June 25
We left our Country House just before 8am as we wanted to get to our first stop at 0830 when it opened to (a) beat the tour busses and (b) beat the heat. We succeeded on both counts. We were the first ones at the Villa d’Este which is a 16th century villa in Tivoli. The villa was beautiful but it is most famous for its Italian Renaissance garden. This is the 3rd Italian garden we’ve seen and while there are some flowers, the garden is mostly terraced evergreens. Very different from an English garden which is loaded with flowers.
The villa is an Italian State Museum and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was first commissioned in the early 16th century by a local cardinal (Cardinal Ippolito II d’Este) who was a patron of the arts. The villa is gigantic but only 7 or 8 rooms are open to the public. Every square inch of the walls and ceiling are covered in frescos which, given that they are 450 years old, are in amazing condition.
Here’s also a video I took of this last room.
https://youtu.be/uYWB6LCcjwM Villa
After touring the villa, we went out to the gardens. It is terraced on 4 or 5 levels and has a beautiful view of the surrounding area.
The garden includes fifty-one fountains and nymphaeums, 398 spouts, 364 water jets, 64 waterfalls, and 220 basins. It is fed by 875 meters of canals, channels and cascades, and all working entirely by the force of gravity, without pumps. Not all of the fountains and spouts are working but there was still a lot of water flying around. Here are a few pictures but the best way to experience it is through video. So, I did several of those as well.
https://youtu.be/PFt3Y4qzKiY Garden Part 1
https://youtu.be/VjVUJeqBCvo Garden Part 2
https://youtu.be/i38MLc_8zxE Garden Part 3
https://youtu.be/0bJkhzkTPaI Garden Part 4
https://youtu.be/t1OnJ7pqatg Garden Part 5
We had the garden to ourselves for a good portion of our visit before 2 other couples who showed up after about 20 minutes. Once we were heading back up the terraces to leave, the tour groups had started to arrive so we were glad we had come early.
Then it was a 20-minute drive to Villa Adriana or Hadrian’s Villa in English. The villa was constructed over 10-20 years in the 2nd Century AD by Emperor Hadrian as a summer palace. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. While a little more crowded than the Villa d’Este, it was a huge area so it wasn’t bad at all.
The ruins are in amazing condition, especially the area around the pool.
https://youtu.be/6C5S6f-0ouk Model of the Villa Adriana; it must have been amazing.
We didn’t actually see the entire area as we were getting tired and it was very hot, almost 90 at around noon. So we slowly walked back to the car for the 50-minute drive to the Hilton Garden Inn at Fiumicino airport. We dropped off the bags then dropped of the car. It was a bit frustrating as we had trouble finding gas at the airport, but we finally got the tank filled and turned the car in.
We originally planned to go into Rome for the rest of the afternoon for a final dinner and gelato but we decided against it. It would have cost about $70 round trip on the train but the bigger reason was that by mid afternoon it was in the upper 90s and we just didn’t feel like dealing with the crowds in Rome in that heat. So….we ate lunch at the airport but couldn’t find any gelato. But, we had some delicious gelato on Sunday in Volterra so that’s okay. For dinner we’ll just have something at the hotel. We’re hot and tired so it will be nice to just relax tonight. We have a long day tomorrow, including a 10 1/2 hour flight, so an early night is in order.
So….our 2nd Italian Adventure is pretty much over. We covered a lot of territory, putting over 5600 km (3400 miles) on the car. Here’s the route we traveled but I couldn’t get it all on one map. The route mostly includes the places we stopped for the night. The route is a lot bigger if you add all the stops and day trips.
Including the 18,000 steps we walked today, our total step count is about 600,000 with our biggest day being Day 1 in Rome (when we were totally jet lagged and my ankle was killing me) with just under 25,000 steps. What does this mean in miles….254 miles. To put that in perspective, we walked from Chicago to Louisville KY on this trip which is a 5-hour drive. And for the last 3 weeks we’ve been walking in 90 degree temperatures so that made it even more difficult.
Even though this trip was physically a little harder on both of us, we did very well. I didn’t have to buy a cane and or call ahead to make an ortho appointment so we’re way ahead of last year. While we didn’t see everything we planned (Malta was too expensive, about $750 for 3 days, so that got crossed off the list fairly early in the trip) but neither of us is disappointed. We met some wonderful people including an Australian couple who are now Peter’s friends on Facebook and another Aussie couple today who are on day 7 of a 14-week trip. Yikes!!
And of course there were the wonderful Italian people, the food and the gorgeous country. We found several places that we’d like to stay for a while including Lecce, Florence and the lake we saw yesterday. But, just like our other adventures, the absolute best part was experiencing it together. While being joined at the hip for such a long time can have its challenges, for the most part we did very well.
So what’s next? We have a mini-adventure coming up in the fall when we go to Arizona for a month. Of course we’ll stop at as many National Parks as humanly possible….gotta fill up my book with stamps. Our next European adventure is planned for August/September of 2020. This one is super-special as it is our 5th wedding anniversary trip and we’re headed to the UK for a month and then back to France and the Benelux countries for another month. Not quite time to start planning but that will come soon enough.
Thanks again to all our faithful followers for continuing to share in our adventures. It’s great to have you travel with us. Love to you all. Arrivederci, alla prossima volta.