Would you like to discover the most beautiful parks in Rome and get away from the usual tourist-packed spots? Maybe I have just the thing for you! There are places in Rome that even Romans often don’t know about. One of these is Villa Torlonia, a real gem in the middle of a public park on Via Nomentana.
Villa Torlonia is a beautiful park, and the princely residences inside it are rich in history and beauty.
Set among the greenery, on Via Nomentana, stand several distinct buildings: the Casino Nobile, the Casino dei Principi and the Casina delle Civette, all built between the 19th and 20th centuries by the powerful Torlonia family.
Today the park is home to two museums, one dedicated to the Roman School and one to Liberty stained glass. But the surprises don’t end there: Villa Torlonia is a stone’s throw from the famous Coppedè district, a truly peculiar corner of Rome that I recommend you discover, because it will leave you speechless.
Do you want to know a bit more and find out what to see at Villa Torlonia?
Let’s go!
The origins of the estate
Villa Torlonia in Rome takes its name from the Torlonia princes, who bought the estate in 1797 and made it their residence. Having obtained his noble title, Giovanni Torlonia decided to turn it into a home worthy of his rank, to show off his wealth to the Roman nobility.
The first works were entrusted to Giuseppe Valadier, who between 1802 and 1806 rebuilt the Casino Nobile and the Casino dei Principi, built the stables and laid out the park with regular avenues. Giovanni’s son, Alessandro, wanted to expand the estate further and called in the architect Giovan Battista Caretti, who added a tribune with a fountain, a temple, an amphitheatre and even some romantic false ruins.
But that’s not all!
Alessandro then entrusted Giuseppe Jappelli with the romantic garden in the southern part of the villa, with artificial grottoes, a small lake, the Moorish Greenhouse and the Swiss Hut (which would later become the Casina delle Civette). As a final touch, he had two obelisks erected in honour of his parents.
His nephew, Giovanni Torlonia junior, in turn added a lodge, the Villino Rosso, the Medieval Villino and gave the Casina delle Civette its present look.
In short, it was an enormous building site that lasted many years, turning this corner of Rome into a fairy-tale residence. Perhaps that is why, much later, Benito Mussolini decided to move here.
Oh, you didn’t know?
Then let me tell you right away!
The Duce and Villa Torlonia
Besides the Torlonia family, Benito Mussolini also lived in this villa during the years of his dictatorship. The Torlonia family allowed him to reside in the Casino Nobile from 1925 to 1943 for a purely symbolic rent of one lira a year, and here the leader of Fascism lived with his family, holding meetings and receptions.
Here are some curiosities!
The estate’s Lemon House first became the family garage and then a screening room (no, there was no television yet): this is where the newsreels were shown.
During the Second World War, the park of Villa Torlonia was turned into a war garden, with maize and potatoes in place of the flower beds, and beneath the Casino Nobile anti-aircraft and anti-gas shelters were dug (today visitable by reservation: the famous “Villa Torlonia bunker”).
After the Duce’s fall and arrest, from 1944 to 1947 the villa was occupied by Anglo-American forces. Almost thirty years of neglect followed, until in 1977 the City of Rome bought the estate, opening it to the public as a park the following year; the residences were restored later, between the 1990s and the 2000s.
What to see in the Casino Nobile
The Casino Nobile of Villa Torlonia was built by Valadier between 1802 and 1806. Its present appearance, which makes it look like a classical temple, was created later to make it even more majestic.
The interiors were sumptuously decorated, and you can still admire splendid rooms, such as the great ballroom or the beautiful Egyptian room. The one I liked most is the hall of the Italian poets, portrayed with their inspiring muses. Today the Casino Nobile also houses the Museum of the Roman School, devoted to the artists who worked in Rome between the two world wars.
It was in the Casino Nobile that Mussolini lived. Beneath the structure, besides the bunkers, a fake Etruscan tomb has re-emerged, probably built by Caretti as a romantic conceit.
The Casina delle Civette
The Casina delle Civette (the little house of the owls) is the real pride of the park of Villa Torlonia, both for its unusual structure and, above all, for its stained-glass windows: a perfect example of the Liberty style of the early 20th century.
Only the walls remained of Jappelli’s original Swiss Hut. From 1908, at the wish of Giovanni Torlonia junior, the architect Enrico Gennari transformed it completely: he opened large windows decorated with magnificent coloured glass and enriched the interiors with majolica, wood panelling and sculptures of animals and plants.
The building thus took on the look of a medieval, almost fairy-tale dwelling. From 1916 it began to be called the Casina delle Civette, after a splendid stained-glass window with these owls.
A curiosity about the windows!
The windows were not made by a single artist: they came out of the celebrated glassworks of Cesare Picchiarini, from designs by great names of Italian Liberty such as Duilio Cambellotti, Umberto Bottazzi, Vittorio Grassi and Paolo Paschetto. The owl, the animal of Athena/Minerva, goddess of wisdom, fitted the symbolic taste of the age perfectly: a night bird that “sees” in the dark, just as the wise can tell good from evil.
The care and attention lavished on the decoration of the interiors of the Casina delle Civette will leave you speechless: each room has its own theme. The most precious feature, however, remains the windows, a unicum in the artistic panorama of the Rome of those years. Today the building houses the Museum of Liberty Stained Glass.
One of the most beautiful villas in Rome
Walking through Villa Torlonia will immerse you in an enchanted atmosphere. The park is not very large, but it remains one of the lesser-known villas in Rome, despite its undeniable charm.
After the restorations of the 1990s and the redevelopment of the 2000s, it is now a centre of culture and gathering for the city, with concerts and exhibitions. If you love a less touristy Rome, after the villa walk over to the nearby Coppedè district: the contrast between the princely park and the fairy-tale façades of Coppedè is one of the loveliest and most unusual walks in the city.
It really is a place to visit!
Practical information about Villa Torlonia
Access to the public park of Villa Torlonia is free. Entry to the house-museums, on the other hand, is paid: the museums are open from Tuesday to Sunday, 9:00 to 19:00 (closed Monday, last entry one hour before).
Tickets are bought for each individual residence: the Casina delle Civette costs €10.50 (reduced €7), the Casino Nobile €11 (reduced €6.50), the Casino dei Principi €8 (reduced €5); in the summer months there is also a combined ticket. On the first Sunday of the month entry is free for Rome residents; since 2026, again for residents of the Metropolitan City, entry to the museums has become free. You’ll find up-to-date opening hours and prices on the official Villa Torlonia Museums website.
One last tip: if you can, book a visit to the air-raid shelters beneath the Casino Nobile. It’s an experience unlike the rest of the villa, and it tells the darkest side of its story.
And you, had you already heard of Villa Torlonia? Which of its little houses would you like to visit first?
