The Grand Tour (Day 17): Tivoli

This morning, we slept in until about 8:30 or 9 am, got up and went upstairs to eat breakfast on the hotel terrazza.  This was the view (and what I had envisioned having with our room "upgrade"):

The hotel had a variety of juices, fruits, pastries, eggs, meats, etc. But the best part was the Nutella crepes!

A real partial view!

 When we checked into our hotel yesterday, we asked about a notice we had seen in the train station about a "sciopero" or transportation strike.  The hotel confirmed that on Friday, there would be a system-wide bus, tram and metro strike and it would be chaos throughout the City.  As we thought about a way to work around this, we discussed buying a hop-on/hop-off tourist bus pass (not affected by the strike) as a way to get around.  It was only $3 more to get a 2-day pass.  So to prepare for the strike tomorrow, and given our experience on the crowded and hot buses yesterday we went ahead and bought our passes today.  We rode the hop-on/hop-off bus over to the Termini train station where we caught the metro to another train station in the City.  The metro was again hot, overcrowded and chaotic.  But we made it to Tiburntina train station, and purchased tickets to ride to Tivoli.  We just barely missed the train that was leaving shortly after we got there because I took us on a wild goose chase through the station trying to find the ticket booth.  Turns out, we had to backtrack and go all the way back to buy our tickets. We ended up waiting only about 45 min for the next train.

Waiting for our train to arrive

The train ride was about 60 minutes and we got off at the Tivoli station.  We crossed a small pedestrian bridge over the river, and walked into the center of Town.

Aniene River

In the middle of town, there just happened to be a medieval castle tucked in between apartment buildings. No big deal.

In my grad school art history class, one of the Italian landscapes we studied was Vila d'Este and I had always wanted to see it.

Entrance to Villa d'Este

Courtyard on the Villa

The first part of the self-guided tour was a walk through the villa and house.  Tivoli is a town on the hills surrounding the valley where Rome is located and is a bit cooler and has fantastic views across the valley.  Supposedly, on a clear day, you can see Rome, but we didn't know where to look.

View out the window

Room of the Fountain....just a taste of what is to come

 As you come out of the house, and onto the terrazza, you have a few glimpses of water fountains, but you can hear the sound of roaring water.

Steps coming down out of the house

A fountain of potable water.  It was cold and tasted so good!  We filled our water bottles a couple of times.

As you come down off the hill where the house is located, there are a series of terraces that have a water theme to them.  My favorite is the "Wall of 1,000 fountains".  It extended across the length of the hill for about 300 feet.  I didn't count the number of fountains, but it was probably close to 1,000.

Throughout the garden, there are a variety of grottos and fountains.

One of the garden highlights is the "Organ Fountain".  A water-powered organ that shoots jets of water as well as powering the bellows of the organ.  Franz Liszt lived here for several years and while here, he composed "Les jeux d'eau à la Villa d'Este".

From the top of the organ fountain overlooking the pools

As I was walking back up the hill, I loved the sound of rushing water.  I peeked behind a bush to see this channel that was hidden and, it appears, its primary purpose was to be hidden from view and provide the sound of rushing water.  Brilliant!

Fontana delle'Organo

I LOVED the staircases with water rivulets cascading down as if they were railings:

Even the opening where the water drained down the rivulets was detailed as an open mouth.

Potted Orange trees surrounding the ponds

A semi-circular staircase/ramp with water rivulets

From the top of the hill peeking down through the garden to the Organ Fountain

We walked back through town and stopped at a gelato shop and got some large gelato cones which turned out to be the best (and most inexpensive) gelato we had in Italy.  As we were walking back to the train station, we came across a humorous exchange between an older italian woman and a younger italian woman on opposite sides of a crosswalk.  The older woman started getting very animated and gesturing and expressing her dissatisfaction about the woman on the opposite side.  The best we could tell, she was upset that the other woman didn't press the crosswalk button to speed up the light so she could cross.  It was even more humorous as they exchanged words as the crossed paths in the middle of the street.  I couldn't tell what either of them were saying, but it was fun to watch.

We arrived back at the train station and tried to use an automated ticket machine to buy our tickets back to Rome.  I inserted my card, and the machine sputtered and ate it.  No one could help us, and the only advice we received (as best we could tell) was "call the number on the machine".  It was serviced by a private company, but the phone number was scratched off.  Since I couldn't get the card out, I figured no one else could either, so we left the card in the machine.  (I called and cancelled the card when we got back to the hotel).  We ended up buying a ticket from the newsstand (which we should have done to begin with).  We walked around and the train was in the station, we got on and headed back to Rome.  On the way back, the train stopped at numerous stations along the way and picked up some male workers headed back to Rome.  Becky told me they were making flattering comments about her.  Good thing I was so aware of what was going on!

We arrived back at Tiburtina Station and took the metro back to Termini Station (hot and extremely crowded because it was close to rush hour).  We got on the hop-on/hop-off bus at Termini Station and took the scenic loop around Rome on our way back to our hotel.  While it was fun to see the City, it was warm, and we were tired.  It was LONG ride!

Ancient aqueduct near the Colosseum

Circus Maximus

Circus Maximus

Campidoglio (the Piazza at the top of these stairs) and was designed by Michelangelo

Castel Sant'Angelo (Castle to the Popes)

Tibur River

We got back to our hotel room and took a nap until later in the evening.  Our room was made up, so we took some pics.

As went out in the evening after it got cooler (about 9 pm), we started walking toward the Spanish Steps.  We found these mini cars parked everywhere and anywhere along the narrow streets.  When you are dealing in tight spaces, it helps to have a car that is more flexible in parking.

Our plan was to find some food on the way to the Spanish Steps, but I got lost and couldn't find the restaurant I was looking for.  We made our way to the Spanish Steps and walked around.

Huge crowds come out after dark and gather in the piazzas

Sr Citizen tour group that we found amusing

As we walked along some of the side streets, Becky found this little sidewalk cafe.  We didn't like the outdoor restaurants/cafes where tons of people were walking by and looking and breathing on you as you ate.  This was a nice compromise on a quiet street.

Becky ordered a pasta dish and I ordered a mushroom pizza.  My pizza was excellent.  (Notice the huge bottle of water....we just couldn't get enough water.)

We strolled along the streets and made our way back to the Trevi Fountain, where we bought some gelato from the shop on the bottom level of our hotel (which turned out to be very good and surprisingly inexpensive!).  And then we collapsed into bed.