Our Serenity-filled Tivoli Trip(s)

Voted Italy’s most beautiful garden in 2006, we spent Friday afternoon in search of Villa Adriana (because we didn’t realize that we actually wanted to go to Villa D’Este). Allow me to explain.
Tivoli is a hilltop town, and it has two great estates one a former convent and the other a summer residence built by the emperor Hadrian as a peaceful place to escape from the city life in Rome. Both are said to be stunning, filled with perfectly manicured gardens, fountains, and statues. Villa Adriana, the estate built by Hadrian, is located at the bottom of the hill and is said to be more like a small town than a villa. Villa D’Este is at the top of the hill, basically in the center of Tivoli, and it is filled with fountains and statues to delight; including a fountain that used to play the organ (the music is artificial nowadays).

Lainie and Charles below the organ fountain

Based on the descriptions in our guidebook, we wanted to see the latter of the two estates, only Charles got confused and thought we were looking for Villa Adriana. To add more confusion to the mess, we didn’t know that the two estates were so far apart, and so we rode the bus into Tivoli town center, and disembarked on our journey. We saw signs everywhere for Villa D’Este, but we couldn’t find Villa Adriana anywhere. We consulted a map in a gift shop window, and it turned out to be way off scale, and we ended up walking a good distance until asking a very helpful woman where Villa Adriana was. She told us to get back on the bus and head to the bottom of the hill.

On the bus we made sure to ask the driver where we should get off, and he was very helpful and directed us right where we needed to go (he must be new). We finally got to where we thought we wanted to go only to be turned away at the ticket counter because we missed the last entrance by minutes! At this point we were exhausted, sweaty, hungry, and pissed off! We headed home defeated, apologizing to Lainie for wasting her precious and limited vacation time.

Thirsty?

To add insult to injury, we looked closer at our guidebook when we got home and discovered that, in fact, we wanted to see Villa D’Este after all, and we were right there the whole time!!

Fast forward two days. We decided that after our good morning at the Vatican Museum we would give it another go and head back to Tivoli. It was Sunday, and fewer buses run on Sunday, so we packed ourselves into a bus to stand for the hour long ride. We were all crammed into the aisles, and an old woman got on very last. As soon as she got on she started ranting and raving about the uncomfortable position she was in, and how Lainie’s ponytail was in her face (as if she could help it). Then the entertainment started.

Charles, Lainie, and Allie

A young girl, maybe in her early twenties, was seated in the front row of the bus. The old lady started to demand that this girl give her the seat. The girl refused and all hell broke loose. They began arguing back and forth, with the old woman literally so angry that she was screeching. The bus driver pulled over and people were all yelling at the old woman to shut up until finally someone else decided they would just get off the bus so the old bag could have a seat! But did she stop there? No, she kept ranting and raving and screeching. It was so annoying yet so hilarious all at once. Charles asked me if he should get some of the fight on video and I told him to do it, but he chickened out.

After maybe twenty minutes or so she finally stopped her rampage and we could enjoy the ride in peace. What I find to be the funniest thing of all, was that if she had asked nicely for someone to give her their seat, anyone would have done it instantly. Instead, she started demanding things and went off the deep end when her demands weren’t met.

So anyway, we made it to Villa D’Este and had a great time. It is stunning and the weather was gorgeous, and we took a million pictures for you to see. Notice how there’s no story in the stuff that comes easy?

Garden scene depicting Rome