On Bittersweet Moment 217: The Owl House of Villa Torlonia, Tiffany (and a 4-year-old Aurelio!) will fill you in on one of Rome’s most delightful hidden gems: the La Casina delle Civette!
Swiss cabin meets medieval hamlet meets art nouveau glass? As crazy as it sounds, this unlikely mash-up is not an abomination, but rather one of the most charming, yet little visited, museums in Rome.
Tucked away among the greenery of Villa Torlonia in the leafy north of Rome, la Casina delle Civette, or the Owl House, was built in 1840 for an Italian prince, and added to over the decades that followed.
It’s most famous for its exceptional glass art, specifically the detailed works of flora and fauna by Art Nouveau master, Duilio Cambellotti. Take a aural tour of this one-of-a-kind place, and we bet you will want to visit in person.
And don’t miss your chance to visit Rome with us, on our intimate Rome listener trip, coming up in October 2025. Find out all about it here, or email us for more information!
You can listen to the episode right here, or find the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, and elsewhere.
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Bittersweet Moment #75: Exploring Pompeii
Bittersweet Moment #66: Villa Doria Pamphilj
Bittersweet Moment #43: RAPHAEL
Bittersweet Moment #30: VILLA AURORA
Bittersweet Moment #13: TEMPIETTO
Five key takeaways from the episode:
- The episode discusses Rome’s Owl House (La Casina delle Civetti), located in Villa Torlonia, which is described as an unexpected and special place to visit in Rome.
- The Owl House features a unique architectural style, combining elements of a Swiss chalet, medieval hamlet, and Art Nouveau, with stunning stained glass windows as its main attraction.
- Villa Torlonia also includes the Casino Nobile, a neoclassical building that served as Mussolini’s residence and is worth visiting for its beautiful interiors.
- Both the Owl House and Casino Nobile are often uncrowded, offering a peaceful museum experience away from Rome’s typical tourist crowds.
- The episode encourages listeners to visit these lesser-known sites in Rome, especially if they have already seen the major attractions or are returning visitors to the city.
Full Episode Transcript:
Katy
Hello, this is The Bittersweet Life. I’m Katy Sewall and this is your Midweek Bittersweet Moment with Tiffany Parks. However, I’m making a quick note here because your friend Tiffany, your radio host Tiffany, she is under the weather this week and she has been for quite some time actually. So send her mental well wishes, whatever vibes you can put out into the universe to get this illness done with would be so appreciated. So today, rather than having her bring you a new Bittersweet moment, we are revisiting Rome’s Owl House. It is an episode from the past, but it is a brilliant place to visit if you are ever in Rome. And it features one of our very favorite special co-host guests, Tiffany’s son, Aurelio. And speaking of Aurelio, he is going to be a featured guest on our next bonus episode. Bonus episodes happen every single month. Our monthly sustaining members get to hear them. If you love this show, your financial contribution will help keep it going. We need to hire someone to give us some editing help for example. That will mean paying someone hourly to lend a hand and that does take quite a bit of money. But without that help, without that person, this shows longevity is in jeopardy. So if you love this show, please consider supporting it. There are links to donate in the show notes and if you want send us a question that you want to ask Aurelio, who is now nine. Although in this episode that you’re about to hear, he is a lot younger, he is willing to take your questions on. You can email them to bittersweetlifepodcast@gmail.com or you can send them to us through the Patreon app. So much love from me. And now I will pass this over to Tiffany and Aurelio in the magical place that is Rome’s Owl House.
Tiffany
Hello and welcome to The Bittersweet Life. I’m Tiffany Parks and this is your midweek Bittersweet Moment. I’m sitting here with Aurelio. Want to say hello?
Aurelio
Hello.
Tiffany
He sounds very enthusiastic. Today we’re going to talk about the Owl House. Do you remember going to the Owl House with me?
Aurelio
Yeah.
Tiffany
And what did you think about the Owl House?
Aurelio
Nice.
Tiffany
Today we are going to visit a place in Rome that is incredibly unexpected. If you saw a picture of it, you’d never guess that it was in Rome. It’s called La Casina delle Civetti or the Little Owl House. I don’t think I’m exaggerating. When I say that it is one of the most special places in the city. It’s a true treasure. So if you are in Rome, maybe for the second time or the third time, or if you live in Rome, I would definitely recommend a visit there. It’s not probably going to be on your top 10 list if it’s your first time and you’ve only got three days. And if you only have three days, shame on you. But like I said, if you have a bit of extra time, or if you’ve seen the major sites already, I highly recommend a visit. It’s located in a place called Villa Torlonia. Now, if you know Rome, you know that Rome has a number of villas in it. And it’s not exactly what it sounds like to our, at least English ears, Villa. You know, we think of a big house, but really a villa meant the house, the country house and all of its grounds. So Villa Pamphili, Villa Borghese, these were the grounds, the grounds of the summer homes of wealthy people who lived in. In Rome. Most of them are now public parks and they’re really great places to go and just spend some time in nature. Villa Torlonia is on the smaller side for a villa, it’s still enormous if you think of it as the private grounds of a private home. But compared to Villa Borghese, Villa Adda, Villa Pamphili, it does seem a little bit smaller. But what it lacks in square hectares, it makes up for in the gorgeous buildings that are located there. It belonged to, obviously, the Torlonia family. It is located slightly north of center, which is another reason that a lot of people don’t go there, because it’s not. It’s not really located anywhere near any other major sites. You have to know that it’s there and you have to make a special trip to get up there. It’s not that far away from the center. It’s just. It takes a little bit more effort, but like I said, it’s very, very worth it. And there are three main buildings located there. Casino Nobile, the Casa DEI Principi, and of course, the Casino delle Civetti, the Owl House. Now, the Torlona family, specifically Alessandro Torlonia, who was a prince, he decided to have, in addition to the main house, he decided to have this small—I mean, small is a relative term, but compared to the massive, gorgeous formal residence in the villa, he also decided to have a smaller and much more rustic home built. It was originally envisioned as a Swiss chalet, and it was designed by Giuseppe Japelli in 1840. To be honest, not much of that original structure is retained, or I should say not much of the visual aspect of it. The physical building is there, but it has been much changed since then. Over the centuries, many different members of this family wanted to put their on this little house. And so in the early 1900s, it was turned into what they called at the time a medieval hamlet. It was changed and updated to look like it was very, very old. The idea was that it would look like a collection of small medieval buildings all sort of put together in one. So there are turrets, there are little, tiny columns, There are very, very intricate decorative elements. And it is really that main structure that exists today. And it’s very charming. It’s like if you imagined what the perfect fairy tale house, the gingerbread house. I mean, it almost looks like it should be made of candy because it’s just so cute. It was updated one more time after that in 1916. A lot of art nouveau details were added. So it’s this really strange mixture of originally this, you know, Swiss style chalet mixed with fake medieval architecture and art nouveau elements. And I know that sounds totally crazy and it sounds like it would be awful, but it actually works. And it’s so beautiful and it’s so lovely. And at the time that it was built, that was not the style of the day, but that’s kind of okay just because they did such a great job with it. So the number one thing to look out for in the Owl House are the stained glass windows. You might, if you follow me on Instagram, if you follow my private account, Tiffany Park Rome. You might have seen my stories on August 7th. I know it was August 7th that I went there because it was Aurelio’s birthday and we went together. You might have seen some of the photos and videos I took of the windows inside, because they’re absolutely incredible. The word stained glass window does not do it justice. It’s really art glass. And some, but not all of these works of art were created by an artist named Duilio Cambelotti. He’s kind of accepted as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, art nouveau Italian glass artist. He and several others who were working simultaneously with him or in later generations created these windows that are. That are not just beautiful, but they. Many of them have themes. So you’ll be walking down one area of the house and you’ll see all stained glass windows with different types of roses. And then you’ll go into another room and you’ll See stained glass windows with all different types of fruits or with wine elements, wine goblets and grapes. There are also individual ones that are just standalone pieces that are exceptionally beautiful. There’s one of a fairy, there’s one of a group of swans. You almost can’t believe how many little rooms you’re going to find. It’s kind of a maze inside because it was built, as I said, to resemble sort of this medieval village. And so you just go from room to room to room, and you can’t even really tell, you know, have I been down this way yet? It feels almost like you’re in a maze that for some reason, just adds to the charm of it. The most famous stained glass windows in the Owl House, of course, are depicting owls. These are by the aforementioned Duilio Cambellotti. And there are also several other owl elements in the general decoration of the house. There are a lot of owl lovers out there, including Katie. She’s a big owl person. So if you love owls, even if you don’t, if you love stained glass window, if you just love beautiful, unusual places in Rome, I highly recommend a visit to the Owl House. I think that that’s the number one draw of Villa Torlonia is the Owl House. But I don’t want mention the Casino Nobile. I had never been there. I’d been to the Owl House before. I just thought, this is the only thing of interest to me. But turns out I was wrong. When I went with AURELIO on the 7th, I noticed that on our way out, you know, here’s the Casino Nobile. Might as well go in. Well, I was stunned by the beauty of this place. It’s very neoclassical, so if you don’t like neoclassical style, you might not like it. But it’s absolutely spectacular with just beautiful ceiling frescoes, neoclassical columns, a lot of stucco work, and some amazing furniture on the upper level. It’s interesting not just because of the beauty of the house, but also because this was actually Mussolini’s residence when he was living in Rome. You know, he sort of just took over. So if you’re interested in that on a historic level, you can visit the Casino Nobile as well. Definitely worth a look around. One of the absolute best things about visiting Villa Torlon, I guess maybe because it was August, it was a little bit even more so. But in general, I think it’s true that it’s a pretty empty place. We were the only people in both sections of the museum, both the Casino Nobile and the Casino delle Civette. We were literally the only people in the whole museum both times. And they’re not that small. It’s kind of wonderful sometimes when you’re in Rome, you can get so overwhelmed by the crowds, and it can be wonderful to go to a beautiful museum that is literally empty. You were very, very enthusiastic about it when we were there.
Aurelio
I know.
Tiffany
Did you like the windows?
Aurelio
Yeah.
Tiffany
You know, my favorite part about the Owl House is the secret passageway.
Aurelio
What’s the secret passageway?
Tiffany
Don’t you remember? We found a secret passageway with yellow windows and the light shone in and it was all goldy inside.
Aurelio
That’s not a secret passageway.
Tiffany
What was it?
Aurelio
It was a bridge.
Tiffany
Oh, that was a bridge, was it? So not so cool. Sometimes it’s nice, whether you’re with kids or not, to just go to a place that doesn’t take very long to visit. It really takes maybe a half an hour, 40 minutes if you’re really taking time to see the Owl House. And I would say the same for the Casino Nobile. So it’s very doable. There’s also a restaurant in the villa, so you can take a break and have some lunch in the meantime. So I hope that you enjoyed learning about the Owl House, and I hope that you’ll visit because it’s really a special place. This has been your Bittersweet Moment. I’m Tiffany Parks. Join us again.
Katy
Thanks for joining us. Subscribe to the show if you haven’t already. And if you love it, leave us a good review and tell all of your friends about us. Also, if you have an idea for a bittersweet moment, find us using the contact page at www.thebittersweetlife.net.