That's a lot for me, so it's no wonder I was quite happy to laze in the passenger seat while Paul tried out his new toy - a Citroen C4 Cactus. Not that he had much of a chance because Tivoli is only about 35 km north east of Rome and it was local traffic all the way.
In ancient times, around 90 BC, the city became a resort area famed for its beauty and its good water which gushed from many, many natural springs. It was an area enriched by many Roman villas. The most famous one, of which the ruins remain, is the Villa Adriana (Hadrian's Villa).
The villa was constructed at Tivoli as a retreat from Rome for Roman Emperor Hadrian during the second and third decades of the 2nd century AD. Hadrian is said to have disliked the palace on the Palatine Hill in Rome, leading to the construction of this retreat. It was traditional that the Roman emperor constructed a villa for himself as a place to relax from everyday life.
During the later years of his reign, Hadrian actually governed the empire from the villa. He started using the villa as his official residence around AD 128. A large court therefore lived there permanently and large numbers of visitors and bureaucrats would have had to have been entertained and temporarily housed on site. The postal service kept it in contact with Rome where the various government departments were located.
It isn't known if Hadrian's wife lived at the villa either on a temporary or permanent basis – his relations with her were apparently rather strained or distant, possibly due to his ambiguous sexuality. The photo above is the grand bath complex for staff. The emperor and his special guests had a smaller but more luxurious affair. There is nothing much left of the emperor's palace. Because it was so sumptuous the materials were much sort after and much was destroyed in wars.
From the 16th century Tivoli saw further construction of villas. The most famous of these is the Villa d'Este, a UNESCO World Heritage site, whose construction was started in 1550 by Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este and which was richly decorated.
It had fountains and water features both inside and out.
The first of about eight or ten garden levels, each down another substantial flight of stairs.
Originally all of the fountains were gravity fed from natural springs - no pumps in those days.
You can see the different building materials and styles as the villa was added to by successive owners.
A drawing of the original Fountain of Tivoli built in 1566. (I can see tea-towel writ large here.)
And this is how it looks today, nearly 500 years later.
We then walked down below to see the fountain from the front (with hundreds of other people, some of whom got into my photos).
That archway in the far brick wall is the main road into the square - thank goodness it's one way!
But if you're thinking that's narrow you should have seen what Paul has manoeuvred this car through since we've been travelling down the west coast from one medieval village to another.
But the thing is - it's really hard to take photos when your heart is in your mouth and your eyes are squeezed shut and you've stopped breathing. Or when you are outside the car estimating how many millimetres he can move backwards or forwards in order to get out of (or in to) a parking spot or to get around a right angled corner on a stone wall where cars are parked right up to the edges and there is no room to swing.
Thank goodness he's Italian and thinks it's all fun!
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