Ms. Stryker Goes To Rome: Day 8 - Tivoli and Hadrian's Villa

(Tivoli)

The last day was ours to do with what we pleased. I joined up with two other students who were majoring in architecture and we decided to go to Hadrian's villa in one of the (ancient) posh suburbs of Roma. We grabbed the metro to Termini, from Termini to the train station, and grabbed a train to Tivoli.

Now, let us remember that Roma is a huge tourist town. In Roma, many people speak some English (to be fair, most Europeans are bi-lingual), and are willing to speak with you if you make some effort to first speak in Italian. Going to Tivoli was a huge leap of faith in our ability to navigate, as well as to be able to speak good Italian. We found out the hard (hilarious) way, that outside of major tourist spots, no one speaks English. We ended lost while looking for the bus station, and only found our way over to the right dock after talking with 6 or 7 people in our very broken Italian. Now don't get me wrong, I loved it. I thought it was hilarious. And Tivoli itself is very, very beautiful. However, it was nice to know that we were heading in the right direction. After taking the bus down the mountain we walked the remaining 1/2 a mile to the villa's entrance.

(The scenery was just too perfect)

Let me give you some small background information on this place. Hadrian was an emperor of Roma. Among us he was called the "Architect Emperor" of Roma due to the fact that he was the one who designed (or at the very least took credit for) the Pantheon. Hadrian designed this villa to be his retreat away from the stress of work because anyone who's anyone had a villa outside of Roma (Catallus for one) (bonus points if you know who Catallus is and can say his name correctly!). This "villa" was laid out over 300 acres (Pompeii... the city of Pompeii only had 90 acres), had over 25 buildings (including several baths, a full theatre, an olympic size pool, etc), and was to house only himself and his slaves. Sadly, (or perhaps ironically or better yet poetically) Hadrian never lived to see his villa complete, or even enjoy its lavishments because he died before living in it. This place was an architect's dream. Heck, it was anyone's dream.

(We thought that view was great, but imagine this over a thousand years ago with no buildings)

Even in it's semi-ruined state, one can appreciate the grandeur of this villa. As we said numerous times throughout this trip, "Hadrian knew how to live." Everything was so picturesque, so perfect. From the trees down to the ruins, it was placed with such precision one couldn't fully comprehend it. We walked through the pool, the track, up to the baths. We rented one of those earpieces that gave you more information on the sites, but I was content just simply strolling through the grounds taking in what I could, capturing with photos what I could, and trying to somehow breathe in some of Hadrian's artistic, architectural skill. We walked by more baths, the slaves quarters, by another pool. I honestly cannot remember everything we walked through, so instead I'll show you pictures.