Home » Italy » Tivoli

March 2004

Tivoli

David Aaronson
2005-10-01 16:44:43

Displayed times (last time: )

The town of Tivoli lies just a little ways west (inland) from Rome in the foothills of the Apennine mountains. It's an easy day trip from Rome and has been for several thousand years. It's also been a popular location for wealthy Romans to escape the summer heat. This is the town of Tivoli as seen from Villa Adriana.

Villa Adriana is enormous and only partially excavated now. It was the home of the Roman emperor Hadrian who reigned from 117 to 138 AD. Hadrian ruled more from Tivoli than from Rome and spent a lot of money and energy on his villa. These ruins are the remains of one of several complexes of baths on the site (1).

Hadrian was an extremely intelligent emperor and traveled extensively both before and during his reign. He recreated several of his favorite world landmarks in his own villa. This is a replica of the Canopus of Alexandria and the associated temple of Serapis.

Villa Adriana is set a little bit below the modern town of Tivoli. It's a huge sprawling site that requires several hours to see a decent part of. In between ruins are some pleasant olive groves. When we visited, there was a school trip on the premises but it was otherwise fairly empty.

Hadrian was particularly fond of Athens and there is considerable Greek influence in his buildings at his own villa and elsewhere. These are the remains of a fairly traditional Greek theater set down the hill from his villa. Many of the ruins are in excellent condition including an extensive residential section where Hadrian's guests stayed. In that area nearly all of the floor mosaics are still intact.

Perhaps the most interesting site is the so-called maritime theater (3). An outer wall surrounds a circular area which contains a small island surrounded by a moat. The island has the ruins of several buildings on it. It appears to be a little unclear what this was used for, but may ...