Arrivederci Italia

IAs were the spring flowersAllWe are winding down our stay in Italy, and as always, we hate to say goodbye, so we will say arrivederci instead. Goodbye to good food, crazy drivers and beautiful scenery!

On our way out of town we grabbed a quick lunch of focaccia and mini pizza.

Fast food at home never looked so good.

From Pescara we drove back across Italy to stay the night in Tivoli so we could see Villa l'Est in the morning. I had booked what looked  like a lovely villa - only €61! The only problem was that as we got to Tivoli, our GPS showed that it was still an hour and a half away! Argh. Jim was not happy and we both wanted to be done driving for the day. The only thing to do was cut our losses and find a room in Tivoli. Of course that meant paying for two rooms, but it was better than driving in the wrong direction and missing the gardens. 

Jim found us a good room very close by ,right across from the gardens. 

This was my favorite part about it- right outside our window was my ideal little garden, including a lemon tree. 

I have heard of Tivoli gardens, of course-I just never imagined we would see them.

That would have been a shame to miss them ,as they are truly marvelous. I'm not sure which I liked more- the Villa or the gardens. 

Each room seemed to be better than the one before it,

The colors on this ceiling reflect the colors of the surrounding countryside.

He reminds me of someone I once knew...

I'll just show a few ceilings,so as not to bore you.

Not a ceiling, but I liked this face.

I'll take this over Versailles any day.

These were not all painted by the same artist, but the colors blend together so well. 

And then there are the gardens!

There were a LOT of steps...

Jim asked me how far down I wanted to go, and I said "all the way!" But partway there my knees said, 

Far enough.

All the water features were magical to me. 

As were the spring flowers, which I feel I haven't seen enough of. 

But I have never seen such beautiful old wisteria as I have seen here in Italy. 

Jim appreciated it, too.

Tivoli is famous for its fountains, and I have never seen so many fun and whimsical ones as there were here. They gave me goosebumps! 

I'm sorry that her jets weren't functional, cause that would have been something to see.

Another majestic fountain. We didn't see every inch of the garden, but we thoroughly enjoyed what we did see. 

If you're ever near Rome, try to make a side trip to Tivoli. It's worth it! 

We also stopped nearby at Hadrian's villa, which was a marvel of another kind. We were there with at least 30 bus loads full of French and Italian school kids, no doubt on their spring trips. 

It was a shadow of its former self. But since it was built around 120-130 BC it is amazingly well preserved . 

Thermal baths featured heavily here in this pleasure palace.

Good sport, eh? 

Still some arches and columns standing.

This is a scale model of what it probably once looked like. 

After this it was off to Rome for us to pick up a Chinese Visa ! Yay. 

Not wanting any moss to grow on us, we then hotfooted it out of the city, back near Viterbo to go to the Terme one last time. Too bad it was closed... But we went first thing this morning. On our way back to Rome. 

And now I will say Ciao ciao , as I am signing off for a while. We decided to take a trip within a trip and let someone else do the navigating for a while, so today we board an 11 day cruise through Greece and Turkey. 

We just spent an outrageous amount of money to take a taxi from the Rome Airport after dropping off our rental, rather than risk missing the departure, which would have meant flying to Turkey. We're learning....

Write me an e mail if you want to read more blog posts, and I'll see what I can do...thanks for reading!

From one coast to another

From the Tarot Garden, we headed back across Italy to Viterbo, another wonderfully historic city, which we barely skimmed the surface of, but it was a good stopping place for the day.

I love all the subtle colors and jumbled rooflines. 

And I like cities that feel "real" to me. 

We had a good dinner of a typical soup with hearty vegetables- so different from eating in Sicily! 

After dinner we stopped in for a dessert and coffee at a caffe that had been in that spot since 1819, and before that it had been a hotel and previously ,a bank in the 1700s! 

We had two desserts and coffee for €4.

Then we had a special destination for the morning.

This was the Termi dei Papi, a very beautiful( and warm! ) thermal spa. I love hotsprings, and we have visited them whenever possible, but I have to say this is one of my favorites! It is certainly the biggest, and there were lots of minerals in the water, as evidenced by our silver jewelry turning dark.

We were both very happy to spend time in the relaxing warm waters. The Ancient Romans loved their terme, too. 

Reluctantly, we left that wonderful place for our drive across to the other coast of Italy, through Abruzzo. 

We didn't have any plan for where we would go after Cortona until Sam, and his "Australian Mum"Miriam gave us a suggestion to see Abruzzo. We happily accepted the recommendations for an itinerary, and circled some cities on our map. This was a part of Italy we had not been to and I had actually thought of this area as being a possible place to visit. 

On the way we saw another terme, but there was no swimming there..

The water looked beautiful, but the signs said stay out! 

Our first stop was L'Aquilla, a beautiful town that was covered in scaffolding! We couldn't figure out what was going on until we realized there must have been an earthquake. Jim looked it up and discovered that five years earlier they suffered a devastating earthquake that killed 300 people  and damaged over 1000 buildings. It felt like a ghost town. With building cranes. 

We got directions to a trattoria, but mistakenly went to the restaurant around the corner. The place was deserted but once inside we couldn't back out, and the owner seemed thrilled to have customers. He told us how difficult it has been since the earthquake since no one visits anymore. We forgave him for serving us pasta that reminded as nothing so much as chef boyardee, and overcharging us, to boot! We figured he needed our business, and we were happy to give him our money. 

This is my favorite variation on a theme that I saw as we were leaving town. A good reminder for of us. 

We were happy to finally reach Pescara after a tiring day of driving through lots of looong tunnels. We forgot how the Italians like to blast through mountains rather than drive over them! 

We were delighted with our hotel in Pescara with a view of the sea from our balcony. 

 

This was different than anyplace else we had been in Italy, and seemed quite modern in comparison. 

In fact, we liked it there so much that we were booked for two nights but decided to stay 3.

Plus, we were right next door to a gelateria and within walking distance of several good restaurants. 

We chose the popular fish place recommended by our hotel staff. In spite of being the only customers there when they opened at 8 pm, within a half hour the place was full.

I ordered the gnocchi with sugo di scampi. Nearly any dish with shrimp is served with a whole shrimp or two for garnish. Delicious! We also had the frito misto , which is fried anchovies, shrimp, calamari and octopus, also very good. We were told that the seafood at this restaurant all comes from their own fishing boat, so you know it's fresh. This was a good end to a long day. 

Down the road to the Tarot Garden, or Il Giardino dei Tarocchi

I was first introduced to Nikki de St Phalle's Tarot Garden by our relatives in Switzerland over 10 years ago, as I mentioned previously, and have wanted to visit ever since. I really forgot about it until I read Claudine Helmuth' s interview about a favorite place that had inspired her artistically. It was a lightbulb moment, and fortunately it was not too far out of our way to make a trip there. The timing was perfect. 

I will not add any commentary because the work is incredible and speaks for itself. If you want to see some of her work closer to home, there is a piece in Balboa Park, San Diego, and another large installation north of there in Encino. 

Luckily we got in and out before the large groups of Italian school kids arrived. 

We are still happily together.

One of my favorite pillars

View from inside the house that Nikki actually lived in. This was my favorite part, though I don't know if I could live with all these mirrors. The effect was stunning, though. 

The kitchen

Bedroom

Some shower, eh? 

I think Jim is wondering if I'm going to try to talk him into covering some surface in our home in mirrors! 

So, so tempting...maybe if I had a cadre of workers like Nikki did. 

I hope I showed you enought to make you appreciate how magical this place is.