Romantic elopement in Tivoli, the city with the 100 fountains

Today we come back to you talking about a romantic elope in the tiny village of Tivoli that Julianna and Christopher decide to choose because among the many locations for weddings in the surroundings of Rome, it is for sure a beautiful alternative.

Tivoli is an old town 30 minutes from the city center of Rome and is a latin village called by Virgilio, Tibur Superbum . The legend says that Tivoli is even older than the eternal city. The city had a long and complicated history as it has been conquered by different populations but each of them left a masterpiece, from Villa d’Este with this 100 fountains, to Villa Gregoriana till the amazing Villa Adriana with its famous canopy.

Julianna and Christopher are a lovely couple from US, Julianna chose a romantic white dress and her bouquet was made vintage pink roses with hand tied bouquet with laces.
They decided to get married in the frescoed hall inside Palazzo Bernardino, the hall where the municipality celebrates civil marriages, which is with no doubts the most important of the whole building.
Apart from the gorgeous frescos that cover all the walls of the room, here you can admire a precious ‘400 altarpiece representing San Bernardino.

After the marriage, they took some pictures inside the palace and then they moved along the narrow roads till the famous Villa d’Este, patrimony of the Unesco and famous for the beauty of the gardens with its fountains.

The villa was built by Cardinal Ippolito II D’Este who arrived in Tivoli in September of 1550.  He was assigned to the rather inglorious position of governor of this little provincial village, conspicuously distant from the movers and shakers in Rome.  The residence he’d been given didn’t quite measure up to his refined standards.  So he hired the best architects, artists, and craftsmen to help him build a grandiose villa along the sloping hillside of Tivoli, the famous villa d’Este. He was the son of Lucrezia Borgia, after all, and therefore entitled to accommodations befitting of his pedigree.

The villa itself is indeed grand, with vaulted ceilings with important frescoes of the late-Renaissance.  It was largely designed by the Neapolitan architect Pirro Ligorio and by the architect/engineer Alberto Galvani, the court architect for the Este family in Ferrara.  Ligorio was later commissioned to design the lavish gardens, as well, which would eventually become the model for European gardens in the following centuries. 

In fact, it is the gardens that draw most people here to linger amidst the lush elegance of its sculpted hedges and it is the garden where Julianna and Christopher took most of their stunning pictures. Worn statues, and cascading water features. In Villa d’Este you can admire worn statues, cascading water features, but the masterpiece is the so-called singing fountain (Fontana dell’Organo) which uses hydraulic and pneumatic energy to power an automated pipe organ that plays a tune every two hours to the delight of the visitors.  These opulent grounds have inspired everyone from Bernini, who designed one of the main fountains in 1661 (Fontana del Bicchierone), to the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt, who wrote Giochi d’acqua (Water Games) while visiting Villa D’Este in the 1860s. 

After enjoying the shooting in the marvelous setting, the couple moved to the wedding reception venue which was the elegant restaurant La Sibilla, the oldest restaurant in the city that dates back to 1720 and which is built under the roman Vesta temple. Such a great experience, to have dinner inside a real roman museum.
Here they had the chance to have a typical Italian wedding meal followed by a beautiful tiny wedding cake.

We wish to thank Alessandro Zingone for the great job and beautiful pictures.
Tivoli town hall for the the support and professionalism and of course Julianna and Christopher that decide to give us the opportunity to work for them.

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