We walked up a steep narrow cobblestone street in a single file line with cars giving us a cool breeze as they pass us. The most famous view of the Villa Farnese in front of us a little more revealed with every step. There it is lit perfectly by the sun on this cool clear day. The steps up are deep and shallow with the cobblestone tread and solid rounded stone as the riser. Looking back down the long street we walked up from the main entrance then up two flights of stairs, it is obvious the palazzo is extremely important. It is the end of the axis. Next we entered across a fake drawbridge walkway along with another large secondary Italian school group. We descended down a stone spiral stair, famous from the third God Father movie, to the service spaces below. Under the main central courtyard is the room of the cistern. There off to one side was a laundry stone basin. Just outside the cistern room a circular path way wrapped around it giving it a similar feel to the Roman stadium circulation. As we walked that circulation path we were able to see they many kitchens and service spaces that radiated out. The kitchens were large open rooms with large fire places, one large enough for our class of twenty-one students to stand inside. We left the plain stone and plaster walls and gravel floors to the rooms several stories above. There the rooms were elaborately painted in a variety of sizes. Many of the rooms were painted in a tricky manner such that the architectural elements appeared to be three dimensional when they were in reality flat on the wall. The recently enclosed portico even had fake doors painted on the walls giving a sense of symmetry. The best part of the palace was the pentagon shaped courtyard and the views of it through the windows to the gardens. The gardens were peaceful with the birds chirping, sun piercing the tree canopies to warm the skin chilled by the breeze. The path to the secret garden begins to disappear. The surroundings change from structured colonnades, trimmed hedges to free loose forestry as though you’re almost hiking in the wilderness. On the right side a few yards from the dirt path created by the footsteps of the visitors to the gardens was a tree with a hollowed base. It was large enough for animals to inhabit similar to the one Alice falls into Wonderland with. The strong axis draws you up to the beginning of the gardens. A large circular fountain with faces pouring water out from their eyes, nose, mouth and ears greeted us upon our entry. Defining the space of the fountain were highly rough textured walls leading up to small arch ways into a petite space. In that space was coral covered walls originally fountains with water trickling out and over the coral to a basin on the ground. Black and white mosaic floors had a pattern with flor de leis. These spaces were on either side of the base of the hand rail of the main stairs ascending up to more structured gardens and the Villa. As you step down out of that space your feet touch grass covered stairs with stone risers. Stone fish was the edge of the railing used to contain the water flowing down. Another large fountain was located at the top of these stairs with gigantic human statues in leisurely positions. Once you climb the stairs around this fountain you reach the first level of the garden full of trimmed hedges with small horse fountains in the center and human statues used like a colonnade to define the edge. A beautiful tall pink rose bush lost some petals to the grass below it creating one of the most romantic sights I have seen. An open terrace surrounded by wilderness was located directly behind the Villa accessible only by two staircases on either side of the Villa. In this terraced garden there were urn shaped fountains at each level and on the lowest level closest to the Villa was a elegantly large fountain resembling an urn towered above us. Back in the main garden at the back of the Palazzo on our way out was a small space called the grotto full of water dropping down from the icicle shaped stones. This space had some similar characteristics to the Natural Caverns in San Antonio, TX but this one had been touched by the hand of man. There were statues in a similar colored stone to the existing stone placed inside as part of the grotto almost as if the flow of the water carved the figures over time. It was calming with the gentle sound of water dripping perfect for the hot summers to cool down and relax.
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