Tivoli Gardens and A Roman Holiday

For our last day in Rome, we headed out to Tivoli to the famous gardens of Villa d'Este. I've known about this for a long time and again held high hopes...it was beyond my expectations. 450 fountains and acres and levels of hedges, trees, statues and monuments.

Owned by The Borgias family and commissioned by Ippolito, son of Lucrezia Borgia and Alfonso d'Este. He was named Archbishop of Milan at 10, Cardinal at 30, and Governor of Tivoli in 1550 when he began working on the gardens. When he died in 1572, the Villa was bequeathed to further Cardinals of the d'Este family, who continued to work on and add to the gardens. Bernini, the famous sculptor/builder assisted with parts and in 1918 then Villa was passed to the Habsburgs, where it was neglected. The Italian state took over and restored it only for it to be partially bombed during WWII. Repairs were made and it is in much the same state today.

The drive up into the mountains of Tivoli was picturesque. After a short walk through the town, we arrived at the Villa. First we toured the house, a beautiful old monastery with fresco painted rooms, some with glass sections in the floor to show the dug up sites underneath. After touring the house we came out on the back terrace. It was a jaw dropping scene, great views and the garden seemed to go on forever.

We followed some stairs and paths down to the first large fountain, we had already seen quite a few smallish regular fountains. This one was called The Fountain of the Ovato or The Fountain of Tivoli. It was beautiful. So large and too much detail to take in especially in a photograph. We kept meandering down and came to the masterpiece of the garden, The Fountain of the Organ. A huge stone and statue monument with small fountains and a working Organ in the middle. At 10.30 the monument opened and the organ started to play. It was a tinny sound but remarkable nonetheless, given the instrument was hundreds of years old.

Next tier down held the largest fountain, The Fountain of Neptune, in terms of how high the water came out with 3 large jets flying out incredibly high. In front of this was 3 large ponds with carp in them, surrounded by lime, lemon and olive trees, some carrying fruit. We wandered around this area with its straight paths shaped by elegant hedges, and windy paths surrounded by trees and bushes. I cannot imagine how amazing it would all look in Spring when the flowers were blooming. Still amazing on this day without that.

At the edge of this area were views out over the mountains and to Rome. We then started our way back up, past the row of 100 fountains...100 smallish fountains along a path, all precise in their placement and spurts!

The last major fountain was The Fountain of Romulus and Remus. There were more of course, I would need to write a book to describe them all. I cannot really describe the beauty and serenity of The Villa, add to that the views, it's age and history and you will understand what a special morning we had. We finished off with morning tea on the back terrace, then back through the little town of Tivoli to catch the bus back to Rome.

After a short break at the hotel we did the touristy thing and used the hop on/hop off bus pass we were given. We sat on top of the double decker bus for about 40mins before getting off at Circus Maximus. This is where they did the chariot races. But our agenda this afternoon was pure Hollywood. We were searching for la Bocca della Verita, or The Mouth Of Truth.

This was famously featured in Roman Holiday starring Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn. It is situated outside a small church and is a round statue or relief of a face, there are holes where the eyes and mouth are, you put your hand in the mouth and rumor has it if you are a liar it will eat your hand. So we lined up and paid our 50 cents to get our picture taken with of our hand in it's mouth. Thrilled wouldn't begin to explain this experience. In the film, Peck's character takes Audrey to visit it. Her character refuses to put her hand in it - she is a Princess in hiding - so he does and when he pulls his hand out, he yells and sticks his hand up his jumper. Audrey screams and freaks out thinking he has lost his hand...for real as he ad libbed without telling her, so her reaction is priceless...great film!

We then walked to the next hop on hop off stop and hopped back on the bus, Mum and Dad had been on it since we left them an hour or so earlier. After a rest, we headed out for our final night in Rome. We looked around for a while, waiters try and coax you into their establishment. When we came back to one place to eat, the waiter was so excited he kissed us all when we left. Was a great choice, not only fantastic service but great, cheap food. I had steak, salad and veges, followed by a Chocolate Truffle gelato dessert.

I loved Rome, I always like big cities, so much to see, history, architecture, art, people, excitement...Rome was just that. I would like to come back and spend a week or so really exploring, and getting to see the galleries and museums here that we just didn't have time to do.

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