Showcasing the hidden treasures of the Villa Sant’Antonio.
Welcome to the latest post in my series about my Italian holiday (2-11 September inclusive). Today we look at the hidden treasures of the Villa Sant’Antonio, where we stayed for the second half of the holiday. We were shown these on the Thursday morning, the morning of our last full day in Italy.
THE CHAPEL
As I mentioned in an earlier post in this series the Villa Sant’Antonio is a former convent. One unchanged relic of the building’s history is the chapel…
PART 2: ROMAN REMAINS
The chapel was fairly impressive, but to me the second hidden treasure, the Roman remains that lend credence to the notion that the poet Horace had a villa here back in the day, is even more so.
I am continuing my account of my holiday in Italy (2-11 September inclusive) with a look at Villa Adriana. Before I cover the attraction itself I offer…
SOME WILDLIFE
I am doing this here because I encountered a cricket on the way to Villa Adriana and there were some tiny lizards (about four inches long, presumably insectivorous – quick internet search reveals that there is actually a species called the Italian Wall Lizard, which fits the description) in the grounds of the villa:
THE VILLA ADRIANA
This was the emperor Hadrian’s country retreat, and he had replicas of the most impressive stuff he had seen in the course of his travels (and he saw most of the Roman empire, then at pretty much its absolute height – he had pulled back from some of his predecessor’s conquests, deeming them unsustainable). The site is very substantial, and in Hadrian’s time must have had a staff of thousands looking after it. This is a UNESCO world heritage site, and it thoroughly deserves that designation.
Continuing my account of my Italian holiday with a look at Villa Gregoriana, plus a link to an important petition.
It has been a while since my last post, but I have not forgotten about all of you who support me here on wordpress. Today I continue my account of my Italian holiday (2-11 September inclusive). In my most recent post I covered the move from Rome to Tivoli. Today I look at the first major attraction we visited in Tivoli. However, before I get into the meat of this post I have something to draw your attention to:
AN IMPORTANT PETITION
My attention was drawn today to a petition on change.org calling for the minimum wage to be increased and turned into a genuine living wage. Many of the workers affected are also the precise workers on whom we have been relying during the pandemic. I have posted a screenshot below and urge you to sign and share this petition.
VILLA GREGORIANA
The name of this place derives from the 16th and last pope to use the name Gregory (the selfsame Gregory who created an order of knights supposedly named in honour of the first pope Gregory) who oversaw some important engineering works in the area (the waterfalls, including the big one I have showing videos of are nearly all engineered and not as they would have looked in olden times, when the river Aniene regularly flooded the town). Although it is named as a villa the grounds are all that remain, although among the many landmarks they feature are the remains of a temple of Vesta.
We walked there and then through the grounds. The walking route goes right down into the heart of what is a very deep valley and then up the other side. The ascent, in heat that was already quite punishing (the temperature was into the thirties, unusually hot for the time of year), caused me serious problems – a combination of exhaustion and dehydration. Four of us including me travelled back to our villa in a taxi, and I spent a very quiet afternoon in my room, drinking lots of water. I recovered, and thereafter never went out without water and adopted a much more cautious approach for the rest of the stay. I enjoyed seeing the grounds of the Villa Gregoriana, which as I hope the photo gallery that follows indicates are quite extraordinary.
I end this post, as usual for this series, with a waterfall video:
aspiblog 