
By Train: you have to take line B (direction Rebibbia) of the metro from Termini Station (just 2 min walk from Yes Hotel) to Tiburtina Station.
From there you have to take the train Roma-Pescara and it will take like half hour to get to Tivoli. There is shuttle bus to Tivoli center and Villa d’Este.
By Bus: from Yes Hotel go to Termini Station and take Line B (direction Rebibbia) to the stop ‘Ponte Mammolo’. From there you take blue COTRAL buses which run every 15 minutes. It will take an hour to get to Tivoli.
Call Center: 199.766.166
Opening hours check Villa d’Este, Tivoli Official Site

This is one of the most impressive monuments of the late Roman Empire age, which can be visited in Rome. Its location is very peaceful and quiet, maybe because it is quite far from the historical centre of Rome. Is part of the bigger yet St Agnes Outside the Walls, which also has catacombs.

Where : In Rome, Via Nomentana, 349

How to get there : From Termini station take bus 36 or 90 and get off at the stop Mausoleo Santa Costanza.

When : The opening hours are: from 9 am to noon, then from 4 to 6 pm , the church is closed from noon until 4 pm, which would be otherwise the normal time for visits to the monuments and museums in Rome.

The church – initially, a mausuleum of the Constantine’s family – was built close to the site of a much bigger “basilica” (temple), which remains are unfortunately almost entirely lost, besides part of the exterior walls.

As a mausuleum, it is similar to other examples of the Roman architecture (the Pantheon, the Augustus’ mausuleum) , and in particular to the Martyrium, built by Constantine’s mother (Helen) in Jerusalem just a few years before Santa Costanza church. Constantine was the first Christian Roman Emperor, as a Christian was his mother, who spent most of the last years of her life in pilgrimage to the holy land.

The Santa Costanza church was built under Constantine age (it can be dated back to the mid-fourth century A.D.), probably by his daughter Constantina (or “Constantia”, in Latin), next to the cemetery of the church of “Santa Agnese fuori le mura”, where the young S. Agnes, who allegedly healed Constantina, was buried (there is still a coffer in the nearby catacombs whit the name of Saint Agnes, which is said to contain some of her bones). After the death of the daughters of Constantine, Constantina and Helena, they were buried there.

In 1254 the mausoleum was consecrated as a church by Pope Alexander IV, since Constantina was venerated as a saint (as evidenced in some documents dating back to the ninth century). The church was later (in 1620) restored under Cardinal Fabrizio Veralli, but the restoration works unfortunately destroyed most of the originary mosaics and paintings. At that time, the porphyry sarcophagus of Constantina was translocated to the Vatican (where it can be currently seen in its Museums), so today you can see in the church only a copy of it.

The church of Santa Costanza is close to the church of Sant’Agnese fuori le mura (St Agnes outside the walls) and its catacombs, which is certainly worth a trip), and it can be easily reached – even by public transportation – by travelling three kilometers north of Porta Pia, a major gate of the Aurelian Walls, on the Via Nomentana .

The circular building is an example of late Roman emperial architecture; it is twenty-nine meters in diameter; its central circular chamber is eleven and a half meters wide, and it is separated from a ring-shaped ambulatory by twelve pairs of radiating columns, made of fine red and green marble.

The church’s exterior still survives today quite well preserved, save for the loss of its outer ambulatory. Of its originary interiors, you can still see some beautiful tesserae mosaics with flowers, animals, and human figures of young people, which represent a mix of classical myth and early Christian beliefs. As already said, most other mosaics and painting have unfortunately got lost with the time.

And after a day of sightseeing you will be grateful to relax in My Hotel Rome, our comfortable 3 star hotel in the centre of Rome, near Rome major attractions and good Rome’s restaurants.

Piazza Navona is one of the most famous and beautiful of the many other Roman squares.
It is build like such in 16-th century.
Before that on its place has stayed the stadium of Domitian,built by emperor Domitian in 86 AD.
It used to hold up to 30 thousand spectators. Also it is known that it had larger arena than the Colosseum.
The stadium was used for festivals and sporting events. It is known also as Circus Agonalis.
In the 15-th century the stadium was paved over to form the Navona square.
Even today there are still visible some remnants of Domitian’s stadium.

There 3 magnificent fountains at the square and also the baroque style church of S. Agnese.
One of the fountain is made by the great architect and sculptor Bernini between 1648 and 1651.
It is called the Fountain of the Four Rivers (Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi) and is in the center of the square. It is like huge rock coming out of the water.

Another fountain is Fontana del Nettuno. It is created by Giacomo Della Porta around 1576.
It is situated on the north side of the square, exactly opposite of the third fountain: Fontana del Moro which is on the south side.

Today Piazza Navona is a beautiful popular place where people go out for a walk or to visit some of the best restaurants and coffee places and enjoy the view created so many years ago by some of the best artists.