Part 2 - Pompeii, Villa D'Este and Hadrian's Villa

This is a compilation of Pompeii, Villa D'Este (Tivoli) and Hadrian's Villa (Tivoli). 


The first groups of pictures come from Pompeii.  If you know me, you know that I LOVE pompeii! I went to Pompeii for the first time my senior year of Highschool when I did the EF tours for France and Italy during Spring Break.  I think I got to see much more of Pompeii when I went back then, but this time around it was definitely a unique experience.  My professor for History of Science works with his colleagues in Pompeii - who work in the laboratories that contain all the artifacts they are finding at Pompeii.  We got to go to the laboratories and see what they were working on and cool artifacts that they have found that have helped them to better understand what life was like for this ancient civilization.  I was pretty geeked out about this experience :) We unfortunately did not get to go inside the labs because we were a pretty large group, but it was still really neat to see these ancient artifacts! Here are some pics of my professor di Pascuale showing us some of them.

Ancient Figs

BONES!!!

And I thought this was really legit...a fishing net!

It is so crazy to see how well these things are preserved! The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD in a way froze time for this civilization until it was rediscovered.  The combination of heat, ash, and lava preserved Pompeii so well and now is an archaeological gem. Here are some more pics of Pompeii!

Just walking down a street in Pompeii...these are the original stones and in some places you can still see where the carts went through

In this photo you can see Mt. Vesuvius looming in the background

Kind of gruesome, yet cool at the same time

Inside one of the villas...this is the main area of the house. The bedrooms were located off to the side in the doorways seen in this picture.  Back then, they knew how to build houses for their surroundings especially considering climate.  Not to mention, used rain water harvesting techniques - you see the basin in the middle...there was a roof opening that allowed rain to fall through and the basin in the floor caught the water for everyday use. Brilliant, right!?

Frescoes inside one of the villas...look at how well the color and detail is preserved!

rows upon rows of artifacts that have been found

What do you think this is???

 The next place we went to was Villa D'Este in Tivoli.  Not gonna lie, I didn't remember too much about it from my art and architecture history classes.  But it did not take long for me to remember once we got there! It is absolutely beautiful! and it is a UNESCO world heritage site...how cool is that? This place is huge and has so many fountains, grottos and statues...a LOT of water is needed to supply all that it uses.  Ah, it is fantastic!

I believe this is the hydraulic organ fountain...and YES! it does play music :)

Here is a better view of the hydraulic organ fountain!

Here is me with the fountain...it is HUGE!

Fertility goddess

right next to this were open niches as if some form of statue should have been there..but there wasn't...so I jumped at the opportunity to pose a little bit haha

There are more...but I figured I would not bore you with those :)

water was flowing everywhere!

This whole area was a Fountain portraying Rome

The One Hundred Fountain

One of the faces of the fountain..you can barely make it out, but there is a tail to the creature that extends to the left side!

A different kind of fountain

One of the grottoes 

Another view of the Rome Fountain

 Our next destination was Hadrian's Villa, also in Tivoli.  I was REALLY excited to go here because it was one of those places that I knew so well from my art and architecture history classes.  It was a journey to get there (because we were going to take the bus.  Then we ran into some people that said that it was not that far...maybe 10 minutes max if you walk slow haha...How about it is more like a one hour walk. Yep - one hour. So take the bus there for sure if you go!) and when we finally got there it started to rain...so it was not off to a great start but we stuck it out and finally the rain went away after an hour! Thank goodness.  Needless to say I LOVE Hadrian's villa as well and I knew that it was big, but it was SO much larger than what I could have imagined...it was more like a small city.  Hadrian had a pretty BIG playground haha.  So here are some pics :)

See the people in the bottom left? These structures are impressive for the time period that they were built!

This is the canopus.  You should have seen me when I saw this...OR maybe it was better you didn't haha.  Don't judge me but I might have definitely cried when I saw this...not bawled cry but there was definitely some tears.  Studying this in school this is one of the pictures always shown to feature this villa...and the buildup of being able to actually see it and not to mention everything else leading up to that point might have affected my reaction. haha :)

another picture of the canopus...I took tons or pictures here.  You can see the the little spots on the water where the rain was hitting.  Hadrian was well traveled and many of his structures are heavily influenced by the Greeks and Egyptians.  One tell-tell sign in this picture are the single standing statues on the side known as Caryatids...they are beautiful!

Hadrian must have been a really clean person to apparently...because there was a lot of baths!

There was also alot of well preserved mosaics here!

And then we found a staircase that went down...so of course we went down! Unfortunately we didn't get to far because there was a gate that barred us from going further...probably a good thing though especially since I don't do well with creepy, small, damp, spider infested spaces haha

I was really excited about this too...no worries, I did not cry this time :) This is the maritime theater  - a retreat for Hadrian from the busy court life

Maritime theater still...

outside the maritime theater ( to the left) and I don't really remember what the other structure is to the right...maybe a library?

Wall within Hadrian's villa

Leaving Hadrians Villa...Shout out the fam - look at how big these italian cypress trees are!!

Well that is it from that weekend excursion! Hope you like the pics and I will have more to post soon...If you have any questions about anything let me know...I love comments :)