Villa Farnese in Caprarola

This 16th century palace built by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (future Pope Paul III) was originally conceived as a fortified castle. His grandson decided to turn it into a country estate for the family. The palazzo was bequeathed to the Duke of Parma and subsequently to the King of Spain while that country ruled the Italian Peninsula. Now it is open to the public and one of the holdings of the Italian government.

The front of the Villa Farnese in Caprarola a 30 minute bus ride from Viterbo. It is built in the shape of a pentagon!

A sundial on the front wall of the palazzo. The students and I were unable to decipher how it really worked.

The courtyard is not built in a pentagonal shape, but in a circle.

Here in the guard's room (the modern day entrance), there is a fresco of the town of Caprarola. As you can see the palazzo is built at the top of town.

This is the room that has the has the five arched windows of the front facade. It is known as the Hercules Room. The highlight is the fountain on the West wall.

The second (main floor) is divided into two five room "apartment", one the winter and the other the summer. Here is the Aurora (bedroom) room of the summer apartment. This is the fresco on the ceiling one would wake up to each morning. You can see "night" coming in on a dark chariot and "light" coming in on a chariot with white horses.

The palazzo has extensive gardens. Here's a view of the garden house with the moon rising as dusk settled in. You can see the day was gorgeous.

The gardens were surrounded by a group of caryatids.

Here are a couple of the more humorous ones.

I have to include this picture of the students playing foosball. We had some time before the bus came and we took over the table and played for an hour. From left Myles H. of California, Steve C. of Minnesota and Lisa A. of Pennsylvania.

The final two photos are some of my favorites from the day.