Scendi?

Ciao!

As the weeks pass, I am running out of city-appropriate superlatives to use to describe Rome.  I know this line is on repeat, but the city truly does amaze me everyday!  This week I had a lot of everyday thingsto take care of--going to a cobbler to fix my shoes that the cobblestones are destroying, going to the drycleaner, echetera, echetera (this is how Italians pronounce "etc", and I love it), which normally would not be anything to take note of.  But, because I had to figure it all out in Italian, running errands became little adventures filled with mispronounced words.  Luckily, everyone is very patient with my Italian!

I also discovered this week, belatedly, that designers such as Prada and Gucci were participating in the semi-annual sales that have been going on around Rome since early January, offering MASSIVE discounts.  Unfortunately (fortunately), the sales ended on Wednesday.  I have taken note of this fact for the next round of sales in June!

This weekend a friend and I headed to Tivoli, a town that has been a vacation getaway for Romans including Julius Caesar and the Roman Emperor Hadrian.  We saw the ruins of Villa Adriana, Emperor Hadrian's palatial countryside retreat (compared to the likes of Versaille) and the amazing Villa d'Este, which was home to an exiled Roman cardinal. E'stata una bella giornata!

What is left of Villa Adriana which was built back around 120 A.D!

Audio guide!

Tivoli was very kind to put directional signs everywhere, however, we still could not find Villa d"Este.  We kept walking back and forth between two directional signs that pointed the opposite direction, we knew it HAD to be somewhere in the middle...oh my. 

Once we found it--Villa d'Este. 

So many fountains!