Villa Lancellotti
A clock face added somewhere in the nineteenth century still keeps time on the wall of Villa Lancellotti, a small detail that gives away how many hands this place has passed through. Cardinal Bonanni built it in 1582; a banker, a Bavarian, a prince and princess each left their mark before the bombs of the Second World War took a portion of it back.
The terrace opens toward Rome on one side, with Villa Aldobrandini pressing down from higher ground on the other. The Italian garden runs to a water theatre — a direct copy of the one at Villa Mondragone — built in 1617 and still standing at the far end of the grounds.
💛 What travellers fall for
People who manage to arrange a guided visit tend to mention the frescoes by Ciro Ferri as the interior's quiet reward, and the water theatre as the thing that stays with them afterward. The Parco dell'Ombrellino, carved from the original grounds, is open without any appointment and gives you a feel for the scale of the place on your own schedule.
The story behind Villa Lancellotti
Cardinal Bonanni raised the villa in 1582, and within a generation it had changed hands. The banker Roberto Primo bought it in 1617 and almost immediately commissioned the water theatre at the garden's far end, modelling it closely on the design at Villa Mondragone. Cardinal Cesare Baronio worked on his Church History here; King Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia later lived in the villa and received Pope Pius VII as a guest in October 1805. George Sand rented it at some point in the nineteenth century.
Prince Pietro Piccolomini restored the property in 1730, and it passed through a Bavarian owner before Prince Filippo Massimo Lancellotti and Princess Elisabetta Borghese Aldobrandini bought it in 1866, giving it the name it carries today. WWII bombing caused serious structural damage; a more recent restoration has brought it back.
Good to know
The villa itself is not publicly open — contact the Regional Institute for Tuscolan Villas (IRTV) or the Museo Tuscolano to arrange access, and confirm days and times before you travel. Trenitalia runs regional trains from Rome Termini to Frascati in around 30 minutes. Summer visits suit the garden; avoid November, the wettest month.
Summer — June through August — is the most comfortable time to walk the garden, with warm, mostly dry days and temperatures that can reach 31°C in August. Spring and autumn are mild but increasingly wet as the year closes; November regularly sees the heaviest rainfall.
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What travellers say about Villa Lancellotti
Among the Tuscolana villas, Villa Lancellotti retains a truly special aura, not only for its architectural qualities, but also for its great artistic, landscape, and botanical value. What's most striking is that every interior space remains intact, as if still inhabited. It is therefore both a museum and a residence.
The villa's garden is an Italianate garden that includes a 16th-century nymphaeum. In the ground-floor entrance hall, there is a black-and-white mosaic found in 1863 in Tusculum on land owned by the Camaldolese Tuscolano Hermitage. Statues found during excavations in Tusculum decorate the villa. A portion of the villa's garden has become a public park, known as Parco dell'Ombrellino. (Wikipedia)
A wonderful holiday outside of Rome. Rome is easily accessible from Frascati by train. The rooms, food, and service were unbeatable.
Villa with an interesting history, well-maintained, beautiful gardens
The beauty of the Tusculum villas is indescribable; they must be visited...
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