The Emperor’s Country Estate!

Diario di Roma Tre
Thursday March 23, 2017
Partly Cloudy 62°F/17°C in Roma, EUR, Italia 00144
Cloudy 67°F/19°C in Cedar Park, Texas 78613

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime. Mark Twain

Buonasera!

         Many first-time visitors to Italy bring with them travel plans that are simply far too ambitious.  And, I’ll quickly admit that my first visit to Rome fell right into this category. Over a dinner in Trastevere on my first night in Italy, my son asked me, so what are your plans for your two weeks in Italy? I laid out my game plan which included a few days in Rome with a side trip to Pom

MikeBo, Rebecca, Laura, Michael

peii, then a couple of days in Florence and a few more after that in Venice. Oh, and of course we wanted to visit Pisa to see the leaning tower. Then, if we had time, I had thought about attending the opera at La Scala in Milan! As it turned out, I didn’t even get to Pompeii that trip. In fact, I never left Rome. It has taken four or five additional trips to visit all the cities that were on my original wish list. And I still haven’t been to the opera – in Milan or anywhere else.
      In addition to teaching English and playing in a popular band in Rome, my son is a professional tour guide with the City Wonders company.  So, I have tagged along with him on City Wonders tours all around Rome, Pompeii, Florence and Venice. In Rome, everyone wants to see the

Hadrian's Castle and Michael-2005

Coliseum, the Forum, the Pantheon, Hadrian’s Castle, Trevi Fountain and St. Peter’s Square and the Vatican. Now, with a few trips to Italy under my belt, I’m able to branch out. So, this past weekend, Michael called a friend of his to ask a favor, and off we went on another adventure to an ancient wonder.

Now, every tour guide in Rome has their own favorite places, where they take their friends when they are not on the clock for their employer. Rebecca Bright’s favorite place is La Villa Adriana. This was her day off, but since Michael’s Dear old Dad was in town, Rebecca offered to show us around Hadrian’s country estate. So, off we went on a 29 kilometer (18 mile) jaunt to the countryside near Tivoli.

      The grandeur that was Rome is visible througout the Eternal City. The images that come most readily to mind are the Coliseum and the triumphal arch alongside. There’s the Forum, the Pantheon and Castel San Angelo, tomb of the Emperor Hadrian.   Hadrian,  who reigned from AD 117 to AD 138 was a builder who left his imprint throughout Rome and the Empire beyond. Under his reign, Rome consolidated its empire and the glory days began to recede. In order to preserve Roman territories in Brittania, Hadrian built his famous wall across northern England near the present day  border wth Scotland. An early wall, like the 20^th century Berlin Wall that never lived up to its expectations.
      Considered to be the third of the Five Good Emperors by historians, Hadrian actually ruled his empire from Villa Adriana, during the later years of his reign. The villa sprawled over 350 acres

and had a permanent population of about a thousand people who helped Hadrian tend to the

Villa Adriana

business of empire since the Emperor did not feel comfortable at the Imperial palace on Palatine Hill. The villa is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a soft spot in Rebecca’s heart. Visitors to the villa usually stop at the visitors center at the entrance. On display is a model of Villa Adriana as it was when Hadrian ruled. The structures and the gardens are breath-taking. At the center is a large reflecting pool reminiscent of the one on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. There are the ruins of a huge bathhouse, an ancient fitness center available at no cost to all citizens and operated by hundreds of slaves. Within the city, the Emperor had several places reserved for his exclusive use, either when he preferred solitude or when he wished to entertain a few special guests.
       Villa Adriana is definitely worth seeing, if your schedule allows. We made it a full day’s outing with a leisurely drive to the country, a delightful lunch at a local ristorante in Tivoli and several hours of prowling through the ruins of Villa Adriana. It was a busman’s holiday for Rebecca, but a whole new experience for the rest of us. I would strongly suggest that the next time you travel to new places, that you ask your guide where he or she takes their friends on their day off.
Ciao,
MikeBo

[Mike Botula is the author of LST 920: Charlie Botula’s Long, Slow Target!  (Amazon Books)  MikeBo’s Blog is a wholly owned subsidiary of his web site www.mikebotula.com

© By Mike Botula 2017