Hadrian's Villa and Villa d'Este

Our last official "field trip" with our class. Sad. However, it was a good one. We charter bused it to Tivoli, a small city a little less than an hour out of Rome, and saw Hadrian's Villa and Villa d'Este, both places we studied freshman year, in ARCH 200, when we learned a general overview of architecture history and diagramming. Let me tell ya, these places are way cooler to see in person, than to look at on a slide show in a lecture hall.

Duck on the side of the pond at Hadrian's Villa

The Cyprus trees are HUGE.


part of the villa ruins, which part? don't remember...


Above us is a ceiling, that amazingly didn't fall down on us, although it was only attached by a few points on the walls.

Green water, actually lime flavored. Believe me?

If you want the most amazing view of something, you probably have to illegally climb on something to get it. I'm not saying how this photo was taken...

Yellow flowers, bello!

More climbing on unstable structures...

Temple of Venus. I went over here, and 3 of our guys were sitting eating lunch, and I asked them what this was. They said the temple of Venus, so I assume, this statue...is of Venus. Crazy assumption?

Sign we saw on the way out of Hadrian's Villa

Note on the left: "do not climb on the ruins"

Glad we didn't do any of that...

Villa d'Este!

A villa, that inside, not so interesting, outside, the gardens take your breath away. The fountains, trees and flowers are amazing, and they are all placed around a very formal set of axis through the site. This is the main axis leading from the "front" entrance (not used anymore) to the estate, to the villa itself.

a hallway in the villa

Fontana di Tivoli (Fountain of Tivoli)

The ally of 100 fountains.

stone creature spitting water

Neptune Fountain, behind it on the level above, is a water organ that plays a few times a day.

Another view of the Neptune Fountain

A view from the front entrance, back towards the villa

I sketched this in my travel log. Behind me is the water organ, and I am looking over the Neptune Fountain

The water organ

One last view of the 100 fountains. Some of the water here is potable, other water is not, I'm not sure about this stuff, but it was a hot day, and this guy needed some refreshing.

I have OODLES of more photos from these two places, if you wanna see, please bug me when I get back.