Welcome to Palazzo Te, one of the most extraordinary examples of a Mannerist Renaissance Villa, designed and constructed between 1525 and 1535 by Giulio Romano, known as “the abode of the gods: a mythological, political, erotic dream forbidden to common beings.” and commissioned by Federico II Gonzaga. The famous Villa, designed for feasts, receptions and the otium, or leisure time, of the duke of Mantua, stood on an island directly connected to the city centre, and known since medieval times as  the Tejeto, or Te. The most likely theories are that the name stems from the term tilietum (a place of linden trees /località di tigli) or from the Celtic tezza combined with the Latin atteggia, both of which mean hut. The rooms of the Palazzo – Room of the Horses, Love and Psyche, Giants – the loggias and the apartment of the Secret Garden, along with the courtyard of Honour and the garden of the Exedra represent the finest expression of creativity and invention by the great architect and painter Giulio Romano.