Rome Palaces & Gardens

Vast parks and games reserves, sumptuous villas -- nothing was too magnificent for the papal summer retreats, built to escape the stifling heat of hte Eternal City. Hidden away behind the often austere facades of these palaces lies the most prodigious of Roman heritages -- frescos, sculpture, paintings, furniture, artistically-laid-out gardens -- jealously guarded by the great families who laid the fortune of the city: the Orsini, Colonna, Farnese, Medicis and others. In this companion volume to their Villas and Gardens of Tuscany, author Sophie Bajard and photographer Rafaello Bencini have once again pooled their talents to reveal the splendour of Rome's treasures and to recount the fascinating story of its prestigious palaces.