Spontaneous day trips are starting to become one of my favorite pastimes, and I can now check Tivoli off of my endless "Places to visit while living in Rome" list. Tivoli is a hilltop town about an hour to an hour and a half outside of Rome, easily accessible by public transportation. It is known for its famous gardens and villas including Villa d'Este and Hadrian's Villa nearby, both of which we set out to see on Sunday afternoon.

Villa d'Este is the site to see for fountain lovers of all kinds. The villa itself is a gorgeous building with marble porticos and beautifully frescoed rooms. The piano nobile transitions from room after room with scenes of the countryside in the "Room of Hunting" to a painting of Gallatea upon her dolphin-pulled chariot gliding across the ocean reminiscent of Raphael's depiction we had just studied in Villa Farnesina. Stepping out onto the balcony covered with wisteria, the view overlooked the entire spread of garden filled with greenery and springtime flowers surrounding countless fountains and ponds. the distant towns. I don't know what it is about water (the ocean, lakes, ponds, fountains, pools, etc. etc.) that just fascinates me, but the fountains in the tiered gardens outside of the villa were mesmerizing. As we walked from the upper level through the intermediary landings with sculptures of dragons and even a piece thought to be by Bernini, we descended upon the famous organ-playing fountain just before showtime. As if it wasn't impressive enough already with the tiny stones embedded to create mosaic patterns and the eagle and apple branches signifying the Ippolito family, little doors opened up at 12:30 to chime a series of songs originally intended to entertain the courtesan visitors of this magnificent villa. This was just the top piece of the fountain structure, however, which actually includes five additional tiers of gushing water and extreme hydraulics. Not bad for a back yard water feature, eh?

Our second stop of the day took us away from the main town of Tivoli and into the vast expanse of Hadrian's Villa. Constructed during 2nd century A.D. the ruins of the thermae (baths) and domed amphitheater-like buildings of the ancient Roman Empire are an incredible sight to see. What made the experience even better was the fact that we were able to walk through the ruins and touch everything (because it's really tempting when you think that the stone or the marble you're touching was handled by a human being thousands of years ago). Just imagine if you were the grand emperor of all of the land and could commission these stone buildings to be decorated to the nines and just stare out at the Roman landscape forever... Man, Hadrian had it good.

It was an overall super successful day of exploring the villas of Tivoli in the spring time sunshine (not to mention that the fountains were actually on, because lots of people went during the rainy season when they are turned off, which would have definitely taken away from the wow-factor).