Tivoli, Ville D'este, Italy

About an hours bus ride from Rome is the Villa D'este. Built in a remarkable 1572, this Renaissance palace built by Ippolito II D'este and Lucrezia Borgia (of the Borgia's infamy of ruthless Machiavellian politics and sexual corruption characteristic of the Renaissance Papacy). The Palace is now a UNESCO world heritage site and has the most incredible gardens (which I will show tomorrow). I love to look at these places for inspiration in my own work and as besides being so uplifting emotionally they are layered and loaded with so much History that they cannot do anything other than inspire so many ideas. While these ideas are not always used immediately one can store them and leave them to germinate over time and pull upon these resources when needed in the future. A little like a battery. Capturing the image of the place also reminds me of the whole experience and how I felt at the time. How this can be encapsulated into a Commercial Design environment, I don't know yet, but the answer always comes. In the meantime, if you just so happen to be in the area I'm sure it will be on your list of things to do.