Blogs from Tivoli, Lazio, Italy, Europe - page 2

This Saturday two of my roommates, me, and another friend went on a day trip to Tivoli, a small town in the mountains about a 1 1/2 hour train ride outside of rome. The view on the way was beautiful. We wound through the mountains, going over bridges and through tunnels on the mountainsides as we watched small villages roll by. By the time we arrived in Tivoli we were starving so we found a cute little resturant to eat at. The food was really good and we could tell that it was family run, which made it fun. After we ate we wandered around the town and got gelatto until we found a park at the edge with a spectacular view of the surrounding countryside. There was the cutest cat there that came and rubbed ... read more

yay, another school led trip! no planning or researching involved at all! this was mostly an architecture trip, but since my professor ended up going on the trip as well, she was able to invite those of us taking museum management. we are encouraged to visit as many museums as possible and although the villa adriana is a huge outdoor site, it counts as a museum. well regardless, the point is i was able to go for no charge on a tour through the villa adriana with an archeologist/professor at my university who happens to be part of a team that is actively excavating there. actively! it was awesome. ok also, my professor who just went along for the ride wasn't giving us the tour or anything, but is also an archeologist. so we were accompanied ... read more

Went to Hadrian's Villa last Friday. Mostly because we were going to miss the class trip there. The class trip had been rescheduled to today but we had plans to be in belgium which we cancelled in the end anyway. It was cool to be able to go without the big group of people though. Plus when we go with our teachers it's kind of a tour and I really don't care much for those. Anyway, Villa Adriano was incredibly beautiful. Both the ruins as well as the landscape. It was even a little cooler than Pompei. Getting out there, however, was a lesson in public transit as we took just about every means possible to get out there. That made the day long but it's okay cause the view of Tivoli from the villa made ... read more

On Friday we went to Hadrian's Villa. This trip is traditionally cursed with rain, but we had a beautiful day with only a slight sprinkle late in the day. The place was enormous and it was crazy to imagine how it looked at the time. One part was a reflecting pool surrounded by statues with a dinning area built into a waterfall at one end. We ate lunch there and fed some cute ducks and then headed to Villa Deste. The fountains there were beautiful and there was a beautiful view of the area. You could see the dome of St. Peters as a dot in the distance. Saturday was Cassie's birthday. I got up early and went to Villa Borghese with Sam and Sarah to find a place for Sam's wedding. We found a beautiful ... read more

Hadrian's Villa........being emperor definetly has its perks. The Villa itself sits on about 180 hectres!! It is enormous, not to mention it is one of the most complex, architecturally sophisticated places in the world. Good 'ole Hadrian knew what he was doing. As for the villa itself, as you would expect it has all the things that usually make up a good sized town. It has multiple baths, theatres, warehouses, etc. It was more or less and self contained miniature city. All of that being said, Hadrian actually only spent about 2 years of his life there. He traveled a lot, so his time there was limited. If I were him, I don't think I would have left. As with most of the places in Italy, the views were spectacular. We spent about 2 hours walking ... read more