AT A GLANCE
Why go?
On a green ridge of the Alban Hills above Frascati, Villa Parisi—born Villa Taverna, later Villa Borghese—ranks among the twelve grand pleasure estates the papal nobility carved into the Castelli Romani around 1600. Set within a park of centuries-old oaks and box hedges, the villa hides frescoed state apartments, a theatrical grotto fountain, and a film-set mystique that has drawn horror directors and fashion campaigns alike to its rooms.↗↗
What makes a visit worthwhile is the sense of layered history you get walking through it: a Roman villa once stood on this ground, Cardinal Taverna built the core, Scipione Borghese expanded it, Paolina Bonaparte summered here, and the Parisi family still owns it today. It is best seen on a guided tour, which opens doors that otherwise stay private.↗↗
Good to know
- Historical landmark
- Under 1 kmfrom Monte Porzio Catone center
- 4.6 / 530 reviews
- Monte Porzio Catone
From a cardinal's retreat to a Borghese showpiece
The story begins in 1603–1605, when Monsignor (soon Cardinal) Ferdinando Taverna—Governor of Rome under Pope Clement VIII and a scion of a prestigious Milanese family—raised the villa on the site of an ancient Roman estate, among ruins that included a cistern belonging to the nearby Villa of the Quintili. He entrusted the original design to the prominent architect Girolamo Rainaldi. In 1614 Taverna sold it to Cardinal Scipione Borghese, nephew of Pope Paul V, who already owned the adjoining Villa Mondragone and Villa Vecchia, and who set about knitting the properties into one vast family domain.
