Day 20 - Tivoli and Hadrian's Villa

The first order today was to get ourselves to the hill town of Tivoli about 20 miles outside of Rome. Unfortunately, there were no direct trains to Tivoli, which meant we had to rely upon the inter-city bus system. Even with directions from Garibaldi, we had trouble getting on the right bus, and then there were the other riders to worry about. There were a bunch of kids who were loud and pushy and made the Handlers wonder, "Why aren't they in school?"

However, uncomfortable bus ride aside, we made it to Tivoli without too much trouble.

Idyllic medieval hill towns are just everywhere in Italy.

Although there were interesting things to see in the town, we didn't really want to be there. We wanted to be a little bit outside of town at the ruins of the villa built as a country get-away by the emperor Hadrian. After getting a little lost looking for the correct bus stop, we finally made it to the villa. It's a very large complex full of fairly well preserved buildings. Hadrian was something of an architect, and an enthusiastic world traveler. He loved taking things he had seen in far off places and recreating them in his own little personal Xanadu. If there had been a Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous back in Hadrian's day, you can be certain this property would have been profiled.

This is the view from one of the towers at the edge of the villa property. It overlooks a large olive orchard with the town of Tivoli perched in the background.

The ginormous bathhouses.

Look, karytadids!

This next spot is the Aqua Theatre, which was really sort of a 'pleasure garden' for swimming and viewing naked bathers.

Handler 1 still wanted to try to see the Villa d'Este (a palace famous for its extensive gardens) in Tivoli, so we asked for directions to the closest bus stop and waited. And waited. And finally a bus came by....and passed us. And then another bus passed us. And then the Handlers, completely fed up with Italian transportation, decided to just walk out to the main road and try to catch a bus back to Rome.

At the main road there were other people trying to catch the bus (the little stop we'd been at before was deserted except for us) and this is where the Handlers noticed that folks were flagging down buses as they passed. Well, that explains why buses had been ignoring us before, but still...if you are a bus driver, and you come up on a stop where two people (and a gnome) are sitting, and they stand up and head to the curb when they see you approach, and they make eye contact with you, and they are obviously tourists with big cameras (who are likely unfamiliar with your local busing system), can you really say you were completely unaware of their desire to get on your bus?

No, not really. Bitchy bus drivers.

On the way back to Rome Handler 1, who had no real plans for the evening (Tivoli now being off the table), asked Handler 2 if there was anything in particular in Rome he would like to see. He indicated the Arca Pacis...a somewhat obscure site that Handler 1 had not considered at all in her previous plans. It took her a while to find it on the map, but once she did, and noted its location relative to other notable sightseeing areas, she decided that the order of the evening would be a brisk walking tour of the more minor sites of Rome.

And so, once back at the bus station, we immediately hopped on a subway to.....the Spanish Steps!

It's a bunch of steps....color me unimpressed

We continued on foot towards the Arca Pacis. It's a small temple originally contructed by Augustus in honor of Peace, and intended as a direct counterpoint to the temple he erected honoring War. It was lost under river mud for centuries, found beneath the foundations of a historic building, then painstakingly excavated from beneath the building (in a manner intended to preserve both historical artifacts as much as possible). Having spent so much time, money and effort on retrieving the Arca Pacis from obscurity, the Italian government thought it would be a good idea to build an entire museum building around it.

After that, we continued on to the Disney Store...no really, there was this awesome ancient Rome themed Disney store we passed along the way. Handler 2 was pleased to see two of his great loves combined into one capitalistic establishment.

Next was the column of Marcus Aurelius (which we originally mis-identified as Trajan's Column)...

The beautiful Trevi Fountain...

And finally, the Piazza Navona, which is also famous for its fountains.

Then it was time for dinner. There were a number of lovely cafes surrounding the Piazza Navona, but they were expensive even for Italy (the Handlers were becoming used to the fact that meals in Itlay were designed to chew up their pocketbooks and spit them out in shreds). So we headed off to find something less in the main tourist district and, hopefully, priced accordingly. We passed by one restaurnt and were flagged by a group of Americans seated there who had seen us perusing the menu. They gave the place rave reviews, and so we decided to take their advice.

We learned that most American tourists (read: not the Handlers) are easily satisfied.

It was late by the time we finished dinner and so all we were looking for was a quick way back to the hotel. We headed in the direction of the Pantheon, passed by it, and ended up at the Area Sacra...again. Having learned the trick of busses the night before, Handler 1 suggested we just catch a bus to Termini. Handler 2, however, had spotted a tram stop close by. He had previously noted that trams made a stop near the Colleseum (and thus near our hotel). As it was raining slightly, and no one wanted to stand out in the rain waiting for transportation to come, Handler 2 suggested we jump on the next tram. Handler 1 was not certain about this, but she trusted Handler 2's instincts.

You can see where this is headed already, can't you?

Well, needless to say, our difficulties with Italian mass transit continued. The tram took us over the river which, as Handler 1 had noted the night before, was the completely wrong direction. After the tram continued in this manner for some time, Handler 2 admitted that he did not think it would be making a turn for the direction of the Colleseum. A little guesswork with the map told us that we were probably traveling through the "colorful" Trastavere neighborhood. This meant nothing to Handler 2, but Handler 1 had researched our destination cities for months prior to the trip, and knew we were headed into one of the less desireable areas of town.

When we could finally get a look at a street sign while passing, we determined that we were no longer on Handler 1's nifty map. Joy. We knew the best move at this point was to get off the tram and head in the other direction, and we were encouraged to do this when the tram stopped at the end of the line. Getting onto a north(ish)bound tram (and dodging the weird homeless guy who tried to talk to Handler 2 in Italian), we then traveled all the way back to the Area Sacra...yet again, and picked up a bus.

Determined stay within the city tomorrow and thereby not have transportation issues like we had today, we crashed.

Quote of the Day:

"Well, all I'm saying is if you're seeing deities, it's probably not a good thing."

".......I didn't say Horus!"

- Discussion about our adventuers in the "colorful" Trastavere neighborhood.