Lovely Villas

Yesterday was long and involved a lot of walking, but it was well worth it. We went to Tivoli, where our first stop was Hadrian's Villa. The complex is huge and impressive, which I suppose you would expect for a Roman emperor. Hadrian was known as a relatively scholarly emperor, so one of the funnier aspects of the site is that whenever someone doesn't know how to identify a room, it's called a library. This led to lots of moments where someone would look at the site map, ask where we were, and be told, "Oh, we're in the library."

Hadrian was also seriously into Egypt. There's a Serapeum (worship space for the Egyptian god Serapis) on the property. We also have some of the remains of the Antinoeion, a temple/memorial to Hadrian's younger lover, Antinous. After Antinous's death by drowning in the Nile, Hadrian memorialized the boy by assimilating him with the Egyptian god Osiris.

Most lovely, however, are the many pools around the property. Hadrian and his guests had lots of places to chill out by the water, which seemed like a great idea yesterday! The sun was beating down pretty hard, and I was starting to get jealous of the turtles and fish that inhabit the pools today.

After our stroll through Hadrian's Villa, we went to the Villa d'Este. It's not an ancient villa, but it's a beautiful one! Getting to walk through the gardens and get splashed by icy fountain water was a huge relief from the oppressive heat of the afternoon. The house itself is lovely, but trust me, the gardens are the really exciting part.

One thing that amazes me most about these kinds of properties is how much cooler you can feel, even without air conditioning, with the right combinations of water and shade. The Villa d'Este even had small caves you could step into that were so cold even though it was a scorcher outside. I'll have to remember this when I have my own villa someday. (I wish!)