Cardinal d'Este created a palatial setting surrounded by a spectacular terraced garden in the late-Renaissance mannerist style. The look of the garden was achieved by taking full advantage of the dramatic slope. Innovations were required in bringing a sufficient water supply. To address this, cascades, water tanks, troughs and pools, water jets and fountains, giochi d'acqua were used. The result is one of the series of great 17th century villas with water-play structures in the hills surrounding the Roman Campagna, such as the Villa Lante, the Villa Farnese at Caprarola and the Villas Aldobrandini and Torlonia in Frascati. This was all done when the villa was nearing completion from 1550 to 1572. Cardinal d'Este died on 1572 leaving a legacy as their garden planning and outdoor water features were imitated in the next two centuries from Portugal to Poland.

The notorious garden, now part of the Grandi Giardini Italiani, is laid out on a central axis with subsidiary cross-axes of carefully varied character being refreshed by some five hundred jets in fountains, pools and water troughs. The abundant water is supplied by the Aniene partly diverted through the town and by the Rivellese spring, which supplies a cistern under the villa's courtyard.

Inside the villa, we have the Fontana dell'Ovato or the Oval Fountain cascading from its egg-shaped basin into a pool set against a rustic nymphaeum. One can see a sweeping view of the villa from the balustraded balcony at the left end in the uppermost terrace of the villa and one can see the beauteous symmetrical double flights of stairs that leads to the next garden terrace. The Grotto of Diana can also be seen from this perspective. You can see richly decorated with frescoes and pebble mosaic to one side and the central Fontana del Bicchierone or the Fountain of the Great Cup. The Fountain of the Cup is said to be attributed to Bernini. It is where water comes from a seemingly natural rock into a scrolling shell-like cup. Next, another lovely feature of the villa is the Le Cento Fontane or The Hundred Fountains. To reach the Le Cento Fontane, you will need to go through the elaborate fountain complex called the Rometta or The Little Rome. The water jets fill the long rustic trough and Pirro Ligorio's Fontana dell'Ovato ends the cross-vista. To witness all this, a visitor may walk behind the water through the rusticated arcade of the concave nymphaeum, which is peopled by marble nymphas by Giambattista della Porta. Then we have the central Fountain of the Dragons, dominating the central perspective of the gardens. It was erected for Pope Gregory XIII in a visit in 1572. His coat-of-arms features a dragon. To reach the Fountain of the Dragons, you will need to take the central stairs that lead down a wooded slope to three rectangular fishponds set on the cross-axis at the lowest point of the gardens which ends right by the water organ and Fountain of Neptune.