A refuge among the cypress trees of the Janiculum Hill, overlooking one of the most beautiful views of Rome: Villa Lante is a hidden gem of the Renaissance, built to escape the heat and embrace beauty.

Commissioned by Baldassarre Turini, an official and trusted advisor to the Medici popes, the villa was designed in the early decades of the 16th century by a very young Giulio Romano, Raphael’s favourite pupil. Here, architecture, painting and sculpture interact harmoniously: each room is part of a single vision, each detail recounts an era of artistic rebirth.
The panoramic loggia, the large frescoed hall, the stucco decorations by Giovanni da Udine; each room is an invitation to contemplation and encounter.
It was a meeting place for intellectuals and patrons of the arts even in the time of its founder, and it would become so again in the 19th century, when it became the cultural salon of archaeologist Wolfgang Helbig and his elegant wife Nadine, a Russian princess and pianist. Names such as Carducci, D’Annunzio, Tolstoy and Wagner passed through here.

Today, Villa Lante is home to the Institutum Romanum Finlandiae and retains all the magic of yesteryear. Its frescoes, its rooms echoing with stories and poetry, its garden suspended between the sky and the city: everything invites you to slow down, listen and be inspired.