Villa Ada is a large urban park, a remarkably complex site considering its history, the natural environments that coexist with it and the social value that it has today for the city.

It is the result of a series of stratifications, aggregations and interventions both on the landscape and on the architectural buildings that began in the second half of the eighteenth century and are still ongoing.

With its almost 160 hectares, of which at least 80 are wooded areas, it constitutes the main green lung of the northern part of the city and is one of the largest historical villas of the capital city of Rome.

Today this place is a large container of precious historical finds, a large park adorned with neoclassical and eclectic buildings such as the Temple of Flora, Villa Polissena, the Royal Stables, the House of Games, the Gothic Tower and characterized by holm oak woods, cork oaks, pine forests and meadows. according to the traditional landscape configuration of English gardens.

Within its borders we find play areas for children, a horse-riding centre, a kindergarten and the Embassy of Egypt.

An in-depth analysis of the landscape, the archaeology and the Villa’s history identified the critical issues and urgencies, which the project promises to solve with a far-sighted look to the future through a programme of interventions structured over 10 years and aimed at preserving the great landscape heritage of the Park.

The city and its noises disappear and you find yourself among centuries-old pines, laurel groves, muddy lanes winding among impenetrable blackberry bushes and felled logs, dense stands of nettles and large meadows overgrown with weeds. Through the boughs you can see old abandoned buildings covered in ivy, fountains toppled by wild figs and bunkers – and who know what they were used for. If you do not know it well, it is better not to venture alone into the woods, there is a risk of wandering around in circles.

Niccolò Ammaniti, Che la festa cominci (Let the feast begin), Einaudi 2010