It was another early-to-bed night last night from exhaustion so getting up early this morning was fairly easy. After breakfast at the hotel we took our first subway ride to the end of the line to catch a bus out to the country. The guy at the hotel told us the wrong stop, so we had to backtrack a little to get the right bus, but fortunately, it's only one euro per ticket. In Norway, riding the bus is around seven dollars, just to go a little ways, but here, we can go all the way across Rome for about $1.25, so at least public transporation is affordable. And the weird thing was, we went to the ticket counter and bought bus tickets to go to the Village of Tivoli, but once on the bus, we were never asked for them. In fact, no one getting on the bus paid or showed any kind of pass whatsoever, all the way out to Tivoli (45 minutes) and the same coming back. Strange.
Kaleb was pretty excited about getting out of the city today and the village we were at was spectacular. There is a villa - an old private residence called Ville d'Este - built in the 1500s by the grandson of Alexandar VI (the Pope) - that is now open to the public. It was the most decadant place I've ever seen with room after room of mosaic floors and painted walls and ceilings. They didn't have any furniture in the rooms, which was just as well because each room was a work of art unto itself. So the "house" was unbelievable, but the surrounding gardens were a work of genius. Apparently this villa was built on top of a waterfall, and those clever Romans (that first invented indoor plumbing, flush toilets and running water in a sink) had a hey day at this place. They managed to contain all the water coming from this waterfall (which is now not visible) and channel it all throughout several acres of land with hundreds and hundreds of different fountains spouting up everywhere. In fact, one sidewalk that ran nearly from one end of the complex to the other, had one hundred different animals heads carved out of marble with all of them spurting water (see photo of Kaleb running next to them). Several of the fountains were dedicated to pagan gods and goddesses, which is why the owner, who eventually became a Cardinal, wasn't too popular in Vatican City. In the middle of the garden was something like the mall in Washington DC with different reflecting ponds and a massive water feature at the end. Every nook and cranny had naturally spurting water fountains, it was just unreal. Kaleb was in heaven, just thinking it was the coolest place ever (and I'm sure in the summertime it's VERY cool up in those hills). He kept asking me if I wanted to move in there, and wouldn't that just be the best place to live. I told him I was happy just to visit for the day, but he didn't want to leave. Fortunately, he finally got hungry enough to precipitate our exit, but he couldn't stop talking about it. It was overwhelmingly beautiful and we saw it early enough that we had the place practically to ourselves. Just as we were leaving, hoards of tourists were entering.
We went in the village square and sat in the warm sunshine and ordered lunch at a sidewalk cafe. It is just too funny to order things here because no one speaks English. We get things we don't order and we don't get things we do order. It is funny everytime, and the food has all been good so we're not complaing. The wine has been fabulous and it's not like me to be drinking wine for lunch, but I can't help myself - it's cheaper than bottled water or pop. In Norway, a glass of wine with a meal can costs about $30 so we never order it, but here, it's less than four bucks and tastes better than anything I've ever had. What a treat.
After lunch we were going to walk around the village and look in some of the shops, but our timing was off. All the businesses in Italy close down between 1-4pm or 2-5pm and then open back up again in the evening. It must have to do with the heat of the day in the summertime or something, but not a thing was open so we just walked around a bit and tried to find the entrance to a huge castle in the middle of town, but never did find it. We also read in the travel book that buses back to Rome don't come too frequently after 4:30 so we hopped on one around three o'clock and got back to town before dark.
Inside the big subway/train station in the heart of Rome by our hotel, we discovered the biggest bookstore any of us has ever seen. It's about 3 times the size of the biggest Barnes and Noble so that ate up the rest of our day as it was impossible to get Kaleb out of there once he discovered the English book section. I bought him a book on Pompeii as we will be heading there soon. I'm hoping he can be our tour guide and save us some money. He devoured the book when we got back to the hotel as he's been desperate for a good read for quite a while. We went to dinner across the street from our hotel and had pizza and pasta. No surprise there.
Kaleb was pretty excited about getting out of the city today and the village we were at was spectacular. There is a villa - an old private residence called Ville d'Este - built in the 1500s by the grandson of Alexandar VI (the Pope) - that is now open to the public. It was the most decadant place I've ever seen with room after room of mosaic floors and painted walls and ceilings. They didn't have any furniture in the rooms, which was just as well because each room was a work of art unto itself. So the "house" was unbelievable, but the surrounding gardens were a work of genius. Apparently this villa was built on top of a waterfall, and those clever Romans (that first invented indoor plumbing, flush toilets and running water in a sink) had a hey day at this place. They managed to contain all the water coming from this waterfall (which is now not visible) and channel it all throughout several acres of land with hundreds and hundreds of different fountains spouting up everywhere. In fact, one sidewalk that ran nearly from one end of the complex to the other, had one hundred different animals heads carved out of marble with all of them spurting water (see photo of Kaleb running next to them). Several of the fountains were dedicated to pagan gods and goddesses, which is why the owner, who eventually became a Cardinal, wasn't too popular in Vatican City. In the middle of the garden was something like the mall in Washington DC with different reflecting ponds and a massive water feature at the end. Every nook and cranny had naturally spurting water fountains, it was just unreal. Kaleb was in heaven, just thinking it was the coolest place ever (and I'm sure in the summertime it's VERY cool up in those hills). He kept asking me if I wanted to move in there, and wouldn't that just be the best place to live. I told him I was happy just to visit for the day, but he didn't want to leave. Fortunately, he finally got hungry enough to precipitate our exit, but he couldn't stop talking about it. It was overwhelmingly beautiful and we saw it early enough that we had the place practically to ourselves. Just as we were leaving, hoards of tourists were entering.
We went in the village square and sat in the warm sunshine and ordered lunch at a sidewalk cafe. It is just too funny to order things here because no one speaks English. We get things we don't order and we don't get things we do order. It is funny everytime, and the food has all been good so we're not complaing. The wine has been fabulous and it's not like me to be drinking wine for lunch, but I can't help myself - it's cheaper than bottled water or pop. In Norway, a glass of wine with a meal can costs about $30 so we never order it, but here, it's less than four bucks and tastes better than anything I've ever had. What a treat.
After lunch we were going to walk around the village and look in some of the shops, but our timing was off. All the businesses in Italy close down between 1-4pm or 2-5pm and then open back up again in the evening. It must have to do with the heat of the day in the summertime or something, but not a thing was open so we just walked around a bit and tried to find the entrance to a huge castle in the middle of town, but never did find it. We also read in the travel book that buses back to Rome don't come too frequently after 4:30 so we hopped on one around three o'clock and got back to town before dark.
Inside the big subway/train station in the heart of Rome by our hotel, we discovered the biggest bookstore any of us has ever seen. It's about 3 times the size of the biggest Barnes and Noble so that ate up the rest of our day as it was impossible to get Kaleb out of there once he discovered the English book section. I bought him a book on Pompeii as we will be heading there soon. I'm hoping he can be our tour guide and save us some money. He devoured the book when we got back to the hotel as he's been desperate for a good read for quite a while. We went to dinner across the street from our hotel and had pizza and pasta. No surprise there.
