Hadrian's Villa

A group of us decided to use our free Saturday to go out near Tivoli to Hadrian’s Villa. We left Rome at 12:30 and after taking a train and a bus we arrived just outside the entrance to the villa. I remembered discussing Hadrian’s Villa in history but the specifics were a little foggy so when we arrived at the model of the complex I was surprised at how expansive it was. The villa sits on the bottom of a hillside so the town of Tivoli can be seen rising up in the background of the ruins and the complex is made up of a series of open spaces surrounding the buildings. These spaces, some overgrown and some landscaped, were full of trees and grass. The ruins themselves seemed to be in really good shape and some of the buildings still had roofs covering the interior. My favorite part of the complex was Hadrian’s private bath house with a main section that we could walk down into and a portion with a dome and oculus resembling the Pantheon. There were also parts here and there throughout the villa that still has mosaic floors and interior plaster that can be seen. The way that the Villa interacted with nature and the curve of the hillside was beautiful. These are definitely things that you have to go outside of Rome to experience but it was well worth the few hours of travel. Because we got to the Villa in the late afternoon we had to move rather quickly in order to see everything in time to get back to Rome at a good hour but this is a place that you could absolutely spend all day exploring, relaxing in the grass, and sketching. While we were there, we could see people paragliding off the hills which might bring me back to Tivoli.

Hadrian's Bath House

Ruins with Tivoli on the hill behind.