Villa Torlonia, Palestrina, & Hadrian's Villa

The past few days in Rome have been...perfect. There is no other word. The weather is a consistent 65 degrees F and sunny. So sunny.

On Thursday we had a trip with our Italian teachers to Villa Torlonia - Mussolini's residence when he was in power. And wow, do dictators have taste. The whole estate is now a huge public park, and the actual buildings are museums. The main mansion was a bit gaudy for me - it was filled with decadent things, frescoes covering the walls, chandeliers, et cetera. Very "I am a dictator and you will be aware of this" sort of feeling, but it was still incredibly beautiful.

Our tickets also allowed us entrance into the cottage, which was the residence of a prince, and which I fell in love with. It was a house out of a fairy tale. The way it was built made no sense - windows, balconies, doors, pointy roofs everywhere. And the inside is now a museum filled with stained glass pieces. This cottage was my favorite thing in the park.

We had some more time after the cottage to wander around the area, get a cappuccino, and soak up some more sun before I had to head back to the Cenci for reviews.

Today was another incredible day. We left bright and early at 8am for an art history tour with Ezio and the whole group to Palestrina, a town about an hour outside of Rome where the ancient Temple of Fortuna was located (it no longer exists in full, but is in fragments), and to Hadrian's Villa. I don't think I've ever had this many consecutively beautiful days. We started out in Palestrina, walking up the terraces that lead up the mountain. It felt like a repeat of my trek up the Naples' hillside, except this time it was sunny and warm instead of a thunderstorm. There were scenic views at every corner, and since it's not tourist season, I felt like we were the only ones there.

Everybody!

Model of the Temple of Fortuna


Christina in front of the giant mosaic

Stopping periodically for Ezio to point out parts of the ancient temple, we made it to the top, where there is now a museum with artifacts from the area. There was the statue of Fortuna, a huge mosaic about the Nile river, one of the largest intact, and a model of what the temple looked like when it existed in full. After the museum, we headed back down the mountain and took another 40 minute bus to Hadrian's Villa.

Hadrian's Villa is a magical place. It's filled with olive groves, ethereal sunlight, fairies, and ancient things. It's basically the equivalent of Disney World for Hadrian back in 100 B.C. He didn't actually live there much, but built this like "model city" to show how bottomless his pockets were and how awesome he was as emperor. We visited an overlook tower, walked through the olive trees, saw the reflecting pool, other ruins, living quarters, the theater, and walked back through a long line of cypress trees. There are just no words or pictures that can describe how stunningly beautiful this place was. I was in awe the entire time, and I can feel myself falling more in love with Italy as the weather gets warmer.

Tomorrow I'm heading to Assisi for the day, and before Tuesday have a paper to write, a midterm to study for, and art to create (and yes, I promise I will post some art soon, I just haven't gotten around to scanning anything, shh).