Buongiorno!

Wow, I can't believe it's already July 10th! Or should I say, 10 di luglio. It seems like it was not that long ago that school was letting out and the 2 months of just waiting to come here began. Time sure has gone by fast. Thankfully, I still have 4 and a half weeks left here, but even that doesn't seem like enough right now.

I'm going to try to get all caught up today so we can start talking about my life in a present tense. Here we go...

Friday was our trip to Hadrian's Villa (Villa Adrianna), Tivoli and Villa d'Este. We woke up [kind of] early and met at the Trastevere train station-- there are two train stations in Rome: Trastevere and the Termini (the main station). From there we got on a charter bus (with air conditioning!) and we were on our way! The ride was a little under a hour long and listening to my professors talk about how much they hate UF administration/other teachers etc. kept me pretty distracted. The next thing you know we were pulling up to Hadrian's Villa.

For anyone that doesn't know, Hadrian's Villa is the area emporer Hadrian built right outside of Rome during his reign. He wanted to rule the city, but not live in it (he was Greek). So naturally he decided to build an entire villa just outside of Rome.

We got off the bus, walked through the grand enterance of Villa Adrianna and our tour began. We walked around for about 2 hours. It was actually pretty neat! Though, most parts just looked like broken bricks and halves of [what used to be] giant buildings and domes-- Hadrian, being Greek, loved the dome. There had to be at least 20 within the villa. If you really used your imagination, you could tell this place would have been marvelous during its time.

My favorite part was the area known as Hadrian's headquarters. It's basically where Hadrian would chill out when he would want to be left alone. There were numbers of columns within along with a trench circling the inside of the "building".

After exploring the villa, we made our way to the town of Tivoli.

Tivoli is a quaint little town up the mountain right outside Hadrain's Villa. We were dropped off and had to walk a little ways to get to the restaurant where we would be eating. When we walked in the restaurant we were brought down a set of stairs and into what looked like brick cave. Neat fact: this restaurant was entirely underground. As we continued through we kept getting deeper and deeper underground. It was absolutely beautiful. Every table set with neatly folded napkins, silverware, glasses, and bottles of wine (and coca-cola).

Once we got down to the last room, the restaurant owner--who reminded me of my beautiful mother with her stylish outfit and beautiful curly hair-- introduced us to her mother-in-law who then showed us how to make home made pasta! It looked easy when she did it, but I know that if I tried it definitely would not come out like hers.

After, we were brought to our table (that sat all 30+ of us) and were given our [first] appetizer-- fresh mozzerella and sliced tomato. I'm not really a fan of mozzerella or slices of tomatoes especially, but I tried it and it wasn't too bad. We were then given bruschetta (YUM!) and this other type of bread that reminded me of pita. That was delicious too. Then it was time for our first course--ravioli stuffed with spinach and cheese. It was very good. And then it was time for our second--a pork salad with balsamic vinager and potatoes. That was good, but not my favorite. Finally, it was time for dessert-- a cream [pudding?] with broken up puff pastry and topped with a fresh blackberry sauce. Oh..my..goodness. This was absolutely delicious! I was so full from the first [4] courses, but ate my entire plate of the dessert. Did I mention there was wine too? Rosso (red) and Blanco (white). Both were very good.

Next we were off to Villa d'Este-- this was probably my favorite part of the day (besides the dessert, of course).

When we walked in the villa a couple girls and I went inside "exploring" while the rest of the group went outside to see all the fountains. Inside we walked from room to room, each hand-painted with gorgeous portraits and scenery from ceiling to floor. They were all so beautiful! We eventually made our way outside to the garden and our jaws dropped. Every bit of land was covered with beautiful architecture pieces, trees and flowers. Did I mention the fountains? Ah, they were gorgeous! It's hard to put how beautiful this place was into words, but I definitely know where I would like to get married! :)

The garden over looked all of Rome and Tivoli. It was absolutely breath-taking.

Take a look at this posts picture for an idea... If you're ever in Italy, this place is a must see!

Now, go to my next post to read about my most favorite place in Italy thus far (and probably will be even after the end of my trip)!

Per il momento arrivederci!

Cassidy