Day two

Back on day one,  we studied the tour book available to our hotel and chose some tours.

We thought that a simple half day tour would be a good way to ease us into things so we picked "Tivoli. Hardian's Villa and Villa d'Este"..............A half day tour.

After a bus ride we were told "lets get started up the hill to see the gardens!"  A 1/2 mile uphill hike was just the beginning of getting around these ruins. Now I have to tell you that they are interesting and I wish I would have studied more before we went but they should have rated the activity level of this tour as very high because along with the uphill climb the ruins were on up and down terrain and the only restroom was down in a basement.

We were not offered any water not did the tour guide stop for us buy water on this tour. Hubby and I and another couple did stop and buy some water and then had to run to try to find the group.

If you remember the Pantheon was built by the Roman Emperor Hardian, well this land was part of his Bride's dowry and he turned these 250 acres (of which much is still unexcavated) into a little royalty get-away if you please.

"At it’s peak splendour, the villa was complete with gardens, pools, walkways and sporting areas for leisure activities of all kinds, while the numerous structures on the property were home to stadiums, theatres, pools and thermal springs, libraries, temples, basilicas, entertainment suites and of course the private quarters of the imperial family. Over the course of two centuries – construction began in the 2^nd century B.C. only to be completed mid-way through the 1^st century B.C. – the villa had become the epitome of imperial refinement and power, representing the height of roman domain and magnificence."

 Olive tree in bloom on the grounds.

Hardian was a man of mixed sexual interests of young good looking men as well as his adulteries with married woman.

(this really was a fine specimen)

So we walked around this huge area and finally back in the bus for another short ride to the second part of this tour......

Villa d'Este

This was the description in the tour book...."enchanting villa of the Renaissance rich in fountains, jeux d'eau, waterfalls and incomparable Italian garden".

What they didn't tell you is this.............."spectacular terraced garden in the late-Renaissance mannerist style, which took advantage of the dramatic slope  but required innovations in bringing a sufficient water supply, which was employed in cascades, water tanks, troughs and pools, water jets and fountains".

Upon arriving and looking down on this garden.....our guide simple said...."Remember if you walk down...you have to walk back up." Well, I was done with uphill and down hill so these are the only pictures I have to share with you and they are not from the garden but from a few buildings we went through on our way to the garden.

Arched ceiling with rock work.....

Another ceiling with paintings.

I am sure you have guessed by now that this tour was not my favorite, in fact I took the time to write a bad review of it on tripadvisor so hopefully others would know what they are getting in for. This was also one of the few tours that stated  "No Drop Off" and we managed to over-look that so went without our map but hubby still had the state of mind to not allow them to drop us off where they wanted to (two miles from our hotel) and made them take us closer but we were still lost so we were out a cab fare too.

The tour cost 58 Euro each and to help you understand the exchange.....we gave them $1,500 to exchange at the hotel and they gave us 900.00 Euro in return......ouch!

We were very glad to get back to our wonderful hotel and I soaked my feet in cold water...mmmmmmmm


 and so it is with travel......good times and trying times.