The road to Tivoli carves a ribbon out of the Italian countryside, past cypress trees standing like barcodes and grand stone viaducts. It’s only two kilometres between our base of Sant’Antonio, a former monastery, and Tivoli’s palazzos and exquisite gardens, but come night-time, with only the headlights of Italian drivers to show the way, making the journey on foot is an adventure. One evening, our slightly sozzled party are heading back to our digs when we hear a rustle in the bushes. We stop to boggle at a wild boar with a lightning bolt of white fur across its face.
It is not even the most thrilling sight we will see during our stay. Sant’Antonio is one of seven short-term lets in Italy run by the Landmark Trust, the conservation charity responsible for saving distinctive buildings and renting them to holidaymakers. Eight pals and I are big Landmark fans, having bagged three of its Scottish buildings together (and more, individually). In our dedicated WhatsApp group we have often debated going to Sant’Antonio, a honey-coloured stone villa about 34km from Rome. Its hilltop location opposite a waterfall looks like the perfect place to live out our Conversations with Friends fantasies.
Birthdays are always a good excuse to book. Three days before I turn 35 we rock up to Sant’Antonio’s heavy timber door, beyond which a cavernous entrance hall bearing signs of its ascetic past appears. Owned by the De Brisis family, the building was entrusted to the Landmark Trust in 1995; an older version was built in 100BC and the monastery was rebuilt between 1583 and 1590. When the trust took over, it added its signature pared-back furnishings. Whitewashed walls and intricate iron light fittings contrast against antique benches upholstered in reed, plaid and tweed.
Sant’Antonio sleeps 12, with a self-contained flat plus two bedrooms on the top floor, and three further bedrooms downstairs. Perhaps our only complaint is that the mattresses feel a few years past their best. Outside, the terrace with its grotto has been left almost untouched — fragments of ancient stone statues litter the gravel.
After the cicadas begin their alarm clock at 8am we scatter to the shadows of the orange trees to read, set to the soundtrack of the waterfall in the valley. My friend Raymond declares he has never had a better view from the lavatory. A loggia with enormous windows somehow manages to suck in hot air and blast a cool breeze into our faces when it’s time to retreat inside. In the kitchen, down the vaulted stone staircase, we take turns to fire up the Smeg gas range cooker. Twin fridge-freezers are a welcome addition for a group who like their cheese as much as us.
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When we aren’t enjoying nature walks spotting geckos and red winged grasshoppers, we mosey into Tivoli. The walk is about 25 minutes on that treacherous single-track road, or there is a bus that stops directly outside the monastery. At the local market’s food stalls (Tuesday and Wednesday in the main square) we load up our backpacks with huge peaches, candied walnuts and fennel flecked salami. The Carrefour on Viale Tomei sorts us out with Italian bread, enormous lemons, courgette flowers and more stracciatella cheese than we can carry.
With the mercury predicted to soar to 36C by the end of the week we get our sightseeing in early. Villa D’Este is one of Italy’s most revered palaces (about £13 entry) — its gardens (and those of nearby Villa Adriana) have inspired the names of many sublime public parks around the world. Inside it is a maze of medieval friezes and contemporary art; outside there are flowing terraces and formal ponds.
After exploring we weave back through the cracked and cobbled streets of Tivoli old town, a Unesco heritage site since 2001. At Gelateria Mariannina we duck in for a double scoop of coffee and cherry-flavoured ice cream (£2.50). Porchetta sandwiches (from about £7) and sweet local wine (£10 a bottle) are a must at the charmingly chaotic La Fraschetta Da Neno.
Back at the monastery, twilight falls after Aperol coloured sunsets. The outside space comes into its own after hours: sitting in Southsea deckchairs (a classic Landmark touch) we tip back our heads and search for shooting stars. Across the hillside, a candelabra of hotels, restaurants and houses glows out of the black. The double-decker night train snakes its way through the trees, its windows illuminating flashes of a landscape just as wild as it is divine.
Gabriella Bennett was a guest of the Landmark Trust (landmarktrust.org.uk). Three nights’ self-catering for 12 at Sant’Antonio costs from £882. Fly from Edinburgh and Glasgow to Rome from about £125 return with easyJet, Ryanair and Jet2
