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Summer cottage . .
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Rome - Spend any time sight-seeing in Rome and after a while it is easy to get mixed up while looking at names on a map. All those palazzi and ville with the same family names used over and over again . . how to make any sense of it?
One useful trick . . remember that each prominent Roman aristocratic dynasty had both a palazzo, which was the urban dwelling and family seat within the city walls, as well as a villa, which was the summer home, gardens, and grounds outside the city walls where they went to escape the city heat . . and summer malaria epidemic!
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While the palazzi in town are now either used as offices, embassies, or even residentially, most of the ville (meaning both the actual building and its grounds) have been turned into city parks. Villa Borghese, Villa Ada, and Villa Pamphilj, the city's largest three, have remained true to their nature and now give respite to all Romans from the noise and smog of the city (respite from malaria is fortunately no longer required).
The photos here are of the beautiful grounds and the villa itself of Villa Pamphilj, (through the ages also spelled Pamphili or Panfili), the largest of the three with its almost 500 acres of land. It is located just beyond the Gianiculum hill, above the city on the west bank of the Tiber. Go on the weekend to see a good percentage of Rome enjoying the cooler air and open spaces . . . just as the Pamphiljs did starting about 400 years ago when they purchased the grounds.
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--contributed by GB, Editor, Italian Notebook
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