Leaving Rome and driving along the via Tuscolana until Frascati, following
the signposting you arrive at the charming Villa
Grazioli which rises on a descending hill towards the Mediterranean
Sea, of which you can see the blue line stretching in the distance.
The building dates back to the end of the 1500's upon commission of cardinal
Carafa. Throughout the centuries there were many passages of property:
from Prince Perretti to the Savelli family, from Livio Odescalchi Duke of Bracciano
and de Ceri to Baldassarre Erba , until 1843 when it was bought by Duke Pio
Grazioli.
During the second world war the villa was occupied by the evacuated people,
and it finally ended up in a state of complete abandonment.
In 1987 the Villa Grazioli Society bought it, starting an important architectonic
restoration of the decorations and the vegetation, to bring it back
to the ancient splendour.
Knowing gardeners have redesigned the Italian gardens and the age-old park,
which extends on an area of 15.000 Sq. m., where an orchard takes over, integrated
with a small vineyard, a wide reed-thicket and an olive grove.
Inside Villa Grazioli
you can also admire rich decorations and pictorial frescoes
pittorici of masters such as Augusto Ciampelli and Giovanni Paolo Pannini.
The first decoration of the noble floor dates back to the period included between
1560 and 1612 and is inspired by nature and by biblical themes of the Virtues
representing Prudence, Fortitude, Justice and Temperance.
Continuing you can visit Stanza della Notte, with iconographic
representation of the Allegory of Night, the Day Room, the Eliseo Room, until
the Pannini Gallery. A stage designer specialised in the decoration of interiors,
of palaces, of churches, transformed the gallery in a place of the imagination
through the painting of columns, loggias, niches, statues, balustrades, vases
and chandeliers.
Currently the Park Hotel Villa Grazioli is a charming hotel with 58
rooms furnished with elegance, the great frescoed halls are available
for meetings and receptions.
The large windows, the halls, the terrace open up on a spectacular scenery:
the sea on the horizon and Rome seen from above.