Trip to Tivoli

Today could not have been any more perfect. I took a trip to Hadrian's Villa, Villa d'Este and Tivoli. The weather was absolutely perfect. It was warm, sunny, and felt more like summer than spring. Our first stop was Hadrian's Villa, or Villa Adriana in Italian, which was almost like a mini Pompei with the ruins.

 I thought it would be more in tact than it was, but it was still very nice. This was one of the main pools, and it even had fish and turtles swimming around. 

This pool reminded me of the Getty Villa in LA! 

After a quick lunch break in Tivoli (where I had lunch with a really nice Australian high school teacher who was also traveling alone and a newly engaged couple) we headed to Villa d'Este. The Boboli Gardens in Florence are nothing compared to these. There were tulips in bloom everywhere...

And the fountains looked like something you would see in a Disney movie or a fairy tale.

Not to mention, the wisteria here is in full bloom now and it is beyond gorgeous (and smells amazing). 

This is just one of the many places in the gardens that had wisteria in bloom. 

This fountain was probably my favorite. The water was turquoise-green and unlike anything I've ever seen. With the huge waterfall, sculptures, and ivy growing everywhere, this is probably one of my top three things I've seen in Italy and possibly even in my life. 

These fountains went on endlessly (probably longer than the Washington Monument if you turned it on its side!!!) and had sculptures of eagles, and water coming out of lions' mouths.

We walked down a ton of stairs to the bottom of the Villa, which looked like this from the top level...

And like this from the bottom level.. At the structure at the very top there were organs playing in the middle of the fountain. So while we looked at the wisteria, fountains, gardens, and sculptures, the organs played beautiful music, which echoed. It was amazing. 

I was supposed to take a tour to Ostia tomorrow, but the tour ended up getting cancelled because not enough people signed up... Even though I can't go, I am so glad I came back to Rome to see Tivoli and Ostia just gives me another excuse to come back to Rome in the future! I'm going back to Florence in the late afternoon tomorrow, and then I have a final, a presentation, and then I'm coming home on Friday! It's incredible how I've been to Rome four times now and every time I come, there is still so much more to see. Besides horseback riding, this has been one of my favorite days during my time abroad. 

Ciao for now!