Tivoli!

Yay Tivoli!  

Elysia & I decided to make a day trip to Tivoli one day.  We had been going over various day trip choices with my roomie & she had a strong positive reaction to the Tivoli idea.  So, we tramped to the metro & hopped on a bus & sooner or later we were in Tivoli, a hill town near Roma.  First stop, Villa D'Este!  A UNESCO world heritage site & great example of Italian Renaissance architechture with a mind blowing garden.  Full of bazillions of fountains, a hydraulic engineering extravaganza!  

Here we go with Franz Liszt's piano, the most amazing Hungarian pianist ever!  The cardinal D'Este hosted him @ the villa for a year or so while he was living as sort of a franciscan monk out there.  The villa was mostly empty but for a nice array of frescoes covering the walls and ceilings.  No photos, unfortunately.

 The villa is perched on a hill with some sweet views, that I didn't seem to get a good photo of.  We toured around the gardens for some time, they are huge!

hamming it up as usual.

buddy shots!

really, the amount of water blasting around this place is unreal!

somewhere there is even a "water organ" that puts on a musical show several times a day.  we missed it :(

 We were on a tight schedule that day & had to make it to another site on our Tivoli hit list before darkness fell.  It is tough to pack some sights in when you have a leisurely morning & it gets dark by 5. Then there is so much of the day that is just... dark.  So, we blitzed out to Villa Adriana.

Hadrian's Villa.  Hadrian is my favorite ancient Roman emperor!  He was an architect & a traveler!  He built this massive "villa" complex as a retreat from the city of Roma & ended up governing from here.  It is a massive site & amazingly well preserved.  Most of the sculpture has been restored & is in museums, some of it was also taken to Villa D'Este.  Hadrian is famous for building Hadrian's Wall in the UK, to separate Romans from the barbarians.

here he is, my friend Hadie.

Hadrian was a big fan of greek culture.  He was the first Roman emperor to grow a greek style beard, which then became very fashionable.  He had a wife, Sabina but also had this young male greek companion Antinous.  Antinous drowned in the Nile one time they were in Egypt & Hadrian mourned him for ages.  Even naming an Egyptian city after him & naming him a god.  Hadrian was a handsome philanthropist & patron of the arts.  

This was probably the most beautiful zone, a long pool lined with pillars.  Imagine it with clean, white marble & many more statues.  Oh yes, Hadrian's villa is also a UNESCO site.  

not bad.

this is the "maritime theater"  it is an island retreat that used to have two drawbridges as access.  Hadie would come out here to just chill.

corinthian columns....

nice old mosaic in the guest quarters

Tivoli or "tiv town" up on the hill.

really feeling these columns.

Ciao for now Hadie, you and your fashionable beard.  Stay tuned for more Italian intrigue from the Roman Empire! :)

In other news, or lack of.  Nothing to report on the work front, UNFORTUNATELY!!  I am still in my Italian holding pattern.  I did print out some cute Italian business cards that I am happy about.  I read a good book recently, Stardust by Neil Gaiman, that my sister gave to me.  It is in the fantasy genre & I found it very cute!  Now I am planning to start in on the Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood.  I really thought I had read more of her books when I bought it but it turns out I was thinking of Ursula Le Guin.  Oops!  I think it will still be good.

I'm going to re-start Italian language classes 2x/week in the evening beginning tomorrow or the next day.  I quit them last month because I thought I was going to be insanely busy with work!  That hasn't happened yet so...  I am excited to go back to my Italian school!  I love it there!

I am having a new years resolution to try harder to find a place to teach yoga here.  Also, to eat and drink less.

Happy new year to you!!! xoxo