We came here as an optional day trip on our Trafalgar tour. Our guide was very knowledgable about…read morethe villa and it's history. I simply can't imagine the obscene amount of wealth it must have taken to build this villa. The gardens and fountains are absolutely breathtaking. The fountains are gravity fed so that the farther down you go among the gardens, the higher the water sprays. Definitely worth the day trip as the villa is amazing and Tivoli is a great little town.

Gorgeous old villa and gardens with multiple beautiful fountains. If you like gardens, i think…read moreyou'll love this place, especially in the spring! You walk through the beautiful palace rooms first, then go down to the beautiful gardens below. Comments are available in both Italian and English. A couple of things to note: 1) there are drinking water fountains and clean, free restrooms (and a small cafe) at the site. 2) lots of walking and oodles of steps. 3) there's a cool outdoor water fountain organ that plays every couple of hours. 4) our mapping program gave us the wrong entrance info; if you are walking there, I suggest you double check with a local to make sure you are going the right way ( there are several gates, but all but the one entrance gate are closed). Be warned: There are 2 lines to get in. One (on the left) for those with pre-paid tickets, and another long line on the right side for those that need to buy their tickets there. If you've already bought your tickets online, go up to the front and ask the cashier if you can skip the line if you've already paid. We unnecessarily waited a long time on a very hot day because some random rude tour guide thought it would be funny to give us the wrong info that we had to wait in line even if we had a ticket already. Don't forget your camera; the photo ops are amazing!

Oh Hadrian. You egotistical little f#*^ stick! This is not a Villa, this is a giant vacation home…read morewith a spa built as a flex. Located in Tivoli, it's what happens when the most powerful man in the world decides he's tired of the city, craves a countryside retreat, and also wants to recreate the entire known world while he's at it. This spot means I saw this in Egypt and I want one; meets, I got a guy in Turkey; meets, let's throw in a library, several baths, temples, theaters, and enough gardens to make Versailles feel uncomfortable. Emperor Hadrian, the guy behind the project, fancied himself as an architect and travel influencer. Walking through the ruins, you get to see what's left of his vacation compound, crumbling columns, sunken pools, mysterious underground tunnels (because who doesn't want secret tunnels?), and just enough scattered mosaics to make you regret every bathroom tile you've ever installed. While you visit, pretend you are the emperor himself probably sipping wine and ignoring whatever empire-wide crisis was happening that week. Ask yourself this: How many fountains is too many fountains?

Hadrian's villa is a must-see, but be ready to walk because Hadrian created a private city for his…read moresummer getaways. His private swimming pool has an island with columns surrounding the enclave. It is worth the visit just to see it, but there is so much more with layers of history, mosaic floors, and even better, original statues kept on site in a museum from the lovely pool which wasn't uncovered until the 1950s so the best stuff didn't get carted away. I visited years ago and was happy to see on my recent visit that more items have been displayed and is just as fascinating the second time as the first.

Do not book this tour! The tour guide was Andrea and she was rude, they separated our group and she…read morewas not willing to answer. She told me to stop talking as I was talking about the rest of our group. They told us tour was at 9:45 and it didn't start until 10:45 am. The tour guide also wasn't explaining much and wasn't tech savvy. Took forever to even get our tickets on her phone. She got mad I was trying o take a photo and told me I could come back later but she stopped to answer a personal phone call. Book through someone else!

Only tour in my life where we had to look up Wikipedia DURING the tour…read more My Italian friend recommended this agency because we are Catholic, coming for the Jubilee and wanted a religion-centered tour - Jubilee/Early Christianity. The other people on our tour were also devout Catholic. I believe the tour was done by Maria Lazara. We do not know her name because she did not bother to introduce herself, nor did she ask our names (aside from checking our family name off). We met at the statue and then without any introduction to our tour, nor introduction to the St John of Laterna Church, she marched off in front of us to the Church's portico. It was a bad start. That's the main complaint: she gave no introduction to the tour or any site, she gave no church or historic context on how things came to be or how they evolved. She gave no Catholic perspective. A tour guide needs to be a storyteller! And I expected a guide well-versed in church history, both religious and urban! Instead, it was a bunch of random historic facts. She primarily spent her time pointing out symbolism in the paintings and mosaics. Clearly, she majored in art history, and the history of Christianity was a boring sideline to her. She liked pointing out that Laterna was populated early, while most of Rome was countryside - but why? How did that change? Where did Catholics live and why did they move? Why were these churches chosen for their Holy Doors? Why only 4 doors? She told us the Laterna Holy Door was an original bronze and a couple more facts and then we marched through as it were nothing. Nothing about why it is special that they are open, how Catholics view this moment, etc. IT IS SPECIAL. In speaking about the Jubilee, the only thing she said was that the Pope first started it once every 100 years, and since the Roman townspeople made money on tourism from the incoming pilgrims, they moved it to every 33 years or when they wanted. That's it - Jubilees were about making tourism dollars. End of her story. None of our group of 3 heard that the Sacred Steps were brought from Jerusalem and why, and where they were placed originally. All she did was say "it is not a hard job to move stairs." THEY ARE SPECIAL. She just said: you can up if you want, I'll wait here on my phone. Again, her specialty seemed to be art history not Catholic traditions or history, and 75% of the time, she spoke about symbolism. The blue and yellow of Mary, the keys of St. Peter. That's fine but there was no narrative, no church history. The tour ended exactly at 12 p.m. Clearly, she was glad to be out of there. Another note - yes, her English vocabulary was good, but she spoke sing-song Italian style and it was hard to follow her. She does not have the cadence of an English speaker. Very disappointed in Eternity Tours' guide. Aside: I really enjoyed Eternity Tours newsletter mailings.