BAGNAIA , about 5km easterly of Viterbo, isn’t much of a town, but like Caprarola further south it’s completely dominated by a sixteenth-century palace, the Villa Lante , whose small but superb gardens are considered Vignola’s masterpiece and one of the supreme creations of Renaissance garden art - “the most lovely place of the physical beauty of nature in all Italy or in all the world”, according to Sachaverell Sitwell. The villa is easily visited from Viterbo, using the hourly bus #6 from Piazza Martiri dei Ungheria or from the stop at the beginning of Viale Trento, or the less frequent trains of the Roma-Nord line.A short achievement up the hill from the main square, the villa is actually two villas, built twenty years apart for different cardinals but symmetrically aligned as part of the same architectural plan. They are closed to the public, but there’s nothing much to write home about anyway; in contrast to Caprarola it’s the gardens (Tues-Sun 9am-1hr before sunset; L4000/¬2.07) that take pride of place - some of the best-preserved from the period and a summing up of Mannerist aspirations. The main group lie behind the villas, ranged over five gently sloping terraces, and are only visitable in the company of a guide. An attempt at a stylized interpretation of the natural world, they were an ambitious project, even by the standards of the time, depicting the progress of a river from its source in the hills to its outlet in the sea - represented here by a large parterre. The route takes in various watery adventures - waterfalls, lakes and the like - and among numerous fountains and low hedges there are plenty of humorous (or plain silly) touches, such as a maiden whose breasts spout water, a cascade designed as an elongated crayfish, and the so-called “wetting sports” - hidden sprays of water that drenched unsuspecting onlookers and were a big favourite of Mannerist funsters. Only the guide gets to play with these.

The adjoining park (Tues-Sun 9am-1hr before sunset; free), through which you can wander at will, has an even more ambitious narrative, attempting to describe through horticulture the progress of civilization from primitive times to the glories of the sixteenth century. In true Mannerist style almost as much weight is given to allegory as to architecture, both here and on the villas. The various square motifs that appear around the buildings, for example, were supposed to represent the perfection of heaven brought to earth.