Is Villa Torlonia Worth Visiting?

Among the many hidden gems in Rome, Villa Torlonia is a beautiful park on the northern side of the city with an interesting history and historic grounds.

Who Is The Torlonia Family?

The Torlonia Family is one of the most ancient families of Rome. They built their fortune administering the finances of the Vatican, and if you consider that for a second, you might think that the Torlonia Family is still needed today. They came to Rome from France and became very successful bankers and of course very wealthy.

Members of the Torlonia family were given titles by various Popes, one member became the Mayor of Rome and through a long and complicated family tree, Brooke Shields is actually a descendant. 

Did Mussolini Live In Villa Torlonia?

Benito Mussolini had a number of houses around Italy during his time as the country’s Fascist dictator. A summer residence in northern Italy, known as Villa Mussolini was purchased by his wife and used for many years. While it was abandoned after the war, it was renovated and used for “cultural” events and became a source of controversy.

Mussolini also lived in Villa Torlonia in Rome, which was owned by the Torlonia banking family and rented to Mussolini for a symbolic sum of 1 Lira per year and was used as his state residence. While there were guests invited to visit Villa Torlonia, a desire to separate work from family limited the amount of state visits at his home.

Who Lived In Villa Torlonia?

From the end of the 17th century until the mid 18th century, the area of Villa Torlonia was owned by the Pamphili family and used as an agricultural estate. The Pamphili family also owned Villa Doria Pamphili Park in Rome, which I found interesting because of a similar state of disrepair found in both parks. Ponds and fountains that didn’t function and large areas for jogging and dog walking that were burned out from the summer heat.

In 1760 the property was owned by the Colonna family and later purchased by Giovanni Torlonia which began a transformation from a rural residence to a sprawling residential complex with imaginative and exotic constructions and landscaping.

More than 100 years ago, there was a discovery of a large Jewish cemetery, which had been buried beneath the new construction. In the lowest section of the bunker, you can still see a small section of the catacombs. There are no remains, but the catacombs have not been excavated.

Where Is Villa Torlonia?

Villa Torlonia, which is really more of a park today, is on the northern side of Rome. It can be entered from the main entrance on via Nomenata, but there are some other smaller entrances around the outside border of the park.

What Are The Buildings In Villa Torlonia?

What Are The Opening Hours Of Villa Torlonia?

The Bunker and Air Raid shelters do cost and need to be booked separately. You can purchase tickets for the tours onsite, but it is a popular tour and you probably will want to buy them online ahead of time. The tickets are sold on the VivaTicket site and from my visit, it looked like the group was limited to around 20 people.

So, Is Villa Torlonia Worth Visiting?

It certainly is, especially if you are interested in WWII history. The bunker tour was interesting and they even had a great snack bar to get a drink or a quick bite. If you are interested in just seeing the park, I might recommend checking out a similar, but much larger park in Rome, Villa Doria Pamphili Park.

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