Tivoli

On Sunday, Sam and I went to Tivoli. Tivoli is a little Italian town about an hour's train ride from Rome. It was Sam's idea to go there. Franz Liszt, one of his favorite composers (he did a project on one of his compositions and how changing piano technology changed the piece), wrote a piece entitled "Villa d'Este" which was inspired by his time spent there. Honestly, going into this I thought Villa d'Este was a town when it's actually a house in Tivoli.

We had been frantically trying to get ahold of Iori because Iori expressed enterest in coning with us. We failed miserably (the pay phones in Rome are impossible and I had turned my phone off because I was trying to get it to stop sending a text to Harry and to turn my phone back on, I needed a PIN and I had no idea what that PIN was). Oh well, it was Sunday and we had to go so we went without him.

The train ride there was somewhat uneventful until we got pretty close to Tivoli. We saw this water fall. Well, after we arrived we found out that the water fall was called the Gregoriana Cascades (at least, that's what I remember it called. I could be wrong, it's been a while). Sam was bee lining for the Villa but I wanted to see the falls. I had to reign in Sam and pull him back from his quest for a second - which I felt a little bad about, but I think it turned out for the best. I was a little disappointed that we had to pay to enter, but it was worth it to stand almost directly under the falls. The path was very narrow, too, and there where some fun warnings about avoiding overhanging trees. All in all, I enjoyed the little detour I caused.

Then we went looking for the Villa d'Este. It was on the other side of the town, apparently. We found out later we took the least direct route possible, which just means we got to see more of Tivoli. We also walked past a castle and some ruins from a Roman ampitheater on our way there. We finally found it and got in line to get tickets. Sam bought his first and as I was putting my change away he started nudging me saying, "Hey Zack, look who it is." I looked up and, lo and behold, there's Iori! He was on his way out of the Villa as Sam and I were entering. The three of us immediately entered and started catching up on what's happening. It was a joyous occasion which took place in a joyous place.

The thing about the Villa d'Este is that it's famous for it's fountains. I didn't count how many there were and as soon as I pull myself together I'll put the pictures up on Flickr. The actual house isn't too incredible, but the gardens where the fountains are are incredible. I'm glad I took pictures because otherwise I'd be hard pressed to remember what all these fountains look like (on the other hand, relying on photos may make my memories duller more quickly. On a different hand, maybe relying on photos creates storage space in my brain that would otherwise be used for remember what the fountains look like).

Near the entrance to the Villa, there was a concert being put on by some local Italian school. The program seems somewhat akin to an orchestra program in the States. There were lots of violins and other strings. There was a small wind section. The was a piano. What struck me as odd - and I think it struck Iori and Sam this way as well - is that there was a drum set and a large guitar section. After we finished looking at fountains, we watched this school orchestra for a while. I think we were really just waiting for the guitar section to play. It was also an interesting cultural thing, I think, that the three of us expected the guitars to be the lead but when they actually started playing they were just chordal support. What I thought was cool about the setting was that it seemed straight out of the Godfather. Complete with oranges, too. There were quite a few other places throughout Italy that had that effect for me.

We finally left the Villa in search for food. We walked down what appeared to be the main drag quite a few times and we finally settled on a pizza stand. It was delicious. It actually reminded me of Pizza Hut style crust. We sat on benches overlooking a hill/cliff that Tivoli is built on and watched the sun set. It was so beautiful. Then, of course, we went for gelato. And the gelato in Tivoli is the best gelato I've ever had in Italy. The melone tasted more fresh than an actual melon (cantaloupe) and the coffee tasted like good espresso. The pistacchio was the best pistacchio I've ever had (and I always get pistacchio - it's tradition). And then we went back to Rome.

No matter how you look at it, the Villa d'Este and Tivoli was a really good place to visit. Thanks, Sam. And I know Sam would say, "Don't thank me, thank Liszt." Well, thanks Liszt. It was a great travel recommendation.