'Plog': Villa d’Este … I’m in Fresco Heaven

Thursday, 3 September 2015 (Part IIi)
Trevi Comfortable Terrace Apartment — Rome, Italy

After enjoying a lovely stroll around the gardens of Villa d’Este (post here), we made our way back to the Renaissance-era estate house itself.  Actually, house is an inadequate word.  If I were to refer to it as a palace, I wouldn’t be too far off.

In his Rome guide, Rick Steves describes the interior of the villa as being dull, and goes on to say that “you can make short work of that.”  I have to disagree — but of course I am a lover of frescoes and murals, so I might be prejudiced.  After catching a small glimpse of the painted treasures the highly-decorated rooms have to offer, I was hard-pressed to stick with the plan to stroll about the gardens first.  But Mui promised we’d return to explore the rooms with plenty of time to spare, and that’s exactly what we did.

'Plog': Villa d’Este … the Tivoli Gardens

Thursday, 3 September 2015 (Part II)
Trevi Comfortable Terrace Apartment — Rome, Italy

I covered our daytrip to Tivoli in the previous blog post, skimming over our visit to Villa d’Este … simply too many photos to share.

So let’s go back there and start by taking a stroll in the gardens, which are commonly referred to as the Tivoli Gardens … not to be confused with the similarly named amusement park/pleasure gardens of Copenhagen, Denmark.  We’ll return to explore the villa itself later … I think you’ll find that it will be worth the wait ;-)

Classical Tibur is Modern Tivoli

Thursday, 3 September 2015 (Part I)
Trevi Comfortable Terrace Apartment — Rome, Italy
Temps: Hi 88F (31C) / Lo 79F (26C)

The plan for our three-week stay in Rome is to spend the entire time in the city.  That doesn’t mean, however, that we won’t occasionally stray outside the city limits on daytrips.  Today’s visit to Tivoli — ancient Tibur — falls into that category.

Up early, we grabbed breakfast on the fly at the apartment and headed off to the metro station at Piazza Barberini.  The train that runs through this station is the A line, so we had to switch at Termini Station to catch the B line train in the direction of Rebibbia.  When the automated sing-song voice announced “prossimo fermata [next stop] Ponte Mammolo,” we followed the crowd off the train.   Wending our way through the station, we found the ticket window for the local Cotral busses and bought our roundtrip tickets for the 18-mile (29 km) ride to Tivoli — €4.40/person (about $5).

We didn’t have to wait long — it was only about 15 minutes before the 8:30a bus pulled up to where we were queued up with a mix of locals and tourists.  This being the starting point for the bus, there were plenty of seats available, so there was no pushing or shoving to get on board.  Surprisingly, traffic was minimal, and we made the 50-minute trip without any delays en route.

PostCards from Tivoli

Thursday, 3 September 2015
Rome, Italy
Temps: HI 95F (35C) / Lo 70F (21C)

Today we ventured outside Rome proper.  Two metro trains and an hour-long bus ride found us in Tivoli on a daytrip that we mostly spent at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Villa d’Este and its beautiful gardens.  The latter are more commonly known as the Tivoli Gardens … famous for the multitude of fountains scattered around the extensive grounds.

Chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore ... Villa d'Este is through the archway on the right.

Tivoli — as viewed from one of the loggias at Villa d’Este.

Fontana dell’Ovato [Oval Fountain]

Cento Fontane [Hundred Fountains]

Fontana di Rometta [Rometta’s Fountain]

Peschiere [Fish Ponds] … from the terrace of the Organ Fountain.

Fontana dell’Organo [Organ Fountain] … across one of the fish ponds.

Fontana dell’Organo … yes, there is an organ in the structure
on the top terrace that plays music periodically.

Following our meandering stroll through the gardens, we explored the rooms of the villa … jaw-droppingly awesome frescoes covered the walls and ceilings of almost every room.  You can imagine it was hard for Mui to pull me away from here, but eventually my feet, my neck, and my back gave out ;-)  Alas, no postcards, but you can be assured that I have a zillion photos to share when I get home and write the story of this day.

Leaving Villa d’Este, we wended our way through town to Sibilla to have a late lunch — or early dinner, take your pick.  The restaurant gets its name from the ruins of a 2nd Century BC temple that is adjacent to the establishment.  The unique setting, combined with a bottle of wine and excellent food, served as a wonderful wrap up for our visit to Tivoli.

Sibilla — the restaurant (pink building); and Sibilla — the ancient temple.

What a great day we had.  And the bonus — at 86F (30C) it was 5° cooler in Tivoli than it was in Rome ;-)

We have a great museum visit planned for tomorrow night; I think we’ll take it easy during the day … I know my feet could use a break for sure … not to mention my shutter finger!

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