Roman Alchemy

Away from the center of Rome and across the Tiber River is the Villa Farnesina, a jewel box of Renaissance art hidden away in the brash neighborhood of Trastevere.

Named for the family who acquired it in the seventeenth century, the property was originally the home of the fabulously wealthy Sienese banker and mine owner Agostino Chigi (1466–1520), who commissioned Baldassare Peruzzi to design a base for his Rome operations that would be half city apartment, half country villa.