‘On a clear day you can see St Peter’s,” said Guiseppe Piacentini, director of the Villa Palazzola, as we stood looking out towards Rome. As it was a glorious April afternoon, we could just make out the dome of the basilica (started by Michelangelo, finished by Carlo Maderno in 1614) from the Venerable English College’s country residence, set in the hills on Lake Albano south of Rome above an extinct volcano.
Founded in 1579 on the site of a 14th-century pilgrimage hostel for English pilgrims, the Venerable English College (VEC) – which has 42 English martyrs in the era of religious intolerance – has owned the Villa Palazzola since 1920 when it was being run as an English Patient-style rehabilitation house for alcoholics until the American troops advancing on Rome moved in.
The villa is one of the “hidden gems” of Rome. Although not on the radar of luxury tourist companies, it is well known in Roman circles as a retreat centre.
The main building is a former 13th-century Cistercian monastery that – unlike the former papal summer retreat across the lake – has reinvented itself as a flourishing venue as well as making a small but much-needed accommodation contribution to the local Lazio tourist economy.
A highlight of our visit was seeing a large coach of Anglican clergymen arrive for a “spiritual retreat” stay at the villa. That the VEC’s country retreat from Rome welcomes all faiths, with particularly strong links to the Anglican community, was made clear in a framed photo on the wall showing a visit to the villa by Pope John Paul II in 1987 with an Anglican bishop standing next to him. A few days later, we encountered many of the same Anglicans at the papal tailor Gammarelli on the Via di Santa Chiara, known for its fine socks and liturgical vestments.
What we could see across the glittering lake was, of course, the papal summer palace of Castel Gandolfo, traditionally the summer residence of the popes. Pope Francis has not used the 135 acre estate since 2016, much to the sadness of hotel owners and the local economy which largely depended on visitors to the papal palace for its survival. The palace is now a museum.
Palazzola, I am glad to report, has unexpectedly taken up some of this lost tourist trade. The enchanting villa has 52 very pleasant rooms for holidaymakers, of which 20 have lakeside views. Whilst the villa is by no means four-star luxury, and welcomes donations to help with its upkeep, the atmosphere is charming and prices range from 160 euro for an ensuite lakeside room to just 40 euro for a single room with a shared bathroom.
In the summer, many Catholic stud- ents, seminarians and scholars take advantage of these remarkably modest prices to combine with travel/holiday/research opp- ortunities. There is a 25 metre swim- ming pool, tennis courts and wifi. Children under five are charged just 10 euros a night.
For family groups or small pilgrim walking groups, there is also the Piazza Venezia which is a villa that affords more privacy. As I toured the historic property, what better historical place, I thought, for the Catholic Herald Institute to host a residential conference, and to invite our American friends and fellows to debate the most important Catholic issues of today, including how to revitalise Catholic identity in communities and defend Catholic values in the public square?
The villa can also provide beds for weary Herald pilgrims marching into Rome or being taken on a spiritual retreat by one of the many priests who write for us. Or maybe a subscriber might be looking for an unusual and delightful wedding venue. During our visit we met an English couple whose daughters had both been married at the VEC’s country residence. With over 50 rooms, a beautiful chapel with over 800 years of history, and even facilities that include table tennis tables, you could do the whole affair near Rome for less than any English market town hotel.
We enjoyed an aperitif before lunch at the terrace bar. A cursory read of the history suggests that providing quality hospitality has always been part of the spirit of the Villa Palazzola. When Pope Pius II visited in 1463 he wrote in his diary: “It is delightful in summer to see the cold sparkling water thrown high into the air through pipes and it is available for all the needs of the monks. In a corner beyond the beautifully terraced garden is a large natural cave always shady till noon, which is like a hall where a number of tables can be set out.”
It is rather wonderful that, 600 years later, tables are still being put out for all manner of religious and lay activities and events. Which of course is exactly what would have been the case when it was a Roman villa (Palat-iolus). This fell derelict and was being lived in by Christian hermits in caves by the 10th century. These hermits became Augustin-ians. Then Cistercians from Tre Fontane Abbey near Rome made the building their home in 1244, renaming the Roman villa the Santa Maria in Palatiolis.
Then a merry-go-round of orders took over the church: Carthusians first and then Franciscans by the 15th century.
The Franciscans stayed (with a gap of 20 years) until the 20th century when Dr Carlo Arnaldi ran a rehabilitation clinic at Palazzola for alcoholics and addicts. He decorated the walls with quotes and aphorisms to aid patient recovery and some of this unexpected mural work still can be seen in the refectory where we lunched: “Mangiare adagio e masticare bene” (Eat slowly and chew well).
Things have moved on from the old days of the VEC when seminarians – who enjoyed escaping to the breeze of Lake Lugano from the sweltering Roman summer – would often only return to England once during their seven-year course of study.
In the 19th century, the seminarians escap-ed the scorching summers in a modest villa at Monte Porzio, in the Alban Hills. Then divine providence struck. A deal-of-the-century was made in 1920 when the VEC’s Rector, Mgr (later Cardinal) Hinsley, negotiated with Dr Arnaldi, head of the rehab clinic that operated at the Villa, to buy Palazzola for the paltry sum of 260,000 lire (around €130).
“When the students moved in, one of their first tasks was to dig the swimming pool,” said Palazzola’s current historian-in-residence.
War in 1940 changed the routine. The VEC’s 2022 anniversary edition of its magazine, the Venerabile, includes the editor’s diary of when the VEC had to abandon its home of 500 years almost overnight and move into new temporary digs at Stonyhurst in Lancashire.
The official history adds: “German troops occupied Palazzola and during the severe winter of early 1944, they burned much of the furniture and the library books. Palazzola was soon on the front line as the Germans set up artillery positions above the garden on the upper field (known by the students as the “Sforza”, the surname of the previous owner) to shell the allies landing at Anzio. The allies responded with frequent air raids, causing extensive damage.”
Today, there remains an English flavour at Palazzola. The domestic manager is English, and married to Giuseppe Piacentini, who is the son of Alfredo Piacentini, the former caretaker. So the villa is run very much as a family affair.
The wheel of divine fortune seems to be in evidence at Palazzola. When Alfredo was just 21, serving as an Italian soldier, he saved the life of a wounded German soldier who he came across in the grounds after an allied bombing attack.
He was then captured by SS Germans but managed to escape thanks to his knowledge of the swimming pool wall and environs dug by the seminarians in the 1920s. When the SS soldiers allowed him to return to the villa for his coat, Alfredo “leapt over the wall of the swimming pool onto the Albano path some distance below”, according to the official history. He injured his leg but made it to safety.
Palazzola was looted (except for the cellar, thanks to Alfredo) by the victorious Americans on their way to Rome in 1944. There was an “abandoned tank on the Sforza” with a large number of killed German soldiers buried nearby. We are told that German sold- iers had painted a series of unusually exotic murals. “The erotic ones painted by the Americans were removed before the students return-ed” the VEC history informs.
I am glad to report that no such images were to be seen and I hope that my next visit will be to welcome guests to a Herald retreat or conference.
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