A prestigious Roman villa, a XX century postmodern historic house in Frascati
It is very rare to find near Rome, in the Castelli Romani area, a villa, a historic house of the twentieth century, which preserves, like Tenuta di Pietra Porzia aims to do, an intact landscape of 117 acres. Of these, about 89 acres are cultivated with vineyards. In this area, Doc wine Frascati is produced, the most important regional white wine along with the native, autochthonous Lecinaro red vine.
In the 27 remaining acres, olive groves are farmed, which contribute to produce the ancient local olive varieties. Finally, you will find a perfectly symmetrical romantic garden facing Rome, and the amazing orchard garden. The complex is a unique set that reminds of the famous French chateaux, especially for what concerns the dedicated care to all the aspects of hospitality, guided tours, accommodation, and traditional kitchen.
Historical House at the gates of Rome
The Villa is a residence with a historical design, a national monument that has remained unaltered over time.
The whole Estate is under a conservation order and is a rare example of countryside architecture. It maintains the fascination of an important historic villa surrounded by its peculiar lands and respecting the tradition of the great farms of the past. The guesthouse area includes a medieval tower.
A splendid cypress avenue almost 1 kilometer long connects the villa to the cellars complex built in 1892, along with the farmhouse and the large water tub, made of bricks and stones, that collects water from a perennial water spring. (photo of the villa)
Tenuta di Pietra Porzia, already mentioned in the old Land Register maps, is a certified historic house located at the gates of Rome. It is also part of ADSI (Associazione Dimore Storiche Italiane), the Italian Historic Houses Association which is part of the European Historic Houses Association. You can learn more about us by reading our dedicated page on the Italian Historic Houses website.
The guesthouse
Next to the villa, the guesthouse stands. The building was built in 1850 close to an ancient medieval tower, of which lateral buttresses are still clearly visible. The entire building and the tower have been carefully refurbished in order to create 3 apartments and 2 more rooms for the guests.
The ancient cellar
An amazing stones-and-bricks stairway leads to the ancient cellar excavated in the tuff 2000 years ago.
It is believed that the cellar served as a terminal cistern of the Aqua Claudia Roman aqueduct.
Located 15 meters under the ground in the basement of the modern cellar, this ancient cave-cellar preserves a series of galleries also excavated in the tuff 2000 years ago, for a total length of 400 meters. On the sides of the galleries, 120 niches were once used to store wooden barrels.
It is not clear which was the original employment of the spectacular and tangled galleries network. For this reason, one hypothesis claims that they must have been used as a terminal cistern of the aqueduct built by Emperor Claudius in the first century AD. In support of and to confirm this hypothesis, there is a long tunnel excavated in the tuff at the edge of the vineyard
The modern cellar
Equipped with all the state-of-the-art technology that a true modern wine estate resort should have, the modern cellar has been built inside the spaces of the ancient 1892 cellar, in order to avoid the alteration of the environmental harmony. The temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks allow us to produce a wine that doesn’t lose the true aromas of the vine, by being enhanced by a low sulfites rate.
The gardens of the Historic House
Through a long staircase that crosses the garden of the Historic Residence, you will arrive at the villa. The garden of Tenuta di Pietra Porzia, which was designed about a century ago by following a perfectly symmetrical plan, opens towards the spectacular view that surrounds it.
The entire estate is managed on the model of the most prestigious Bordeaux Chateaux, as an immense garden, highlighted by the centuries-old cypress avenue at the entrance, by the large water tub that collects the water of the perennial spring, by the orchard garden, by the vineyards that draw the landscape in regular rows, and finally by the olive grove that occupies the entire hill that closes the natural amphitheater.
In the orchard garden, you will find a variety of fruit trees, thanks to which we produce the jams and the typical seasonal cakes we are happy to offer to our guests.
Vegetables and aromatic plants farmed in our 2.5 acres wide vegetable garden are used by the kitchen staff of the restaurant. We are proud to respect the traditional cuisine and, with the same pride, we guarantee that 85% of the ingredients we use come from our farm or from a nearby one.
The vineyard
The long rows of these 117-acres wide, unique Italian vineyards occupy the area of the amphitheater where once the ancient Lake Regillo lied. The lake was dried 2000 years ago in order to allocate the fertile volcanic soil to the cultivation of new vines and vegetable gardens next to the city of Rome.
Pietra Porzia’s Frascati Doc and Frascati Superiore Docg wines come from the ancient vines planted in the Estate: Malvasia di Candia, Malvasia del Lazio, Greco, Trebbiano, and Bombino, which allow us to obtain the real Frascati wine with its elegant fruity aromas. A real surprise is the Roma Rosso Doc Lecino, coming from a recently rediscovered ancient autochthonous vine, Lecinaro. This wine presents intense velvety aromas of cocoa and cherries in alcohol.
The olive grove
About 27 acres of olive grove are distributed between the hill that surrounds the amphitheater and the villa garden. The olive trees now produce the typical olive varieties of the area: Frantoio, Leccino, Moraiolo, Rosciola, and Carboncella.
The oil mill
In 2000 we opened our oil mill, where olives are transformed into oil just after the harvesting. In this way, we obtain a fragrant olive oil with very low acidity, rich with antioxidant polyphenols.
The cypresses avenue
An avenue flanked by centuries-old cypress trees leads from the entrance of the estate to the villa, highlighting the entire landscape of the valley. The avenue of Tenuta di Pietra Porzia is nowadays a very sought-after movie set in the Rome area.
The water collection tank
From the tuff bastion that separates the vineyards from the top of the hill, in the underground area of the Estate, a perennial source of drinkable water flows. The water is channeled along the cypress trees avenue through a fountain and flows into the large water collection tank at the entrance of the Estate. The tank was built in 1892 together with the cellar and the farmhouse near Rome, as attested by a still existing tombstone.
Tenuta Pietra Porzia is a member of the Association of Italian Historic Houses (ADSI) and is listed on the website of the Association: Italian Historic Houses.
The Marchesa Estate in Novi Ligure (Al) is owned by the same family.
Via Pietra di Porzia 60 00044 - Frascati (Rome) - Italy