Water, Water, Everywhere!

Wednesday, 7/28/10

Fontes Bandusiae at Horace's Villa

  This morning a bus came, a private coach, to take our group to the outskirts of Rome. We visited Horace's Sabine Farm in the morning, made famous by his “O Fontes Bandusiae” poem. He said it was simple, and it was, compared to his rich patrons'. But it was pretty fancy. It had a bath complex with a hypocaust system, a swimming pool, and even an aquarium you could walk into to see watch fish behind resin panels.

 

 Hadrian's villa, on the other hand, was extremely impressive, the size of a town, covering 70 acres or two miles in length. Artwork: statues, frescoes, and mosaics, have been removed from the villa and now adorns museums all over the world. The museum at the site had an exhibition of some of this art, but no pictures were allowed. The statues seen around the main piscina and nymphaeum/triclinium complex are reproductions. The originals are inside the museum.

Hadrian's Villa

 After Hadrian's Villa we stopped at Villa d'Este, which is a palace that belonged to the rich and influential Este family. Hadrian's villa inspired the design, layout, and decoration of the Villa d'Este. During the Renaissance this family even “mined” Hadrian's villa for statues, marble, etc., with which to decorate their villa. Archeologists look at this approach as plundering, but at the time nobles thought of it more as antiquing or reusing of materials, which has gone on for centuries. For more pictures and video from this day, visit this set on Flickr.

Villa d'Este

 All in all it was a full day. After a quick, light supper, I got my PT stretches done but skipped the strength exercises and called it a day. Tomorrow we visit Etruscan tombs, for which I have a fondness... not quite the fondness I've redeveloped for Italian ice cream (gelato), but close.

My thanks to the National Endowment for the Humanities for making this experience possible.