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What a strange place Cesare Mattei built! It's a really bizarre palace combining myriad architectural styles and featuring symbolism from all sorts of religions and legends and myths. Mattei was a pretty peculiar man with some odd beliefs. I'm not sure how many of the stories I believe, but it's completely fascinating to walk through the castle and see all the different styles. Definitely recommend it.…
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Date of experience: October 2018
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Rochetta Mattei is very much worth a visit. The architecture is... strange, but the story behind it is very interesting. The tour (in English for us non-Italians) was very informative and entertaining.
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Date of experience: July 2018
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Rocchetta Mattei is well worth a visit. I'd recommend a detour, in case you were passing by. Also, it might be worth scheduling a day trip or a weekend in the area specifically to go and visit this unique castle-like mansion (there are also many magnificent little villages and churches and natural sites around worth visiting, by the way, so to make a very nice weekend). Truth to be said, not all of Rocchetta Mattei is open for visit yet, however one can see work is in progress, and the half open for visit is already enough to stimulate appetite for more. Work done to bring back Rocchetta to what it may have been is astounding and accurate, or so it seems; the place is a mixture of many different styles, from medieval to arabic, and they can now be fully enyoied in all their splendour. Rocchetta seems to please all ages: we had a guided tour, and we found ourselves in a very mixed group, and everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves very much, from kids to more adult people. But Rocchetta will definitely please the more curious minds. Indeed, every single corner, every stone, every wall has something different, peculiar, curious, to be looked at and to be speculated about. What is that, what does it mean, how come, and all together this very diverse ensemble of ideas produces the most beautiful and elegant and precise castle. A few facts: the visit must be booked in advance on line, and paid upfront (adults, 10 euro each); it is a guided tour, and the guys leading the tours are so passionate, so professional, so competent that it really is worth listening to every single word. We were so fascinated that we lost track of time, so we do not know how many time the tour took, but it could be anything between 1h and 1 1/2 h. Thanks to all the people that have been involved in preserving, researching, and restoring Rocchetta Mattei, and a big bravo!!!! to Alfredo, our guide: professional, passionate, competent, he really told us many very valuable insights and he made all of us feel very confortable, and he seemed to welcome every question from us, answering them very exaustively. Thanks Alfredo!…
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Date of experience: November 2017
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Just a beauty - it's full of symbols, ornaments, mauretian architecture and amazing stories. Guided tour suffered a bit from being Italian only but I also failed to do research on whether and when there are English tours. Whether you understand some of the tour or not - it's almost irrelevant as you will be constantly astonished about the many beautiful details of this castle. Hint: Program your GPS to get you to RIOLA and then follow the signs. I had difficulties to find it when I used the Grizanda Morandi street address.…
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Date of experience: October 2017
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Astonishing castle. It is built according to multiple styles, in particular there are numerous elements of Arab architecture. The guides are young and really competent. It is a real surprise located in the countryside. Absolutely a must see!
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Date of experience: August 2017
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