After eight years of regularly visiting the city of Rome for work my time here has come to an end. On this last visit I re-visited a couple of the sights that I like the most as well as had a clear view of the fountains within the Piazza Navona for the first time in 4 years since the restoration has finally finished (including the removal of scaffolding).
The weather also came to party and the last afternoon turned on some spectacular light for an overview of the city from one of my favourite vantage points, Garibaldi hill.
Night time Piazza
View from Garibaldi hill
One of my favourite streets
Piazza Navona
Intricate church
Spanish steps
St Peters
St Peters forecourt
St Peters forecourt
War memorial at night
10:35 AM |
Category:
Rome
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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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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.
