Day 40 - Wednesday 12 June -Tivoli

Wednesday 12 June

We hadn't planned anything for today, and took a while to decide what to do.  I had thought of the Borghese Gardens and Gallery, but when I checked it was tickets only and they were all gone.  So we chose Villa Adriana at Tivoli.

We crossed the city by metro, got a bus that went past a circus with a tiger, then walked for about 20mins past 4 emus (at an agriturismo place).
 

 We paid our money and went in, just as a golf cart was heading up the hill, so seeing our walking poles, the driver offered us a lift, and up we went.

This huge complex was built around 120-140AD for the Emperor Hadrian as his summer palace.  Some has been unearthed, the small pond in 1950s and some being dug now, but it seems there is still heaps more to go.

We just wandered around in the shady places, sat lots, enjoyed the grass and the breeze, and just had a pleasant relaxing time for about 4 hours.

 It seems that the fashion was to wear your hat upside down.

This poor guy only had half a head, so the hat was an improvement.

 There were a number of groups working, but only the Americans said we mustn't photo them.

Then we headed off, but this time caught a bus to the main road.

Back at Cavour, it was almost 17:00, time for the opening of the Museo Internazionale del Presepio,  #2 on the list for Rome, but we both agreed that the MASAC collection has far more breadth than this one. 

 sea urchins are pretty much like casuarina nuts

They have a majority of Italian, Neapolitan pieces, which I have seen enough of.  But I still had to buy a small souvenir.