Italy from South to North

Today was a less manic day than the standard for this trip. We packed all our bags and headed to the train station, where Aron had previously noticed a bag depository. We left his large camping bag there so that he would not have to lug it around all day, and we stuffed my plastic bags full of dirty and clean clothes inside it. My choice of breakfast foods was nonstandard: having noticed a few novelty gelato flavours, I decided to try out a scoop of mungo pine and another scoop of Sorrento lemon. The first genuinely tasted like pine needles (I don’t know what else I was expecting), while the second was very flavourful. Aron and I also tried martozzi, a kind of sliced bun brimming with cream.

Having bought tickets for the 9:05 train to Tivoli, we expected to reach our destination by around 10. The train, however, kept gathering so many delays that we came about half an hour later than expected. Still, the town seemed relatively empty of tourists, especially in comparison with the madness we had witnessed in Rome.

We began our tour of Tivoli by crossing the Gregorian Bridge into the old town. From this vantage point, we could easily see the ancient Temple of Vesta and the Temple of the Sybil standing on an escarpment above the stream. The Temple of Vesta is the more visually prominent of the two, standing closer to the bridge and boasting several well-preserved columns on a circular base. The Temple of the Sybil, however, has a more interesting backstory: it is said that the emperor Augustus once visited the Tiburtine Sybil to ask whether he should let himself be worshipped as a god. According to the story, the Sybil responded that one day a much greater man would be born, and he would be the saviour of the world.

Having crossed the bridge to the old town, we bought combined tickets for the Villa d’Este and Hadrian’s Villa, which are among the most famous villas in Tivoli. The Villa d’Este was constructed by Cardinal Ippolito II d’Este, who was one of the richest clergymen of his time and a great patron of the arts. D’Este ran for Pope five times, but his lavish lifestyle undermined his candidacy at a time when the Catholic clergy was coming under increasing criticism for its extravagance. In return for supporting one of his competitors, the cardinal was awarded the governorship of Tivoli, allowing him to construct his luxurious mansion.

The Villa d’Este was something of a marvel when it was first built thanks to its gardens. Boasting fountains of all shapes and sizes, it impressed visitors with both visual splendour and clever auditory tricks. Some of the fountains reached imposing heights, while other water features – like a long wall lined with three layers of spouts – reached impressive numbers. Aron and I spent a fair amount of time walking around the gardens, where I furtively plucked a tiny tangerine and discovered that despite its zesty rind, it was as sour as a lime.

Uncertain of how to reach Hadrian’s Villa, which according to Google Maps lay about an hour away by foot, we asked for help at the ticket office. We were told there was a bus stop by the nearby plaza, and that we could buy the tickets at a nearby café. We had no trouble finding the bus stop: it was flocked by a throng of people, whom Aron astutely identified as local since they were all smoking. As soon as we figured out the schedule on the nearby notice board, however, the bus came hurtling down the street, and we jumped on for fear that it might take another half an hour for the next bus to show up.

Standing by the driver, we attempted to buy our tickets from her, but the language barrier proved very tall indeed. From the snippets I picked up, the driver was telling us we should buy our tickets from the café. When we tried to make her understand that this advice was no longer very relevant, she offered to sell us tickets for cash. From what we gathered, she wanted fourteen euros, but between the two of us we could only procure a 10 and a 20-euro banknote. Clearly behind schedule, the driver gave up and let us stay on board.

Very helpfully, the driver and another passenger let us know when we reached the closest bus stop to Hadrian’s Villa. It took another twenty minutes by foot to reach the entrance of the complex. The contrast between this and the Villa d’Este was huge. With few cars in the parking lot and no one monitoring the turnstiles, the villa was practically empty. A good millennium and a half older than the Villa d’Este, it was mostly in ruins, though we did see a few impressive structures and some beautiful statues reflected in its pools. Only thanks to the 3d miniature in one of the houses did we glean something of the glamour and sheer size of this erewhile imperial pleasure ground.

Getting back to Tivoli from Villa d’Este was much simpler than getting there. At the ticket office, we were told that the bus would arrive at the bus stop imminently, and we were left in no doubt as to where the bus stop was. Italian ideas about time are rather stretchy, so we ended up waiting another fifteen minutes, but the bus did arrive. This time, it was clearly the correct shuttle running between the two villas; the bus driver even spoke English and accepted cash. We arrived in Tivoli with just enough time to take a few pictures of the fortress Rocca Pia, after which we hurried to the train station and took the train back to Rome.

Having eaten no lunch, we stuffed ourselves at the station. Aron and I shared an arancine and ate one panzerotto each, after which Aron ate some Sicilian desserts and I had a gianduiotto gelato. We agreed that the panzerotto is not our favourite snack: like a calzone closed on all sides, it has a high ratio of dough to filling and is not fried like a battilocchio.

We departed after seven and arrived in Florence at half past nine. The walk to our hotel took us past the stunning cathedral, which in the night seemed like an otherworldly apparition. Its stripes gave the building an almost two-dimensional, cartoonlike quality, while the size of the dome – visible from both near and far – impressed upon us the fact that this was the largest cupola built in over a thousand years since the erection of the Pantheon and the Hagia Sophia.