Tivoli Off The Beaten Path

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Tivoli was a favoured place for ancient Romans to retire to (and for the wealthy to have summer villas) , and continued to be so during the Renaissance.

Thus, as with all Italian towns and cities which have millennia of occupation behind them, you can see evidence of the past melding into more recent times. Italians seem to have been happy to build on top of or next to existing structures, or to incorporate them into newer buildings rather than entirely clear the site. Which is very, very good.

Tivoli is a pleasant place for a wander anyway, so keep your eyes open as you do. You'll see the past emerging in all sorts of unlikely places...........

The dominating feature of Villa Adriana is the Canopus, which is an elongated lake surrounded by a colonnade. At the end of the lake was a Temple of Serapis, dug into the hillside.
In the spaces between the columns are statues of Ares, Athena, Hermes and two Amazons.

The western side of the canopus has central columns, substituted by six Caryatides, four of which are copies of a temple on the Acropolis in Athens and the other two Caryatides represent Sileni (cement reproductions as the originals are in the museum). Oh look they are reflected too ;-))

As I live close to Tivoli, I usually walk through the town without looking at buildings, churches and ruins... It's because I'm in a hurry and go there just to shop or something... but there's much to see...

Along the pathways and hallways of the villa you will find just about every type of marble known to man. While taking over most of the world, the Romans collected many finer things from other countries, which included fine marbles and stones.

This was the mens bath complex.
The Romans sure loved their baths - there are several bath complexes at Villa Adriana.
The great circular room probably housed the Turkish bath (sudatio) as no plumbing pipes are present.

The Maritime Theatre is a strange central island structure ringed by Ionic columns and a circular canal. This was Hadrians favourite spot in which to indulge in his favourite pastimes, painting and architecture.

Take time to visit the Villa Hadriana if you like visiting roman ruins and want to know all the details. Entrance fee was 6.5 Euros and you can get an audio-guide for 4 Euros which takes 1.5 hours to go through - not including the walking inbetween the sites.