Orvieto 1

Initially we were drawn to Orvieto for the great wine. We did buy a few bottles of the classico. But there was much else of interest in this old hill town. The Duomo, with its great reliefs and Signorelli frescoes will require its own posts.

Orvieto on approach, the great cathedral to the right, the city

center in the, um, center; we found the camper-stop at the

train station below the city and took the funicular up to it

These sorts of scenes everywhere

Ditto

Towers everywhere

13th century municipal building, still in use

Alleys like this all over, with buttresses and

arches between them

Pasta in the shapes of Italy's great monuments; at olive oil

tastings, we quickly figured out, you get free wine and bread and

cheese and olive spreads, and olive oil, too

The big clock tower

Vicki in the big main piazza

Etruscan Tombs Near Sutri

From Tivoli we headed north into Umbria. In this region and in Tuscany one sees Etruscan things, mostly tombs dug into the volcanic tufa that is everywhere. We stopped at a conveniently located complex near the small town of Sutri for a look.

Thus

And thus; throughout the region, over the centuries, the locals have generally 
used these for storage units, farm implements, broken down vehicles, placing 
garage doors into them

A bonus at Sutri is this first century amphitheater built well after the Romans 
took over; what is remarkable is that it is entirely dug out of the tufa, rather 
than built up from it

Contemporary Sutri from the amfiteatro

Meanwhile, more tombs; the Etruscans did some fine filigree, but apart from 
building tombs, I don't think they did much else

RV-sized tomb

Villa d'Este: The Gardens

The gardens, however, are the main attraction, very compact, terraced down the steep hill, with numerous water features.

Nice initial fountain

Another

Several hundred feet of another terrace

The organ fountain; the organ powered originally by water;

as in ancient times

Looking westerly toward Rome

Impressive garden scenery

Roses everywhere

Looking back from the belvedere

Dead wood/live wood

An Artemis fountain

The dragon fountain

And, of course, the founding of Rome fountain

Villa d'Este: The Interiors

The 16th century Villa d'Este is right in town, overlooking the lands to the west below. It was created for Cardinal d'Este, one of the papal families. Apparently, even then, there were some loop-holes in the vow of poverty.

Courtyard of the Villa

Nice frescoes throughout

The whole thing built over a Roman villa, of course

Illusional ceiling with stubby columns

Other illusionist effects; effective too

And a nod to classical Roman art

It's a big place, three floors of rooms

Staircase, mostly for servants, and tourists, I guess

Lizst lived here in 1884, so his rooms are a nice museum; and

there are concerts in the summer

Tivoli

Our campsite at the Piazzale del Cimiteri; the Piazzale del

Bus Stazione was on the other side of the intersection

Why we didn't stay at the designated camper-stop: it became

the market on Wednesday morning

Local Renaissance castle; closed for repairs

Looking north-west from Tivoli

Hill-towns dot the horizon; some hills are just towns

Looking west to Rome and Tiburtina, and nearly continuous

development

Including some of the largest quarries (travertine) I have ever

seen

And, immediately below, a ruined mini-Pantheon

Hadrian's Villa

We drove about 25 miles east of Rome, up slightly into the Appenine foothills, to the ancient town of Tivoli, one of the summer playgrounds of "elite" Romans of the classical era. The Piazza del Cimiterio in Tivoli afforded us free if occasionally noisy parking for three nights while we explored the area's major sights--Tivoli itself, Hadrian's Villa, and the Renaissance Villa d'Este.

Elite Romans had been moving to the countryside since the first century BCE, building villas and plantations and such ("Rancho Deluxe") to get away from the hustle and bustle of the big cities. Hadrian would count as an elite Roman: emperor early in the second century, presiding over the empire's greatest extent, a traveler, a general, a scholar, a lover of all things Greek. We have bumped into him at his Wall in Britain, his birthplace at Italica, near Seville, at battle sites in Romania, at his tunnel (diverting a river) near Antioch, all over Greece, and at his Forum and Column and Pantheon in Rome. He was the third of the Five Good Emperors, and, next to Augustus, I'd say, best of them all. Anyhow, his villa, near Tivoli, is certainly the biggest of them all, a city in itself, with a palace, guest quarters, three Baths, both Latin and Greek libraries, huge warehouses and administrator/servant/soldier quarters, and some of the most striking water features of the ancient world. I'll just post some of the better pix, without comment.