A pinch of history

The basement, which today houses the Palace Restaurant, is located exactly under the Ballroom. It is a circular room with a centrally located pillar supporting a cross-shaped vaulted ceiling. The surface of the pillar, as well as the walls of this and the adjacent room, are covered with line paintings executed in 1776 by the painter Antonio Tavelli. They are in shades of beige, warm browns and greens and depict landscapes animated by human and animal figures and architectural elements. On the central pillar we see nymphs bathing and a satyr emerging from a dense rush, while on the opposite side of the pillar we see two swans.

On the walls we can admire extensive landscapes with buildings, aqueducts and grottoes. In a niche is a landscape with a meadow and a fragment of a wooden building.

The halls decorated in this way were intended to imitate the interiors of natural grottoes and, as with the conservatory, were yet another way of introducing nature into the building.

Our guests are delighted with the vintage decoration of the Restaurant and often return and entrust us again with the organisation of their celebrations because, as they say, "it's nice to feel the history of the place again".