Fourteenth Day - Tivoli

October 3rd, 2008

On this morning, Melanie and I took a Cotral bus 30 kilometers from Rome out to the town of Tivoli. Our goal was to see two UNESCO World Heritage sites: Hadrian's Villa and Villa d' Este. The bus dropped us off in the center of the hilltop town of Tivoli, from there we caught another local bus back down the hill to get to Hadrian's Villa

Hadrian's Villa was built by the Roman emperor Hadrian in the second century A.D. He was tired of the politics and noise of the Palatine Palace in Rome, so built this elaborate retreat. Hadrian had traveled extensively throughout the Roman empire, so he saw different cultures and architectures. There are supposed to be Greek, Egyptian and other influences on the buildings at this villa.

We spent most of the morning walking through the ruins. It is clear that this retreat was in fact an impressive building during Roman times. There are a couple of features that seemed pretty unique. One was the system of tunnels built below the complex so that the slaves and servants could move about without being seen. Another was the Maritime Theater - a circular bit of land surrounded by a manmade moat, with drawbridges that could be pulled up to isolate the center island from the rest of the world - an emperor needs his peace! Much of the marble and art objects at Hadrian's Villa were later looted to help build the Villa d' Este, which was our second stop on this day

The Villa d' Este was constructed by Cardinal d' Este during the Renaissance. The Cardinal had failed in a bid to become pope, so he retreated to the hilltop town of Tivoli and built this elaborate Villa. It is famous for the many fountains in its gardens. The fountains were powered by the river Aniene, which flows off the hill nearby. Using clever hydraulic engineering to create water pressure from the falling water, the engineers and architects were able to drive hundreds of fountains, a feat which amazed the visiting aristocrats from the rest of Europe, and influenced European landscape design for a couple of centuries.

The most famous fountain is the water organ. This cleverly constructed device was tuned to play different notes when the water pressure was turned on to pipes of different sizes. We were able to listen to a performance during our visit - the music isn't that amazing until you think of how the sound is being generated.

There was a brief cloudburst during our afternoon visit to Villa d' Este. The rain lasted less than 20 minutes (we waited it out under umbrellas), and it drove off most of the other tourists. So much of tour of Villa d' Este was relatively uncrowded. Although the grounds of Villa d' Este are not huge, there is a lot to explore. There a numerous little paths winding through the manicured grounds, and fountains and statues located in little niches. From the balcony at the edge of the garden you can look out and down, the hill of Tivoli falls steeply away below the Villa, so there is a wide open view of the distant Italian landscape.

After our visit to Villa d' Este, we rode the bus back to Rome and enjoyed another dinner at the apartment with my Mom and Rose.