Caprarola   Turning our gaze in a south-east direction from the slopes of the volcanic basin of Lake Vico, our view opens to a vast horizon stretching from the Roman campagna to the mountains of the Central Appennines. Within this extremely charming natural scenery, among wooded hills, valleys and a lake, the first foundations of Caprarola were laid over a high tuffaceous bed contained between two deep ravines, at an altitude of 500 meters above sea level. The origins of the small village go back to the most obscure periods of the Middle Ages; as a matter of fact, its historical events are not entirely clear. The several dynasties of the Orsini, Vico, Anguillara, Della Rovere, Riario and Farnese, marked the history of the place with warfares, alliances, conspiracies, dealings... Due to the destruction of most of the local archives over the centuries, we only have sporadic memories of these historical episodes. However, the town area is scattered with archeological remains dating back to different ages: the relics found on Mount Venere go back to the palaeolithic period; in the area of Barco there are tombs in Etruscan-Roman style; in some woods there are Christian loculi and ruins of villas dating back to the imperial age. Caprarola would have been just an uneven cluster of buildings built on tuffaceous spurs and divided from each other by ditches if, at the beginning of the XVI century, the Farnese family had not bought it, adding it to their feuds, and the munificent cardinal Alessandro Farnese (nephew of Pope Paul the III) had not decided to use Caprarola as his dwelling place. As a matter of fact, the construction of the splendid Palazzo Farnese influenced the expansion of the entire town. Vignola transformed the central town scheme in its entirety with the contruction of a long raised road, perpendicular to the Palazzo, which radically changed the aspect of the town. The town planning methods used to realize the new major road were extremely challenging for those days. Bridges, staircases and subways were built; old buildings were demolished while new gentleman's residences were erected. All the constructions blended together harmoniously in order to create that urbanistic masterpiece still represented by the historical centre of Caprarola. Recently, thanks to its peculiar town planning, Caprarola was chosen as object of study by The Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture. In 1995, His Royal Highness in person came to visit his students during their sojourn in Caprarola.