Travel Notes from Sam's Adventures: An Afternoon in Tivoli...and Dinner Pictures from Yesterday

After a busy week of activities for class, we decided to sleep in today before heading out. Sleeping in for me, though, only meant until about 9 AM as I couldn't sleep any more. Combined with going to bed way too late again because of some time-sensitive things to finish, today was a bit exhausting again. 'Twas fun nonetheless though.

Oh, if I hadn't mentioned it in a previous post, we didn't have class today, so it was the beginning of a nice and much-welcomed three day weekend. Brukab and I decided to head about 20 miles east of Rome to the small town of Tivoli, home to Hadrian's Villa and the Villa d'Este. Hadrian's Villa was another one of those sites I studied in AP Art History and Western Civ, so naturally it was high on my to-do list. The problem was we left too late to make it to both sites, so we ended up only going to the Villa d'Este, but it was absolutely spectacular.

According to our good friend, Rick Steves, the Villa d'Este was the pleasure palace of the Cardinal Ippolito d'Este (what a name!), who destroyed a Benedictine monastry to build his little homestead in the 1550s. It's famous for all of its fountains and natural waterworks that flow from the Aniene River. We had a blast running through the gardens and taking plenty of pictures, although I would say the entrance fee was a ridiculous rip-off for taking pictures of fountains (9 Euros!!). In a way, I felt like I was running through some park in Roller Coaster Tycoon, except, no, I did not jump with glee after walking through a fountain attraction.

The gardens of Villa d'Este are vast and expansive, and it was sort of confusing to know where to walk from one fountain to the next. But just walking through the gardens was pretty refreshing despite the sun and heat. Here are some highlights from our stroll through the park:

After walking through the gardens, we were getting a bit tired, so we decided to chuck little stones over the wall into puddle of water in the field below.

Our little contest saw about 20-30 stones pelt the ground all around the puddle before Brukab got one right into it. I followed up with one that bounced off the edge of the puddle into the water a few stones later. Anyway, when that game was over, we decided to head out.

The bus ride home was long, hot, and nauseating. For some reason, I've been getting motion sickness really easily in Italy. It's not very fun, and I finally got off the hour-long bus ride with a throbbing headache. It was unfortunate that we were not able to visit Hadrian's Villa this time, but if I feel up to another hot, stuffy bus ride next weekend, I'll go see it.

I'm rethinking my plans for Pompeii tomorrow. I'm still exhausted from trying to do laundry late last night and finishing up some work at wee hours of the morning. I think I'll save it for next weekend and use tomorrow to finish revising my HIA final paper (which will be due next week), my HIA testimonial, and my HIA action plan. I'll have to start laying the groundwork for my research project here as well.

I forgot to bring my camera to our group dinner last night, so I used Brukab's camera. I finally was able to get them from him tonight, so I'll end this post with some tasty images of food and fun from last night. It was a fantastic traditional Italian meal that left us extremely stuffed. Enjoy!

Lots of meat stuffed with cheese. Delicious!

I used to not like mussels, but after last night, I am at a loss for why I never even tried them before...

Cheese balls stuffed with almonds (I think...it was some sort of nut). Not the best appetizer...oh, I should mention that all of these dishes, including the mussels, were just appetizers. =]