Day 4

Day 4 = TIVOLI!!!!! I cannot even describe how much I loved spending the day in Tivoli.

After a somewhat sleepless night (I think because I ate dinner so late yesterday, just like a real Italian), we set off for the town of Tivoli at 9 am. Lots of us from both the DTW and the Rome semester programs came, and we were led by two of the in charge people (again, I don’t know their technical roles) and an RA. We had been told that Tivoli houses old villas of popes, cardinals, and even Emperor Hadrian, and also that part of the Lizzie McGuire movie was filmed there, but I really don’t think I was expecting it to be as truly amazing as it was. I’m not even going to attempt to describe the sights I saw; I’ll let the pics do the talking. 

Well, I suppose I'll caption some of them.

On our way!

 Villa d'Este

Foliage pictures are specifically for my mom.

The Rome area has the weirdest and most delicious drinking fountains ever! There's a picture of me doing this too, but uploading pictures is annoying. It'll eventually be posted probably on Facebook or something.

From the Lizzie McGuire movie!!!!

So sassy, I know.

Rainbows!

Hard to see, but there's ruins underneath the current villa.

Villa Gregoriana

More rainbows!

I will share some of the funny/kind of embarrassing anecdotes of the day, though. For one, I'm ready for the weather to cool down some so that I can start wearing shoes other than my sandals. Cheap Target sandals with no traction + slippery stone steps and curbs everywhere = lots of losing my balance. I normally just lose my footing a little and then recover, but when stepping onto a median today in Tivoli after crossing the road, I straight up fell down. It was such a weird moment! I kind of like did the splits a little bit I think? It just happened so quickly and then I got up as quickly as I could, so my memory of it is kind of foggy. I didn't bleed or anything, but my right knee and toes did hurt for a while after.

While at Villa d'Este, Katie and I got scolded for entering a restricted area of the garden. They only had like one sign, and it was in Italian, so how were we supposed to know?! We also saw people from our group leaving that area, so it didn't seem like it was restricted. They could at least put up tape or cones! And then after that, on the inside of the villa, I got in trouble for taking a picture of the costumes on display for some random opera exhibit that was there. There was no sign at all! Well, there was, but only on the main entrance to the exhibit. It was also easily entered through another passage, though, where we came in, and I had absolutely no warning that photography was prohibited. Rule-follower that I am, though, I quickly deleted the picture. (Nerd alert).

We also struggled to find a restaurant to have dinner at tonight back in Rome that would accept our food voucher ticket things. Some places were not actually where the map claimed they were, some were not open because it's still August, and some just didn't look appealing. We eventually found a little restaurant right by the Vatican museum, which ended up being a great place for eavesdropping on other English-speaking patrons. Right after, we turned the corner and went to the famous Old Bridge gelateria, which has absolutely delicious gelato, and always has a line (or, more like a mob of people. Italians don't do lines). The funny thing about tonight, though, was that the majority of the mob waiting to order gelato were nuns! And they all got HUGE cones of gelato! Some guy walked past us loudly humming "I Will Follow Him" just like in Sister Act. I'm still laughing about that. My guess is that Pope Francis guilt-tripped one of the rich cardinals into buying all those nuns big scoops of gelato. Then again, even a big cone only costs 4-5€. 

I'm getting kind of out-of-order here, but I'm tired so I don't care. We also got to experience the Italian version of Big Thunder Mountain today...aka a regular Italian train. We saw some really beautiful views from the train overlooking the cliffs both when we went to and left Tivoli, but man did it feel like we were going to fly off the edge of the mountain. My mom would've DIED being by the window on that train. I am 100% not afraid of heights, but I was pretty freaked out on that train. However, it was kind of fun whipping around the curves and going in and out of caves on that thing. Like I said, it was the Italian Big Thunder Mountain. (Cred goes to Katie for making that analogy).

I am totally exhausted right now, but I regret nothing. Day 4 was maybe the best day yet! (...which also might have to do with the fact that we didn't have any orientation sessions today).