Tivoli - Hadrian's Villa and Castle Gandolfo

April 27, 2014

Joe took the shuttle to the airport early in the morning. The rest of us got up and watched the Canonization on television before we had to check out of the hotel. K and I pretty much watched most of it...T and L came in and out of the room and watched bits at a time. We packed up our bags and got into the car. I had decided that instead of going back into Rome and having to deal with where we could park the car, we were going to go to Tivoli. The last time I was in Tivoli was 1995 in college and we went to Hadrian's Villa. I thought the children would love to go there and walk around and climb all over the Roman ruins. 

Joe had been doing all the driving in Italy so this was my first time in the driver seat. The first thing I had to do was reverse the car out of the parking spot...I could not figure out how to put the car into reverse. I know...I know. I tried pulling up on the stick...pushing down...twisting, etc. I felt like the biggest idiot! I pulled out the car manual...thats no help its all in Italian. I got on my phone and started looking up the model and typing in, "how to put car into reverse". I got no where....so then I had this great idea to let K out of the car and push it out of the parking spot. She pushed it half way and then the car got stuck because it started to go uphill a little and she was not strong enough. Then I would try to get it into reverse again...nothing. I kept putting it in first gear and I would go forward. Then K would push the car back again. We did this a few times! Then a man came outside and I asked him if he could help us push the car all the way out. The first thing he says to me is, "you don't know how to drive?". Now I am a bigger idiot! This is crazy...I honestly can't figure out how to get the car into reverse. The man helped us out and we finally drove away from the hotel. I guess we were just going to have to do this trip without reversing the whole day. Fun! When we got on the highway my hand was fiddling with the stick and I realized the actual stick part moves up and down under the handle. Thats it! Thats how you put the car into reverse! When we pulled off for snacks I tested it out and YES we were able to reverse! K and I had a good laugh about the whole thing. 

We finally arrived in Tivoli and we drove to Hadrian's Villa. This villa was built as a retreat from Rome for Emperor Hadrian during the 2nd century. Hadrian did not like the palace on Palatine Hill in Rome and wanted a new place to live. After Hadrian, the villa was used by his successors. During the decline of the Roman Empire, the villa was not used and was ruined. In the 16th century Cardinal d'Este removed a lot of the marble and statues from the villa to decorate his own Ville D'Este nearby. The grounds of this palace covered an area of 300 acres and were filled with full-scale reproductions of the emperor's favorite buildings from Greece and Egypt. 

Entrance to the wall around the Villa

The lake of the Poecile

The Villa was a complex of over 30 buildings of which much is still unexcavated. The complex included palaces, theatre, temples, libraries, state rooms, and quarters for courtiers, praetorians, and slaves. 

Roman baths

this was the building where these statues were from-this is a photo from the museum

This is in front of the Canopus

The Canopus was one of the bigger replicas, a sanctuary of the god Serapis near Alexandria, Egypt. Reflections of some of the ruins shimmer in the water. This area they think was used for parties and dining in the summer. 

The Great Thermae - Roman baths

You can still see the tiny tiles from the bath floors

Inside the bath house

This was part of the Imperial Palace

This used to be a Fish Pond - Quadriporticus. There used to be seats all around the edges. 

L pretending to be a NICE statue....

and a MEAN statue!

L in front of a VERY old Olive Tree

very very old tiles

This was the Hospital

model of Hadrian's Villa and what it used to look like

The children all had a good time just wondering around all the Roman ruins. They had many areas roped off where you could not walk. I don't remember this at all back in 1995! Ha! I remember we were all crazy college students climbing everything. I did read on our way out how Hadrian's Villa is rapidly deteriorating and they put it on an endangered list. So maybe thats why things are now roped off to protect it.  

We still had a long time until we had to be at the airport so we drove to Castel Gandolfo which is another town just outside of Rome. The town over looks Lake Albano and its considered one of Italy's resort areas. This is also where the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo is which is the summer residence and vacation retreat for the Pope. Pope Francis had recently opened up the gardens of the palace to the public but they were closed today because of the Canonization. But I thought it would be fun to drive up and show the children. 

View of the summer residence and town

I think L fell asleep in the car around this time so we just drove around for awhile. Then we decided to head back to Rome, fill up the car, and head to the airport. I thought filling up the car would be easy. NOPE! Most of the gas stations were closed since it was Sunday and its hard to find one where you can pay at the pump. Ughh! After we finally got the car full we went and returned it at the airport. We had a quick late dinner and waited for our flight. We ended up leaving very late because they had some horrible storms come through Rome. We took a bus out to our plane and then had to walk up the steps into the plane (outside). It was at the exact time the sky decides to open up and it was POURING! Everyone is trying to get into the plane and get their luggage in the overhead and we are all getting DRENCHED! We were SOAKED by the time we got into the plane. Then we had to sit there for a long time because they delayed the flight. We did not get back to Ireland until after midnight. BUT we had a wonderful family trip to Italy that I will always treasure. I love history and its so rewarding to have history lessons with your children with all the props right in front of you. We are so blessed that we were able to travel so much this past year.