Villa Adriana

On Friday for our architecture class, we traveled to the Villa Adriana (also known as Hadrian's Villa). It took us approximately 45 minutes to make our way to Tivoli mainly because of the terrible traffic in Rome. Hadrian's Villa was built during the 2nd century AD and it's purpose was to be a place for the emperor Hadrian to relax. **Random fact: Emperor Hadrian built the Pantheon** The property spans about 250 acres and all that remains today is the ruins of his elaborate villa.
Upon entering the villa, we first looked at the "model" of it-- which is just a guess at how the villa used to look. It's estimated that the model of the villa is only half of the actual villa.

Most everything left of the villa is made of concrete or marble. The concrete was really critical because of the nature of the material, it allowed Hadrian to construct such intricate artifices. The wall pictured above, as you might notice, has long empty indentations in it. Our architecture professor told us that it used to be filled with marble. Also, at the top of the wall are large holes which went across the pathway to provide shade for people.

After walking along the wall we came across "The Maritime Theater" of the villa. This was probably one of the prettiest places. A moat surround the little island and Hadrian would often come here to escape the rest of his villa.

 Above is the Greek Library. In his villa, Hadrian had two libraries-- the Greek Library and the Latin Library. The Latin Library is pictured below.

There were also a few remnants of the floor in various remains of buildings. They were extremely beautiful and colorful.

Here is the place where Hadrian's guests stayed that were lower class. Kind of like dormitories.

Below is the entrance to one of the places where they often ate. It was very long and had statues lining the body of water.

They would eat on this raised area, laying down and most likely on silk.

These are just some of the highlights from Hadrian's Villa. If any of you travel to Rome be sure to make a stop here. It was also very helpful that our two architecture professors knew everything about this place. Perhaps a tour guide would be helpful. 

Miss you all !! 

xo ali