Villa Adriana

Aaargh – life is tough. Have a look at the beautiful outdoor breakfast room at Villa d’Este B&B…….

Now from this gorgeous relaxing start to the day to the trials and tribulations of trying to using public transport on a Sunday in Italy......

Getting to Villa Adriana was an exercise in frustration, and not helped by the 42 degree heat. Not wanting to whine and carry on about how frustrating it was, bear with me a minute whilst I whine and carry on about how frustrating it was. At least I’m calling a spade a spade.

Ok – it all started with bus tickets. The advice from Fabio (owner of the B&B) was to simply pop over to either the news agent or the tabacco shop across the road and buy tickets for bus 4 or 4X on the CAT line.  This bus would then drop us conveniently close to Villa Adriana thus avoiding the 2km walk that the other public bus line Cottral would involve.  Easy peezy lemon squeezy!

Uno problemo – no tickets at the news shop.  Head over to the tabacco shop - problem number due - no ticketos. Tried 5 places all up. Ended up, as you do, asking a waiter to help.

This, by the way, is what the gorgeous streets of Tivoli look like.

His advice (which ended up being the most frustrating of all) was to just wait for the bus and buy the tickets from the driver. So – after waiting 40 minutes in excruciating heat (did I mention it is hot in Italy at the moment?) along comes the 4X bus, on we jump and ..... off we jump. No tickets, no ride – end of story!

Needless to say we were all feeling just a little miffed by this stage. But, being troopers decided on Plan B - the Cotrall bus. Waiting, waiting, waiting and along it comes, using the back entrance on we jump with no tickets, and there we lurked. Someone did mention something about the Cotrall bus being free on a Sunday, so ticketless we took to that little morsel of hearsay as gospel.

I did have to speak to the grumpy driver to say Villa Adriana per favore, he nodded and we all crossed our fingers that he’d tell us where to get off. 20 minutes later he did just that and then we spent a very toasty 25 minutes wandering through the back streets of wherever we were until finally we arrived, hot and bothered and crotchety at Villa Adriana.

Now – not wanting our journey to detract from the splendor of this place – here’s what we came to see.....

Villa Adriana was constructed at Tibur (modern-day Tivoli) as a retreat from Rome for Roman Emperor Hadrian during the second and third decades of the 2nd century AD. Hadrian was said to dislike the palace on the Palatine Hill in Rome, leading to the construction of the retreat. During the later years of his reign, he actually governed the empire from the villa.

So, off we wandered around the vast site of ruins. A model of the entire area showed what it would have looked like in all its former glory, but despite it’s potential I think the heat and the trials arriving had taken their toll and rather than focus on the ruins we all got a bit distracted by the little turtles swimming around in the pools.

But all was not lost – despite the heat we had all worked up an appetite and for the 6th night in a row we had PIZZA. I don’t think we’ll ever get tired of eating pizza in Italy and here’s why…..

Villa d'Este - Tivoli

Leaving Rome we headed 28 kms east to the ancient hillside town of Tivoli.  Historically Tivoli was a popular holiday destinations for wealthy Romans as it was an easily accessible two hour ride by horse.

We arrived around 11:30am and were lucky enough to be able to check into our gorgeous B&B “Villa d’Este” early.  Villa d’Este the B&B is right opposite Villa d’Este the tourist attraction.  The main motivation for coming to Tivoli was to see Villa Adriana – the ruins of the palatial second-century retreat of Emperor Hadrian.  Villa d’Este – a classic Italian style garden, sculpted into the steep Tivoli hillside and adorned with no less than 500 pressure driven water fountains - was to be an added bonus.

 

After dumping our luggage and waiting for the worst of the heat to be over we headed out of the front door and all of about 40 metres to the garden entrance.  Nothing of the garden was revealed until you passed through the residence of original owner Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, itself a grand house with huge rooms and elaborately painted walls.  Once out the back door the true splendour of the gardens of Villa d’Este became apparent. 

The gardens are terraced and symmetrical and stretch over the side of a steep hill. 

Water features, ponds, grottos and fountains feature throughout.  100 gargoyles stand in a row, spouting jets of water into a communal trough.  

Huge cascades and decorative pools link the garden terraces.  Elaborately sculpted frescoes enhance the fountains.

All of the fountains at Villa d’este are powered by gravity and rely on the extensive water supply buried deep underground at Tivoli.  

Beautiful!

At the time Villa d’este was constructed in the 16^th century, gardens and in particular fountains were a sign of wealth.  By these standards Cardianl d”Este must have been a modern day billionaire – a Rupert Murdoch or a Richard Branson or a Warren Buffet. 

Retribution!  Steve did this to Daniel while he was looking at fishies in the pool and this was he and Jem’s payback.

That water was cold!

The water in the fountains was cold, far colder than expected given the 38 heat.  It was also drinkable and splashable, so we managed to stay cool during our visit.

Just as we were leaving the couple were having their wedding photos taken in the courtyard of the villa residence.  Not a bed setting J.

Villa d’este was beautiful and inspiring and we’ve already started thinking if there’s anywhere in our garden we could squeeze in a small fountain (or two) J.

Introducing Fabrizi Ferramenta and the four Effs

A little tip - when staying in an apartment in Rome never EVER leave the keys in the lock in the back of the door.  Oh no, No, NO, NO, NO!  

Apartment doors in Rome are like miniature versions of those used to secure the Crown Jewels and in the early evening of Rome Day 2 we managed to effectively lock ourselves out of Fort Knox (or so we thought). 

And yes, there was a child involved, but I won’t mention any names (think middle one).

Enter Theo.   Theo worked in a computer shop below the apartment and heard me explaining to Jeremy that no – it wasn’t that easy to just go and ask someone for help as I didn’t speak Italian and I doubted anyone in the shop spoke English.  Cue Theo.  Out of the shop he popped explaining that not only did he speak English but was anything he could do for us.

Well actually yes Theo you guardian angel you, yes indeedy we could do with some help re-entering Fort Knox upstairs, not that that’s how we explained it of course.

Enter Fillipo.  Fillipo worked in a nearby mechanic shop and he listened very carefully while Theo translated our tale of woe.  While Fillipo couldn’t help directly he highly recommended speaking to Fabio.  Fabio worked at a hardware shop about three blocks away and was the go to contact for Fort Knox lock-outs.

Now, you may have noticed a few F names creeping into this fabulous fable, this trend continued as Theo pointed out that Fabio’s hardware shop was called Fabrizi Ferramenta's, and said with rolling r’s – even I sounded Italian!

Anyway off we flitted clutching the tiny note outlining our plight that Theo had very kindly written for us.  A few block later wha la  - right on the corner where it should be - there it was – Fabrizi Ferramenta's!

Sensing a final fix for our faux pas we forged forcefully into Fabrizi Ferramenta’s, fearful that Fabio may have fled.  Phew (technically not an F but it will do J).

Enter Fabio.  There he was standing behind the counter (or at least there was someone behind the counter that we assumed was Fabio).  We handed over the note, which Fabio read carefully and which prompted an immediate phone call.  It was hard to follow the conversation, but we gathered he was speaking to Franco.  Go back to your apartment said Fabio and somone will meet you in fifteen minutes.

Enter Franco.  Now Franco didn’t speak much English, but he was obviously in the business of opening up doors.  His tool for breaking into Fort Knox was a piece of plastic.  Yep – that’s right – an envelope-sized piece of hard but flexible plastic and after all of 3 seconds he was in.  

Go Franco rah rah!  Our excitement and dance of relief however were soon tempered by Franco's next few words.  We won’t mention the exact price, but suffice to say it reminded me of the time Lucy Loo got stung by a bee and it cost $150 for the vet to spend half a second flicking the offending sting out.  

Still, looking at the positives, we were in the apartment, we’d met Theo, Fillipo, Fabio and Franco, we’d visited Fabrizi Ferramenta’s and we’d definitely learned that when staying in an apartment in Rome never EVER leave the keys in the lock in the back of the door!

Rome - Day 3

by Jeremy

First we got on the metro to go to St Peter's Basilica. We got off the train a little bit away from the  Basilica, so we had to walk about ten minutes to get there.

Eventually we arrived at Vatican City and saw a magnificent view of St Peter's Square and the Basilica.  One of the most amazing features of the Basilica is the dome, which rises up 138m above St Peter's Square.

There was quite a long queue to get into the Basilica, but it moved quickly and it only took us about 25 minutes to get in.

As soon as we got in we sped up some stairs to the first part of the Basilica dome.  It was inside and gave you an extraordinary view of the inside architecture of the Basilica.  We were so high up that the people down below looked as small as little ants.

Did you know that the Basilica is a late Renaissance church that was started in 1506 and opened in 1626.  It is one of the most famous examples of Renaissance architecture and remains one of the largest churches in the world!

Continuing up, the stairs got smaller and smaller and were also leaning to one side.  This is because we were inside the very top of the dome.

Here is a magnificent, outstanding and incredible of St Peter's square which was taken from the very top of the dome.

Unfortunately when we were at the top of the dome Daniel ran down the stairs without telling anyone.  He thought he was in big trouble but he wasn't.  Irregardless, he threw a massive tanty over absolutely nothing.  He is in the middle of his tanty in the photo below.

Here is a picture of us resting after visiting the Basilica.  Later that day we went to the Vatican Museum and saw the Sistine Chapel which had paintings of naked people all over the roof and walls.  The chapel was starting in 1473 and painted by Michelangelo and many other famous Renaissance artists.

Rome - Day 2

by Daniel

Today we went to the Colosseum.  We only had to wait a short time because we were quite early.

When we got in we went around the outside on ground level ....

.....and then we went up the stairs to the second floor where we got a brilliant view of the entire stadium.

The Colosseum was first started in 70 AD and opened in 80 AD.  It is estimated that it could hold between 50,000 and 80,000 spectators.

It is oval in shape and was used for gladiator fights and public spectacles such as mock sea battles,  hunting and executions.

We also visited the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, where you can find the ruins of ancient Rome.

The views of Rome from Palatine hill were magnificent...

After wandering around we went to have lunch.  We had Margarita and Capricciosa pizzas and a yummy salad.  It was a very expensive meal because the drinks were 5 euro each!  After lunch we went into a nearby supermarket where we saw the same drinks for 73 cents!

Rome - Day 1

by Emily Price

One glorious day I woke up feeling very excited about the Rome trip on the Hop On Hop Off bus.  It is called a hop on hop off bus because you can hop on and hop off at many different stops.

Cool orange vespa

When we were on the bus I saw the biggest stadium in my life, I couldn’t believe it was true!  It is called the Colosseum and it was used for fighting.  The audience sat all around the outside of the stadium, even people at the back could see. 

Next we hopped off the bus and we walked to the Trevi Fountain.  On the way we went past a gorgeous little restaurant and where you sit under the umbrellas they were spraying water with fans because it was so hot.  

Finally we got to the fountain, it was worth it, but I was starting to feel really tired.  

Luckily we  found a beautiful restaurant that used to be an old church.  For lunch I had a whole plate of salty besketti – I could only eat half of it.  I had some Sprite lemonade to drink. 

Whilst I was eating lunch I spotted the boys creeping over to a balcony.  I had no idea what they were looking at so I went over.  They were looking down at the chef making delicious pizza.  

After lunch we had a big walk around Rome.  I was feeling tired but my feet kept on carrying me along and along.  We all had a gelato.  I had vanilla chocolate chip, Daniel had lemon, Jeremy had very rich chocolate, Daddy had choc mint and Mummy had yoghurt.  They were all very yummy but mine was the best. 

Fifteen minutes later we saw some floating men. I don’t know why but they were covered in orange. I think I know what the trick is – one person is holding a stick up his shoulder.

Wow - I loved my day in Rome and I wish it didn't have to end.