Villa Medici

Villa Medici Review

Purchased by Napoléon to create an academy where artists could hone their knowledge of Italian art and so put it to the (French) national good, the villa originally belonged to Cardinal Ferdinando Medici, who also laid out the immaculate Renaissance garden to set off his sculpture collection. Garden tours in English are offered, allowing you to walk in the footsteps of Velázquez, Fragonard, and Ingres, who all worked here (at what is now officially called the French Academy in Rome). The €9 guided tour is also the only way you can see not only the gardens, but the incredibly picturesque garden facade, which is studded with Mannerist and Rococo sculpted reliefs and overlooks a loggia with a beautiful fountain devoted to Mercury.