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Another early morning. Mom walked with me, after 'the walk', feel like Bilbo sans eagles. We semi-journeyed again for the rental car, the terminal station is not that far, when you walk straight there! We get to the garage and sure enough, got my requested SMART car! So tiny, we'll fit right in. First off, this thing is cool, roomy enough for 2 plus a little bit of stuff.
We changed the plans a little, today was supposed to be ruins up north of the city, we changed to Tivoli (where Travertine comes from which is what the bulk of the stone is that Rome was.is build from), specifically
Villa d'Este. Getting there was so fun. No tour group, just us and the GPS chick. Driving the Smart in Rome is awesome, it's so little. Check out the pics for a sample of how you can park this thing, why parallel park when you can do this? Followed the GPS to Tivoli and then had to go up a fair hill to the Villa. Small road, traffic can travel both ways but the road is only big enough for one car, even a Smart. Have to duck in once in a while to let another car pass, but finally we arrived at this really cool hillside village. Such a cool little place, all made of stone as the Italians like it. So the roads are getting smaller, little alleys between the houses and the GPS chick says turn right here, Mom is holding the tablet and repeats right here. Mom immediately says I don't think this is right, Dad - Naw, this is fine, the alley is barely wider than the Smart. We creep along, not even 5mph and have to stop and pull the side mirrors in it is getting so narrow. The Smart is about 61.5 inches without the side mirrors so the alley has gotten down to, no joke, about 66 inches, we are barely moving and I'm still going, so we've gone about 75 yards up this alley. Now the GPS chick says, "turn right", "what the heck" we say, the right turn now right in front of us is far too small, like 50-60 inches wide. But there is a tiny driveway and a garage door to the left! It's obvious, now that we're done, this is likely a scooter garage. So I think I'm going to make a tiny left and get into this driveway. Thank god I did not make it, I got the Smart slightly stuck on a planter thing that was bolted to the wall. So glad I did not get the car in there, imagine the scene from Austin Powers when he got the cave cart stuck and was going forward and back about 20 times. So by this time, Mom is slightly freaking out about getting us out of there, how will we get out. We have to back out, first out of this spot. I bend the planter thingy, get caught on a potted plant on the passenger site, wiggled the car forward and back a few inches, destroy the potted plant and start backing out. Holy cow was this tight, how did I ever get in here! Slowly back the car out, old man on a bike starts coming up the alley, stops points, yells something in Italian, then turns his bike around and books it out of there. I inched that Smart back out the alley so slowly, Mom having a slight issue the entire time. We're out. Whew! Good thing for insurance, the front of the Smart got a little tweak on the planter thingy otherwise OK. Wrong way this way then that, the GPS is basically helpless in this village of tiny scooter alleys. We finally make it through the other side and get over to a small town where the Villa is supposed to be, the GPS is not being very helpful, we drive and finally, have no choice, were going down the hillside on a one way, ARGH! Turn at the bottom, go back up the hillside to the little village, AVOID THE ALLEY, find the small town again. Park, annoyed, stop in for a café and a pastry and ask the nice people for some direction. Since we already have parking, we walk, through this way and that, an alley or 2, we get to this big square, we see sign, we see parking, no Villa. Getting ready to bail on this shiz. Finally we find it, it was pretty amazing and worth it. Check out the pics.
Villa d'Este - This was worth the… hassle/fun/adventure. Amazing art in the villa, the walls were the art, like most places we've seen. Really interesting. The gardens were pretty amazing, fountains and water runs. Very big. Like home, it's early spring here too, this must be even more amazing when all the vegetation gets full and the flowers get going. A very casual walk through the gardens with the villa looming from above and the lowlands visible in the distance.
Head home, uneventful, just driving… in Rome.
Dinner: Found a place right next to our apartment. Best pizza we've had and finally tried a Calzone (like a pizza folded in half). The food was so good. We thought we would not eat at the same place twice, but we're planning on going back for a go at their other dishes.
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