Rising up a winding road, you begin to experience the decadence of Tivoli's premier villa before you've even reached it thru a magnificent view shooting straight to the horizon. It seems to yell, "you, Cardinal d'Este, hold dominion over the trees and the houses of the land through God." It also serves to forget that you, the modern public transport user, have arrived not via a direct link from the city centre but from a bus station on the outskirts of the city!

It's almost underwhelming in comparison when you step through the courtyard and into the actual Villa building. It's beautiful, of course, but it feels strangely sparse, a world populated not by objects but by painted doorways and faux-3D marble busts. Through an exhibition you go, the interesting but tenuously linked "Umano Troppo Umano" on depictions of the athletic (mostly nude) body on the day I went, and past all the usual rooms you'd expect from a mid-millennium wealthy religious European, and you finally reach the garden that has been teasing you since you looked through your first window.

On a hot and humid October day, something I'm ill-accustomed to coming from Ireland, I believe I discovered instantly what paradise feels like - fifty fountains, and ten times the spouts. You're immediately welcomed with a drinking fountain at the foot of the staircase, the first of many, which most people (including myself) felt invited to drink from. Ornary drinking fountains are here everywhere as in Rome, but these are works of art in their own minor ways. The more major fountains you don't need me to describe, and I certainly couldn't describe the near-synonymous Fountain of the Organs, which was closed for maintanence during my visit. My favourite of these fixtures has to be the relatively understated statue of Diana to the back of the gardens, even if she has lost one of her hands! I can't speak to the objective OUV of the place, but I likely wouldn't have discovered it had it not been nominated to heritage site status, so for that personal experience alone I'm happy that it's on the list.