Hadrian's Villa and Villa d'Este + MOVIES!

I would love to start this discussion with the two places mentioned in the title, but I feel very briefly I have to let you know about a few "cool" downloads I have available. I am fortunate to have a camera that takes small movies and I have put them on my FTP site so they can be seen by YOU! (disclaimer: these videos have no sound, but they are still cool).

Click HERE for a mini-movie of the PANTHEON
Click HERE for a mini-movie of the Campo de Fiori during Italia's semi-final victory
Click HERE for a mini-movie of stuff burning in the Campo after Italia's final victory

OK, that being taken care of, let's talk about the afore mentioned goodies...

Although my trip to Hadrian's Villa and Villa d'Este was a bit of a bust because my camera ran out of battery juice (kind of makes you feel like you should have paid a little more attention) I got to visit two amazing sites that had completely different characters. Hadrian's Villa is an amazing complex of buildings that was the "summer home" of the emperor (not even close to reasonable!) and Villa d'Esta was the home of a major philanthropist. Hopefully I will be able to recover some pix from my friends, because the ones I was able to take don't do either site any justice.

That being said, the picture above is from H.V., the Temple of Venus (or what's left of it). Here are some pix that show how well preserved the site actually is:

























Villa d'Esta was essentially the biggest collection of fountains I have ever seen in one place. It is situated on a gigantic hill and the temperature at the bottom of the hill must have been 10 degrees cooler than it was at the bottom just because of all the water flowing creating "evaporative cooling". I swiped a couple of pix from the internet to share until I can get some decent photos:











I guess that's about all I have to say for now. It was great to have a day off just to enjoy some sites right in the middle of the "final push". 3 days to go until final review. My partner and I decided to stop working for the night so I'll probably go home and just chill for a bit and go to sleep. Mmm...sleep. Take care and talk to you tomorrow. Ciao.

PS Here is a quick video of the guest quarter at Hadrian's Villa...just wanted to share one more! Click HERE.