Villa Farnesina

Villa Farnesina in the heart of Trastevere is one of the most noble and harmonious creations of the Italian Renaissance, commissioned by Agostino Chigi to Baldassarre Peruzzi, and frescoed with paintings inspired by classical myths by Raffaello Sanzio, Sebastiano del Piombo, Giovanni da Udine, Giovanni Bazzi known as Sodoma, Giulio Romano and Giovan Francesco Penni. The villa is now the representative headquarters of the Accademia dei Lincei. The entrance is now from the rear facade (the main facade is the one with two lateral avant-corps); what characterizes the construction and decoration is the close link between the garden and the villa, as if each represented the ideal continuation of the other. The Galatea room can be visited, which houses, in addition to the fresco of the same name by Raphael, works by Baldassarre Peruzzi and Sebastiano del Piombo, the Loggia of Cupid and Psyche, frescoed by Raphael and his students, the Hall of the Frieze by Peruzzi. On the first floor, the Hall of Perspectives by Peruzzi and the Hall of the Wedding of Alexander and Roxane by Sodoma. On the main floor, the Gallery of Grotesques. The room has changed its intended use many times over the centuries. In the sixteenth century, it was the landing for the ramp connecting to the kitchens in the basement, while in the nineteenth century it became an antechamber and was decorated in Pompeian style. In the 1930s, Guglielmo Marconi, as president of the Royal Academy of Italy, settled in the villa and transformed the Pompeian Room into his personal bathroom.