Day Trip to Tivoli

Other than go to the beach there are a number of other places to visit in Lazio. So last week, I decided to return to Tivoli and re-visit the Villa D'Este. I'd originally gone there in 1997 - before I came to live in Rome - and I remembered its cool alleys and numerous fountains in the garden.
I left home early-ish (9.30) and took the B-line metro to Ponte Mammolo. At Ponte Mammolo I waited somewhat longer than anticipated for the CoTRAL bus to Tivoli - it had got held up in road works on the outskirts of Rome. by the time I made it to Tivoli I was soaked through with sweat - the air-conditioning on the bus didn't work - and in none too good a mood. It was ten to midday. It had certainly taken longer than anticipated to cover the 40kms that separate Rome from Tivoli.
I crossed Piazza Garibaldi and found the entrance to Villa D'Este.

On wall beside the entrance

The entrance fee was heftier than I'd remembered - E11 - and included an exhibition which I wasn't really interested in. I descended into the Villa and then out onto the terrace which overlooks the gardens with its tantalising glimpses of fountains and the constant sound of running water.

Stairs to the garden

Motif throughout the garden of eagles and fleur de lys

Detail from Fountain of the Organ

Walk of a hundred fountains

One of the hundred

Shell

Detail in the garden

The Villa had originally been a convent and was transformed in 1550 by the architect Pirro Ligorio. It belonged to the Cardinal Ippolito D'Este (son of Lucrezia Borgia) and was his country Villa - a pleasant retreat from the bustle of Rome. He died before the garden was completed.
The garden is almost perfectly symmetrical and has fountains in every nook and cranny. Bernini worked on the Fontana del Bicchierone. Another fountain is dedicated to Rome (the Rometta) with the Tiber Island represented by a boat with an obelisk on it.

Prow of the Tiber Island

Two fountains play music - the Fountain of the Organ and the Fountain of the Owl.
In the central basins there are fish and while I was there - and despite signs that told people not to lean - a number of people were sitting on the edge of the basins with their feet in the water enjoying their picnic lunches.

After a leisurely hour and a half I returned back to the Villa glanced at some of the fresco-ed rooms and then went out into the afternoon heat in search of lunch. This proved harder to find than I had envisaged - I avoided the obvious tourist traps placed opposite the entrance of the Villa D'Este and went up some of the narrow alleys of the medieval town with hopes of a Trattoria or an Osteria. I gave up - August in Italy means that a lot of places are closed 'per le ferie'.
 Back on Piazza Garibaldi I went to a place called Bar Ariston which served one of the most memorably unpleasant lunches I've had in Italy. I opted for a chicken salad - fairly simple fair - it arrived before the cutlery or the drinks (a beer and a bottle of water). The food was dumped down and making separate journeys the waitress brought over a bottle of olive oil, balsamic glaze, salt and last but not least the cutlery.

I set to on the salad and discovered that beneath the char-grilled strips of chicken were slivers of tuna, wedges of artichokes, mushrooms, olives, cherry tomatoes and lettuce. The drinks arrived ten minutes after the food. This rather unusual service was not for my benefit only as the man at the table next door also got his food - Pasta in tomato sauce - before the cutlery , and as for the bread he ordered , it never came.
Lunch over I decided to find the entrance to Villa Gregoriana. I followed the signs that led to the falls entrance and handed over the E6 entrance fee. I was advised to prepare myself for the gruelling walk as the way down would be in the shade and the way up in the sun. The ticket seller was wrong - maybe it had been like that when she started her shift - but in fact at 3.30pm the way down was in the sun and the way up was in the shade. Just as well as it was a 160metre climb into and out of the gorge.
Today the Park of Villa Gregoriana is a protected site and is part of the FAI (Fondo Ambiente Italiano) - a non-profit organisation to safeguard Italy's artistic and natural heritage.
The park as seen today was designed under Pope Gregory VII (1831 - 1846), the engineer Clemente Folchi managed to find a way of diverting the course of the river Aniene so as to avoid the periodic flooding of the town. Two artificial tunnels were created the Cunicoli  Gregoriani (Gregorian tunnels) almost 300 metres long under Monte Catillo.

Cobwebs in a grotto

Small cascade - Bernini waterfalls

Bernini waterfalls

Waters of the river Aniene in a basin at the foot of the Great waterfall

Tunnel

The way out

Temple of Vesta

I crossed the Park from the falls entrance to the Temples entrance in a little over an hour , the Grande Cascata, was a disappointment. it falls 120metres down into the gorge but the water flow was meagre. I could imagine it would be more impressive in the Autumn or in the Spring. There were lots of grottoes and small cascades and the route to follow was clearly sign-posted. The Temples of Vesta and Tiburnus though are not part of the complex but belong to the garden of a restaurant - but it was possible to approach them and have a look at the magical view from above the gorge and over the back of Tivoli.

Once out of the park it was time to go home but first I had to find my way back to Piazza Garibaldi and to the bus stop for Rome. I didn't have a map so it was after a half hour of meanderings through the medieval town that I eventually got to my destination.

 After that it was a question of waiting for the bus and, at least, the ride back into Rome wasn't as long or as hot as the way into Tivoli though nothing much can be said about the utter dreariness of the suburbs.

Alley way in the Old Town

detail on the wall of a house