Located a short train ride in the hills outside of Rome is the ancient hill town of Tivoli. There are several major tourist attractions in the area including Hadrian villa (built around 100AD), Villa d’Este and the Villa Gregoriana.
A Tivoli street
On a recent trip to Rome I took a morning out to visit the area around Tivoli. On this trip I managed to visit the Villa d’Este and the Villa Gregoriana. After leaving the train station and walking down the hill toward town you come across the Villa Gregoriana, an impressive park set in a gorge with a 100m waterfall. The waterfall is as a result of a tunnel dug, on the orders of the Pope of the time, through the hills over 200 years ago to divert a river that repeatedly flooded the town. The waters flow into an old sink hole and the whole area would be spectacular when in flood.
The hundred metre cascade
Tivoli ruin
The sink hole
View across the valley
10:14 AM |
Category:
Rome
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Continuing from the Villa Gregoriana you pass through Tivoli and end up at the gates of the Villa d’Este.
Built in the 1550s for Cardinals from the Catholic Church it was apparently intended for entertaining and the actual villa contains large rooms with views across the valley. While the villas scale is impressive it is the gardens that take your breath away. The entire garden area is terraced and contains a huge array of water features most of which take your breath away from the grand Fountain of the Dragons and Hundred Fountains to a miniature watery reproduction of Rome. The centrepiece, the gigantic Water Organ Fountain, cascades down a huge drop into a series of gentle pools.
Villa d'Este reflections
View over the gardens and back towards Roma
The hundred metre fountain
Organ fountain
Mosaic fountain and villa
The last fountain in the garden
10:10 AM |
Category:
Rome
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In the city of Rome there are some strange things to be seen like in the middle of the night a couple of homeless guys playing chess in the middle of the Piazza Nouvana
Or the woman on crutches hopping on her scooter.
And flying home experiencing snow and the need to de-ice the plane prior to takeoff.
10:00 AM |
Category:
Rome
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On my last trip to Rome I had my first visit to Saint Pauls Basilica which is of a similar scale to Saint Peters (inside) but a little way off the usual tourist routes (it has also just finished being restored and this was the first time in 5 years that I had driven past it without seeing scaffolding).
The basilica was founded in the 370’s and covers the burial place of Saint Paul. There has been almost continual work on the basilica since then including extensive remodeling following a fire in 1823 and an explosion in 1891.
The inside of the basilica is impressive and due to the fact that it is away from the main tourist areas it’s easy to get around and there are no queues.
St Pauls tomb
The apse mosaic was made by Venetian artists. Christ is flanked by the Apostles Peter, Paul, Andrew and Luke.
9:57 AM |
Category:
Rome
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Autumn has arrived in Japan and the leaves have started to turn their vibrant burnt reds, oranges and any colour in between. Looking through the local paper it said that the best time to visit Nikko (for the autumn leaves) was in late October so we took a day off work and headed to the hills for the day. After sitting in the car for nearly 3 hours we arrived at Nikko.
Nikko is well known for its temples and while we were in town we stopped to look at the bridge over the river and walk past one of the temples. At the temple we came across another unique, dragon inspired, way of cleansing your hands. The temple area in Nikko is world heritage listed and is on our list of things to see.
Then it was time to jump back in the car and head to the top of one of the surrounding hills (around Lake Chuzenji) which formed as a result of the eruption of a volcano eons ago. Here we visited the Kegon waterfall which is located at the outlet of the lake. To get a great view of the waterfall you need to get to the bottom. In most countries this would involve treking down some stairs (if your lucky), not in Japan, here you can catch a lift to the bottom of the waterfall (and there were still people complaining about having to walk down some stairs).
The main attraction at this time of year is the autumn leaves and in the area around Kegon waterfall they did not disappoint with many amazing colours set against the water and the hills.
And what better way to finish the perfect day but a fish on a stick. While not as boisterous as the Azabu juban festival fish on a stick seller this guy still had queues of people waiting for the fish to cook. Maybe it had something to do with the heat from his fire????
Located about 80 kilometres from home in Tokyo is the Hakone outdoor museum. Perched on top of a mountain and set in beautifully maintained gardens there is a mixture of sculpture, art to play with and paintings.
As you enter the grounds you come face to face with a huge bison statue and then head to areas that will keep the kids amused for hours including the “soft“ sculpture room (a room full of vinyl covered foam cut outs that can be stacked in any manner) and the wood house which has the most amazing rope spiders web inside designed solely to be climbed on and then there is the cube stack.
There are a couple of interesting pieces of sculpture in the gardens including a huge shopping lady and art so good someone fell down.
And the main attraction for many (apart from the hot springs foot bath!?!?) is the Picasso shed.
Described by the owners as “…a shopping mall designed to resemble a medieval European village. The Sky Feature Program displays a fantastical sky expanding overhead, creating a magical atmosphere where time flows unlike anything in the outside world.”
The “mall” is located in the Odaiba area of Toyo and demands to be seen. While from the outside it looks like any other large shopping centre when you enter you are transported away from Tokyo by a series of rooms that have been dressed to resemble mainly Roman streets.
You move from the church room (where one entire wall has been made to look like the portico of a European church), down onto the Piazza and then through the streets, complete with window shutters (all the time looking at the roof that has been painted to look like “sky”) to a Piazza containing a Roman style fountain.
The Rome theme is never more obvious than where you can queue and put your hand in the “mouth of truth”. I don’t know why but it just didn’t fill me with the same sense of foreboding when I put my hand in the mouth.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I don’t know if any words are needed to describe this (I note that it’s a bit of the figures shirt in the second picture).
11:35 AM |
Category:
Living in Japan
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Located in the mountains about 100 kilometres west of Tokyo, on the shore of Lake Ashi, is the town of Hakone. From the shore of the lake there is the most spectacular view of Mt Fuji including the red Torii of the shrine in Hakone. The shrine and settlement in this area has been traced back for over 1000 years.
The mountains plunging into the lake and the location of the town on the shores of the lake has a very European feel or even, dare I say it, when walking the promenade around the lake it almost felt like Queenstown in New Zealand. Though I did enjoy the sight of a sausage and ham resturant.
Lake Ashi is a very popular tourist location and there are a number of boats that cruise the lake showing tourists around the area. There are seven stylised pirate boats which seemed to be very popular with long queues every time one of these ships pulled in to take on passengers.
We actually went to Hakone to visit a smaller town further around on the lake shore and here enjoyed an aquarium visit, cable car to the top of the mountains and some great lake views.
10:03 AM |
Category:
Out and about
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