Page 471 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Italy

LAZIO  469

Environs
The Villa Lante, northeast of
Viterbo, was begun in 1562 by
Vignola for Cardinal Gambara.
The main attractions are the
Renaissance gardens and foun-
tains. Be careful not to fall victim
to a 16th-century practical joke:
many of the fountains will
sprinkle people without warning.

P Palazzo dei Priori
Piazza Plebiscito. Tel 0761 30 47 95.
Open daily. 7 8
P Villa Lante
Bagnaia. Tel 0761 28 80 08. Open
8:30am to 1 hour before sunset
Tue–Sun. Closed 1 Jan, 1 May, 25 Dec. The main façade of the pentagonal Palazzo Farnese at Caprarola
& 7 to gardens.
Environs 5 Caprarola
The popular lakeside beach resort Viterbo. * 5,700. @ n Via Filippo
of Bolsena, 15 km (9 miles) north Nicolai 2 (0761 64 79 41). ( Tue.
on Lake Bolsena, has a medieval
castle, as well as boats to the Perhaps the grandest of the
islands of Bisentina and Martana. country villas created during the
17th century by the wealthy
families of Rome, Palazzo
4 Bomarzo Farnese (see p384) is the focal
point of the medieval village of
Parco dei Mostri, Bomarzo.
Tel 0761 92 40 29. V to Viterbo. Caprarola. Designed by Vignola,
@ from Viterbo (not Sun or public it was built between 1559 and
hols). Open 8:30am–sunset in 1575 and takes its star shape
winter (8:30am–7pm in summer). from the foundations of a large
& 7 ∑ sacrobosco.it pentagonal fortress designed
Carved 11th-century capital in San by Antonio da Sangallo the
Flaviano, Montefiascone The Sacro Bosco beneath the Younger half a century earlier.
town of Bomarzo was created On the main floor, reached by
3 Montefiascone between 1522 and 1580 by an elaborately stuccoed spiral
Duke Vicino Orsini as a bizarre staircase, the rooms were
Viterbo. * 13,000. V @ n Piazza
V. Emanuele (0761 83 20 60). ( Wed. memorial to his late wife. Far frescoed, largely by the Zuccari
from a simple monument, Orsini brothers in 1560, with scenes
This pretty town is perched on embraced the artificiality and depicting heroic episodes from
the edge of a defunct volcanic distortion of the Mannerist period the life of Hercules and the
crater between the shores of by creating lopsided build ings Farnese family.
Lake Bolsena, over which there and sculpting huge boulders
are splendid views, and the Via of stone into fantastic creatures Environs
Cassia. It is dominated by the and vast allegorical monsters. Created, according to legend,
octagonal bulk of its cathedral, by the god Hercules ramming
Santa Margherita, whose his club into the ground, Lago
dome, created in the 1670s by di Vico, 5 km (3 miles) west of
Carlo Fontana, is second only Caprarola, in fact occupies the
in size to St Peter’s. remnants of a volcanic crater.
On the town’s outskirts, along An idyllic enclave, the lake is
the Via Cassia towards Orvieto, encircled by the wooded slopes
lies San Flaviano, a lovely of the Cimini Hills (much of
double-decker building with which is a nature reserve).
a 12th-century church oriented A scenic road runs around
east over an 11th-century the lake, and the best place
church pointing west. Inside for swimming is on the
are some fine 14th-century southeast shore.
frescoes and freely carved
capitals, thought to have been P Palazzo Farnese
inspired by the traditions One of the bizarre stone monsters in Caprarola. Tel 0761 64 60 52. Open
of Etruscan art. Bomarzo’s Sacro Bosco Tue–Sun. Closed 1 Jan, 25 Dec. &

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