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The venueVilla Grazioli was built at the end of the sixteenth century by Cardinal Antonio Carafa. Since then the villa has been owned by several aristocratic families and dignitaries of the Roman Church. After a careful restoration, in 1997 Villa Grazioli became an exclusive four star hotel surrounded by a 15,000 sq. m park. Villa Grazioli is located on the Tuscolo hill and it overlooks the whole City of Rome, that can be easily reached by train (about 30 mins). The Hotel provides a shuttle bus service to the nearby town of Frascati. Villa Grazioli has 5 meeting rooms of different sizes and 58 rooms, designed in the same style of the Villa, with air conditioning, direct dial phone, mini bar and satellite TV. Meals will be served in the Acquaviva restaurant, from where spectacular panoramas of Rome can be enjoyed. The room rates have been rebated for conference delegates who reserve their rooms using the on-line reservation form. They include breakfast and VAT and are relatively inexpensive (especially for double rooms) considering the high quality of the accomodation. Both rebated and ordinary rates are summarized in the following table*:
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Other accomodationsFor delegates who cannot be hosted in Villa Grazioli because of late booking or for young delegates who prefer a more affordable accomodation, other hotels in Grottaferrata will be also available. Even though these hotels are not far from Villa Grazioli, a shuttle bus service will be available. The Villa Mercede Hotel (3 stars) is located in Frascati, about 3 km from Villa Grazioli and 1 km from the railway station. The prices range from 62 Euro for a single room to 98 Euro for a triple room. The double rooms cost 88 Euro per night. The Eden Tuscolano Hotel (2 stars, but above the average for its category) is located near Frascati, but not as close to the town as Villa Mercede Hotel. Single rooms will cost 49 Euro per night, whereas double room cost 62 Euro and triple rooms 72 Euro. The breakfast is not included and it costs 6 Euro per person. Please, notice that the fancy rooms in the web site pictures are not those which will be available in August (in fact, some rooms have been refurbished recently, but they have been already booked). The rates for these hotels are the normal ones (i.e. they are not discounted for conference delegates). Delegates that want to book their rooms in these hotels can use the online forms in the web sites of the hotels. Please, notice that the online booking form in this site is only valid for Villa Grazioli. If these hotels do not fit your needs, please, get in touch with us and we will try to help you to find other accomodations.
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Other accomodations are also available |
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Villa Grazioli: art and historyAn engraved marble slab, in the family-chapel, reports the words of a letter dated 1580, in which Pope Gregorius XIII honoured the foundation of the Villa and consecrated the chapel to St. John the Baptist. This memorial stone is important to the history of the Villa, not only because it reports the foundation date, but because it let us know the identity of the founder and the reasons behind his decision to build a villa. Following the steps of Lucullus and Cato many centuries before, Cardinal Carafa chose to build a villa on the Tusculum Hill because of the mild climate and the atmosphere of tranquillity embracing everything. He desired a location immersed in the peacefulness of rural life, where his spirit could recover and contemplate the mysteries of nature, away from stressful activities in the capital. At the death of Cardinal Carafa, the Villa passed by inheritance to Ottavio Acquaviva. He represent an important character in the Villa's history, commissioning the majority of the paintings, which fill with colours and bring to life the vaults of the four salons on the ground floor. The following owners of the Villa, the Peretti-Montalto family (about 1613) commissioned the paintings in the "Stanza di Elyseus" to an artist from the school of Carracci, probably Antonio Carracci himself. One of those is particularly interesting because it represents the Villa the way it looked at that time: the plane tree, painted 400 years ago, is the same one that can still be found in the garden of the villa. For a short time, the Villa has than been owned by the Savelli family. The purchase of the property by the Odescalchi family in 1683, marked for the Villa a period of great transformations. They involved structural works that modified the South prospect of the Villa. The large 16th Century terrace was transformed into a gallery to allow the construction of a third floor. In 1737, Baldassarre Erba, a member of the Odescalchi family commissioned the decoration of the new gallery on the first floor to one of the most famous painters of the time: Giovanni P. Pannini. In 1833 the Villa was sold to the Collegio di Propaganda Fide and in 1843 Duke Pious Grazioli purchased the property. He started new restructurations, changing the side of the Villa facing Rome. Two new quarters were built on the side of the large tower rising from the central body of the building; this totally enclosed the 16th century tower, leaving us with the Villa as it stands today. World War II marked for the Villa the start of a long period of decadence. In 1944, Field-Marshal A. Kesselring of the German Army chose Villa Grazioli as his headquarters. At the end of the war, following the bombing of Frascati, the Villa offered shelter to a group of homeless civilians. Each family occupied a room and transformed it into a home, using camp-fires and mattresses on the floor. Than, for nearly 40 years Villa Grazioli was completely abandonated. In 1987 Villa Grazioli Ltd. took over the property and started restoration works. Nowadays the Villa has been given back the elegance it deserves. For the years to come, a thorough restoration of the decoration will take place according to a program approved by Ministry of Art, which will supervise it.
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Built at the end of the sixteenth
century,
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