You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.
A nice little bouncy regional trainride up from the Roma Tiburtina station, circling up through a number of irrememberable villages and pulling in to the Tivoli station, where our future host had invited a friend of his to function as a taxi driver up through the old village to our first night's bivouac.
A slight miscalculation on our part, but we're spending our first night in a small B+B called Il Castello near il castello.
And that's the castle from the front door -- 'Rocca Pia', it's called. More on that later. Tonight we're on the northwest side of the castle; tomorrow we'll drag our stuff round to the east side and meet our longer-term host, Guido.
In the meantime, we'll have a late afternoon walk round town. That's the central square in the upper town, the Piazza Giuseppe Garibaldi, fronting onto the 200m Parco Garibaldi off to the left. On the far side is a boarding school which shall not be named, because on Google Maps it's got some pretty angry comments.
In the upper town, the castle is visible from everywhere.
The Parco Garibaldi
The view from the park -- the larger hill with the castle on it looks interesting and over time we figured out the name of the village but have forgotten it now.
The presumably meaningful arch in the middle of the Piazza Garibaldi.
That's the tower of the nearest church, seen from a small piazza adjoining the Piazza Garibaldi.
Just round the corner: in the centre is the entrance to the 'Chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore (or S. Francesco)' [from the information plaque]: not to confuse anybody, but . . . which? The arched door straight across is the present entrance to the Villa d'Este, one of the main reasons we've come here. We'll go through it in a day or two.
The Chiesa di S. Maria Maggiore: according to the info plaque, the original church was enlarged between the 12th and 13th centuries with other improvements (rose window, choir, etc.). The late Gothic doorway was built in the 14th century by Angelo da Tivoli, and the bell tower (seen just above) was added in the late 16th century.
The fine Cosmatesque floor is from the 13th century.
On the main altar is an icon of the Virgin attributed to Iacopo Torriti, from the late 13th century. It's hard to see it very well from outside the presbytery. 'Theotokos' since the 3rd century has been a common name for the 'Mother of God' in the Eastern Orthodox Church.
The info plaque advertises some frescoes by the Zuccari brothers at the middle of the 16th century.
And that, oh well . . . that. That's okay.
The square in front of the church, the Piazza Trento, is . . .
. . . large. With an odd sculpture at the far end (we'll investigate that some other time).
Right now we want to check out this neighborhood.
At the far end of this alley is a narrow road, the Via della Missione, which runs well down into the older, lower town.
We'd forgotten that this is Hallowe'en, but the kids and parents haven't.
Dinner in the Taverna Quintilia, nearby on the Vicolo Todini down from the Piazza Santa Croce's collection of restaurants filling the piazza.
Very old, but very well restored.
The Latin over the door, taepi Darium, seems senseless to one's aging Latin: 'Tape of Darius'. Huh?
No crowds here at the moment, but we nearly always try to slip in before the normal Italian dining hour begins at about 8 pm.
Speaking of salvaged Latin sayings from the old days: this one, though a little awkward, is not senseless.
['In all dangers, grab your testicles']
Up the street to the Piazza Santa Croce -- rather chilly weather, but these folks know what they're doing.
Back up to our first night's digs
A fine day dawns, 1 November 2024; we're awaiting our new host in the Piazzale Matteotti across the street from the Bar Matteotti, where by arrangement with our host we breakfasted every day on his dime (handing in a little chit) and became good friends with the neat owners and their English-learning young son.
That's a huge city carpark across the road, a convenient Farmacia on the ground floor, and here's . . .
. . . our front door. We're on the top floor and, blessedly, there is an elevator. We're waiting for our host Guido Magini to come up from his work in Rome and show us in. Lunch first.
A very good thoroughfare-ish sort of road right by our little piazzale, the Viale Trieste, running (with quite a few other roads) down to the river Aniene that runs down out of the Abruzzi mountains. There's a convenient Carrefour grocery just one block over from this one.
Just a little way up the street is 'Bonnie&Clayde beauty lab 2.0'. [sic]
We'll take a walk round the castle while we wait.
We'll take the tour inside soon, but here's a hint about why it's so important to some of our party: the 'Rocca Pia' is the 'rocca' or fortress built on the orders of Pope Pius II, Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini of Siena, in 1461. He was a famous humanist, poet, diplomat, and not a bad pope at all, and in sum, our favorite pope amongst any we know anything about.
The pope's purpose was to control access to the city for general protections and, especially, to prevent battles between the Orsini and Colonna families (which carried on all over central Italy, especially in Rome, for centuries).
Down to the Piazza Garibaldi
A quick walk up to the castle entrance, like a movie trailer. We'll come back later.
Inspired art, but grotty
Down near the Piazza Garibaldi
A whole street of porchetta sandwiches and . . .
. . . fun souvenir shops.
Guido's here, a fine and friendly gentleman, and we're greeted in the lobby by . . .
. . . this quiet lady.
Our balcony runs round two sides of the flat and we're on the top floor, the 5th. Here's the castle from it.
With flags aloft, the Italian flag and the Tivoli municipal flag:
Just alongside the castle, a Roman amphitheatre from the early 2nd century, capable of holding 6,000 spectators for gladiator fights and what not. The town was well populated with the fancy villas of important Roman families back in the day. This was unearthed only in 1948.
The road just below our balcony and . . .
. . . the carpark next door. (It's either early or late in this photo, because it fills up quickly.)
Those sets of four chairs sit out there all day and night, removed and replaced only for days when the maintenance chaps are cutting the grass and raking the theatre surface.
Our foyer, so to speak
And our blessedly minimalist salon, also so to speak
All the necessaries, along with a bottle of white wine, bottled water, and lots and lots of welcoming snacks
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