Tivoli Gardens

Today we went to Tivoli and a famous garden in the middle of it:  The garden of the Villa d'Este to be exact.  Tivoli is east and just a hair to the north of Rome.  It is in the hill country, so it's a little cooler than Rome itself.  It's famous for a UNESCO World Heritage Site (The Villa) and for being the summer palace of the emperor Hadrian--a palace the size of small city, the ruins of which can still be seen.  Getting there involved a bus, a train and another bus--always a tricky maneuver to coordinate in Italy, but as transportation goes, it went fairly smoothly.  The villa itself is amazing.  The frescoes are some of the least deteriorated in all of Italy, and you can imagine the cardinal gliding about in his robes, talking affairs of state with important statesmen of his day.  But still more impressive are the gardens and the fountains.  There are 17 in total, which descend down a mountainside, creating a green oasis and a view at every turn.  In the distance can be seen olive groves, church towers and barren hills.  All in all, it's a pleasant way to while away an afternoon.  As we wandered, we also had time to take in a church (St. Mary Maggiore--nothing to write home about), a 15th Century castle well preserved on the outside but unfortunately closed to public access and te remains of a amphitheater where Roman gladiators once fought each other and wild beasts.  And we made time for pizza and wine.  A couple of highlights of the afternoon included convincing the girls to climb the padlocked iron gate to get a better view of the amphitheater--a move which panicked their mother, but resulted in no sanction, despite the gate being in full view of the Caribinieri station, and teaching Meredith some tips on how to take a photograph--hints on framing, perspective, contrast, detail and pattern.  (With her eye, she has the potential to be a good photographer some day.)  We headed back to Rome, negotiated train tickets for next week, chowed down at McDonald's and ended the day with drinks on the veranda of the Exedra Hotel (which may be my favorite "cathedral" in all of Rome!)  We headed back to Trastevere to find the whole quarter in an uproar, as the feast of the some Madonna or the other continues, with a parade of confraternities, a lot of drinking and a lot drinking songs.  The chorus goes on at the bar next door as I write.  Our time here is coming to a close, and everybody realizes it.  It has gone by fast, and more than one little person is contemplating the must-repeat visits that need to be gotten in before we go.