Villa Adriana

Outside of Tivoli (a town about 30 miles from Rome) are the ruins of a huge Roman villa built by the Emperor Hadrian as an escape from city living. Hadrian was Emperor from 117-138 AD. A couple of tidbits I picked up from the handy Hadrian's Villa Audiotour: he was born in current-day Seville, Spain, and, according to his biographer, Spartanius, he "was a man with hair obedient to the comb." Divine.

Model of what the villa looked like back in the good old days. Quite the place!

The general setting. I have to admit, this is a nice break from the city!

"The Canopus" named after the Canopus canal on the Nile River, which this pool is supposed to represent. Hadrian had most of his villa modeled after iconic sites he'd heard about or seen in his extensive travels (Egypt, Greece, etc.). It was kind of his own fantasy land.

Carytids along the Canopus (based on female figures in the Athenian Acropolis)

The Serapeum is a half-domed room that sits at the end of the Canopus pool. The thought is that it was an open-air dining room of sorts. A waterfall would cascade down behind those columns making it a private place where Hadrian could feast or chat with his cronies.

"Hey Flavius, what do you think we should do to keep those pesky Celtic barbarians out of our northern territory? I'm thinking a wall, maybe..."

Inspecting the "Small Baths." I have a lot of pictures of myself at Hadrian's Villa because it was my dad's special request that I go here. Hi, Dad! It's hot out, but look, I'm wearing long pants, closed-toed shoes, and a hat (and I have a jacket in my bag)! Aren't you proud of me?

View of the Heliocaminus baths (heated by the sun and a little furnace room under the floor) and a little bit of the Maritime theater in the background.

This is all that's left of The Imperial Palace. Kind of heart-breaking isn't it?

Because it must have been really beautiful. This is an area of original tile in the Hospitalia (guest rooms).

What does it all mean???