Friday, September 3, 2010

Bill, Sylvia & Sandy’s Most Excellent Italian Adventure

Sylvia suggested we go to Tivoli today instead of seeing the sites in Rome.  That was fine with me, I feel very “on guard” in this city known for its thieves and pick pockets.  To go to Tivoli we had to take the subway, and bus as Tivoli is 18 miles or so outside of Rome.   Subways in rush hour are crowded and makes you an easy target for pickpockets but we were not going at rush hour.   Putting 3 heads together we found our way, got on and off at all the right places and had a great time at Tivoli, very lovely, most beautiful fountains I have ever seen.  Here are some photos

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After successfully negotiating the metro (subway) and getting lost in the bus garage we are waiting at the bus stop for our bus to Tovoli.

Don’t we look like we know what we are doing in this shot?

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The Villa D’ Este had a fabulous collection of botanical flower paintings and prints from the mid 1500’s to 1,600’s.  I only got this first photo when the guard stopped me from taking photos even though my flash was turned off.  Below are a few of the 199 photos I took in this breath taking garden of fountains, the Tivoli Gardens.

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The return trip to Rome went smoothly but when we got carried away with our subway riding savvy and decided to go on to the Coliseum we hit crowds. We encountered the old 3 little girls with babies trick (two babies 1 fake one)  did not fool us, but spooky how through all the people in-between us and them they worked their way right to us.  We shoved our way through the crowd away from them just as fast so foiled their pick pocket scheme. 

We were too late in the day to get inside the Coliseum but from the outside it is still amazing.   The scale of it is incredible.

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Constantine is the guy who built this one if I remember right.  He took statues and carvings from previous emperor’s  buildings and adorned his arch with it.  Roman recycling?

Pat and Crew arrived today and we had planned to meet for dinner but they were too tired.  So I looked for the closest restaurant to my hotel not wanting to walk alone in the dark, and found a Chinese restaurant.  I had an absolutely delicious dinner, good Chinese in Rome?  Who knew!

 

Tomorrow we meet up with Patrick and the rest of the students at the train station to go to Cortona.

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