A pentagonal palace with a spiral staircase and a hall of world maps
At Caprarola, in the Cimini hills, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, nephew of Pope Paul III, transformed a pentagonal fortress begun by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger into one of the most magnificent Renaissance residences in Italy. The project was entrusted to Vignola, who also redesigned the whole village, cutting a straight road that leads up to the palace.
The Palazzo Farnese has a circular courtyard and the famous Scala Regia, a grand spiral staircase supported by thirty pairs of columns, frescoed with grotesques. The rooms, painted by the brothers Taddeo and Federico Zuccari, celebrate the glories of the Farnese family; the Sala del Mappamondo is decorated with huge maps of the known world in the sixteenth century and a sky with the constellations. Behind the palace, a series of terraced gardens leads up to the elegant Casino del Piacere.
Tip: the gardens can be visited with the ticket on certain days; nearby, Lake Vico is a nature reserve in a volcanic crater.
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