The Villa d'Este is right in the centre of Tivoli, about a fifteen-minute walk from the station. The palace itself is pleasant, with frescoed rooms and good views, but it is the gardens that steal the show. Terraced down a steep hillside, they contain hundreds of fountains fed by an ingenious gravity-powered water system — jets, cascades, pools and grottos tumbling from level to level. The descent involves many flights of steps, but even from the terrace at the top the view is extraordinary.
Villa d'Este
Renaissance palace with spectacular terraced fountain gardens