Villa Adriana (Tivoli)

Emperor Hadrian, restless builder and traveller, assembled his memories of empire into an immense retreat below Tivoli in the 2nd century AD. Villa Adriana spread pools, baths, libraries and theatres across the plain, quoting the architecture of Egypt and Greece alongside Roman invention — the statue-lined Canopus canal is its most photographed echo. A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999, the complex profoundly influenced later architects who came to sketch its ruins.