TIVOLI GARDENS IS AN AMUSEMENT PARK in Copenhagen. The garden at Villa d’ Este in Tivoli, Italy is, in a word, AMAZING! Despite the gloomy weather forecast—they haven’t been right all week—and fighting with the ticket machine, we boarded the 9:03 regional train to Tivoli. At least we hoped it was to Tivoli. We haven’t yet mastered the Railitalia system and can only guess at the intermediate stops.
View of the garden from the Villa
The map at Tivoli station wasn’t much help, either. There was no “You are here” marker, not even a “Tu sei qui.” So we followed the others across the river, hoping to find the TI booth. Even when a former cabbie pointed it out to us we couldn’t tell if it was Tourist Information—the sign was covered. Eventually we found Villa d’Este, scanned our temperature, showed our CDC Covid card, paid our €16 and marched through the villa. It was the gardens we came to see.
Fountain of the Owls
After taking in the view from above the Fountain of the Owls we wandered along the Path of 100 Fountains towards the Garden’s centerpiece. The Neptune’s Fountain can be seen from almost everywhere and each view is worthy of another photo. My favorite was straight on with the Fountain reflecting in the ponds.
Path of One Hundred Fountains
All of this water pulsing and splashing requires five pumps today. Back in Renaissance times there were no pumps—it was all done by gravity. Pretty amazing when you think of it.
Perfectly Manicured, Pleasantly curved
It’s not all water features, however. The gardens themselves are wonderfully laid out and neatly trimmed but if it’s flowers you’ve come to see, November is the wrong time of year. Only two roses remained.
Wonderful Autumn Day
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may
Tivoli itself is a maze. It actually took us longer to find our way back to the station than to find the Villa. We did manage to locate the Temple of Vesia just beyond the Gregoriana Bridge.
Temple of Vesia
During our six weeks in Italy we drove more than 1000 miles and probably walked another 150. We returned to places we remembered and ventured into new territory. We were even among the first to view recent archeological discoveries. Our experience with AirBnB gave a new level of comfort to our travels. We had to deal with the new Covid rules but it was all worthwhile. And now we are about to leave on a new trip. We won’t have Internet access for a while so look for more stories and photos in a couple of weeks.
