Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Tivoli: Hadrien's Villa and Villa D'Est






Hadrien's Villa is a beautiful place.  Hadrien was a Roman Emperor around 100 AD.  He built a palace in the country so that he didn't have to deal with Rome and allergies and crowded streets.  My dad lived in Rome for a year when he was 5 years old.  His favorite place was Hadrien's Villa so I really wanted to go there.  It is probably one of my favorite places too.  Although there was a difference between Hadrien's Villa and Versailles:  
1.  Versailles has much more gold
2.  Hadrien's Villa is in ruins, while Versaille acts like it is only 1 year old. 
3.  Hadrien's Villa was built 2,000 years ago while Versailles was build 500 years
ago:  big difference!

However, they both were palaces/homes in the countryside for royalty. Life is good for royalty/emperors, but being on the opposite side, leaves you dying on the streets.  

Villa D'Est was originally a  monestary where the mayor of Tivoli lived.  But around 1550, 
a Cardinal had that position and decided to give the monestary a makeover and created Villa
D'Est with 600 fountains in the backyard.  Personally, I like the gardens, not the inside.  In the garden, we had a picnic of bread and nutella and apples, and I fed the fishes in the pond while big fat cats stalked the fish.    All of the fountains in the garden used water pressure and gravity, not pumps.  I like fountains!  

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