A solo trip to Tivoli and a death in the family

I normally write these posts the morning after our days' adventures, which is no different today. That's why I can sadly report that George called in the middle of the night (late afternoon for him) to report that his very loved dwarf hamster Nugged died. George worked hard to earn having Nugget as a pet, keeping his room clean, saving up money and showing me he could take care of him on his own. I was reluctant to have a pet in the house because I didn't want to have to take care of it myself. George was amazing with Nugget, a great dad to the little guy, playing with him and keeping his cage clean and giving him treats. It was really sad middle-of-the-night news (is there often good news at that hour?) and I'm thinking so much about George and home as I write this morning. I love you, George.

So, here's an awkward transition into the accounting of our last full day in Rome, a city that's pulled at my heartstrings and that I will miss as we head out to Florence later today. We had a scheduled prepaid day trip to Tivoli planned for the day, and Alex made an effort to get ready to head out in the morning. But it was clear that his leg was bothering him too much to really enjoy the exertions on the trip and he decided to stay behind. It was the right decision. I logged 20,000 steps and climed 44 flights, according to Fitbit and I believe it. Exhausting but worth it.

We left from central Rome (a half hour walk for me) and headed out to suburban Rome to a town called Tivoli, which is where emperors summered in the early ADs. Two UNESCO-protected sites showcased the opulence of the rich and famous back then. Our first stop was Hadrian's Villa, in ruins now but nonetheless an impressive architectural achievement. Just two weeks ago, restoration of the baths was complete and we were one of the first tours to see the completed work. Marble from across the continent, in shades of yellow, red, green and white once adorned the villa, but most of it was pillaged for new construction after the fall of Hadrian. Still, with the help of our guide and what remained we could picture how extravagant the palace must have been.

Sometimes when on a group tour, it feels like a school field trip. There are folks who are the teacher's pet, peppering the guide with questions, even before he had a chance to explain what we were seeing. Then there were the wanderers, always getting ahead or behind the guide, causing the entire group to wrangle them in before we could move on. And I think I was part of the oddballs, there with the group, occasionally listening to the information about the topic, but also fixating on small details like the curve of a tree or the expression on the face of one of hundreds of statues, doing my own thing. I guess I've never been a good follower. Having said that, the tour guide was really excellent, prompting us on with "andiamo" (let's go!) as we set forth to our next point of interest.

The second site visited was Villa d'Este, which is a fully intact and unbelievably gorgeous palace settled in the hills of Tivoli, right by the city's main square. Inside the palace, each room had it's unique look and feel, but the showstopper was the gardens and fountains. There are over 500 fountains in the villa that have been powered for over 500 years continuously by a local river. The water comes from a high point of the river, travels through the same plumbing set up 500 years ago to the villa, cascades down threee levels of fountains, and is returned to the river without any waste. Also no pumps are used to work any of the fountains. They are all powered by natural water pressure. The fountains on the highest level have a small amount of pressure and by the time the water gets to the bottom level, the fountains shoot quite high from the increased pressure. It was really, really cool and well worth the many, many steps it took to see them all.

Back on the bus and back to Rome we went, the field trip over. I met up with Alex, exhausted and still sick with a cold, to have excellent pasta and dinner conversation. Back to The Writer's Retreat for one last night of sleep. Rome has been magic. I'll be back again.