One of the nice things about our program is that several tours and field trips are already included as part of our program. One of these programs is Hadrian's Villa, where we toured today. Hadrian's Villa is sort of like an ancient combination of the grandeur of Versailles and ancient Roman ingenuity. Hadrian, who ruled the Roman Empire from 118 AD to 138 AD, did so at the height of the golden age of the Roman Empire, and he was the complete dictator of the entire known world at that time. The villa that we toured was sort of his retreat-type residence where he lived when he wasn't in Rome. However, when he came to his Villa, the sprawling complex often housed upwards of 6,000 people.
The Villa is near of the town of Tivoli, Italy, which is about a 30 minute drive outside of Rome. Our program chartered a bus for us to go and spend the entire day at the villa. The villa has a lot of amazing spaces and areas left. However, this retreat has none of the plan of a Roman planned city; it sprawls organically, as it was created piecemeal as Hadrian came up with new and wonderful things that he wanted incorporated into his villa. It was nice to spend the day touring and sketching the villa, especially given the fantastic mist that was present in the morning and the sunny afternoon. Below are a few of my pictures from the Villa.
This evening, I went out for dinner with four of my friends at a very good pizzeria close to our
apartment called La MonteCarlo. The restaurant recommended to us by a friend that studied abroad in Rome last semester, but apparently is well respected in other circles as well. The pizza was excellent, although the service wasn't the greatest. For desert I got my first Tarufo Nero, a Italian desert that features two layers of ice cream encased in a cocoa powder. Afterwards
, we walked to Trastevere and wandered through some of the side streets that we did not get to tour on our walking tour yesterday.
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