Villa D'Este

The Villa D'Este is in Tivoli, a town in the mountains about 50 minutes by train from Rome. We caught the bus to Tiburtina Station and the train to Tivoli. The region is beautiful with waterfalls and hilltop villages. The place is World Heritage classified but it is a bit hard to say what it is classified as ...

It was a Renaissance villa and garden built in large part by plundering stone and artwork from the nearby villa of Emperor Hadrian and redirecting springs in wonderful ways. Then it became overgrown and the Romantics got all romantic about it. And then they eventually restored it in the 20th century.

Anyway - the frescoes were faded and dull but the garden was a thing of wonder. It isn't so much a garden with water features but water features with a garden.

We enjoyed our explore. There was a train back at 3.11 and every 40 minutes thereafter. Lyn surprised me by setting a cracking pace back to the station, ignoring the many shopping opportunities en route. Then the explanation came to me. This would maximise shopping opportunities in Rome on our return! Sure enough, we hopped off the bus on Via Del Corso and purchases were made. (On the train journey from Tivoli to Rome the only people awake in our carriage were the guard and Lyn. The guard, because doing absolutely nothing on a train requires eternal vigilance, and Lyn, because shopping was in prospect.)

The only other notable feature of the day was that Lyn was delighted by the names of a supermarket and hotel.

We have always enjoyed Italian car spotting, particularly the tiny ones. Back in Trastavere we saw this.