Today we headed out into the country to see two things we had not visited before. Both are near the hill top town of Tivoli; 30kM from Rome. So it was down the hill, the walk around the forum and Colosseum. The tour then started with a walk up Palatine Hill to our bus. The Rome city authorities are now taking decisive action to keep traffic out of the centre.
Hadrian's Villa is a 100ha area of land with many pools, baths, fountains and classical architectures. The complex contains 30 buildings, with much awaiting excavation. I was soon marvelling at the hugh brick structures and their ability to stand for 2000 years; circa the Roma Forum. It brought back memories of the stories of how Italian brickees were so reviled when the immigrated to Australia after WW2. They could lay 1500 bricks a day with high quality. They were soon taught that in Australia you lay less than a 1000 a day! The villa shows echoes of many different architectural orders, mostly Greek and Egyptian. Hadrian was a very well traveled emperor and he borrowed these designs.
Many guest rooms and common areas are decorated with black and white mosaics; the Villa predates coloured Mosaics becoming fashionable. Villa d'Este, in the town of Tivoli east of Rome, is a beautiful garden and palace complex that's listed on UNESCO's World Heritage List. The villa was built in 1560 as the vision of Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este who narrowly failed to become a pope. The villa is famous for its magnificent garden of grottoes, fountains, nymphs and water sculpture.Over the centuries the Villa d'Este and its gardens have been remodelled, left to decay, renovated, bombed (during World War II) and finally put into the hands of the Italian government, which opened the complex to the public.
Being on a hill, Tivoli receives more rain than Rome, and as we entered the gardens, the intensity increased. The garden has many steps and many of our tour group decided not to risk slipping.
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