Day 36 - Fri 3 Oct 25: Minori to Rome

October 04, 2025

Fri 3 Oct 25: Minori to Rome

Well that went quick, the last day on the road for our Grand Italy Tour. It was a mostly sunny day, but very windy and very fresh especailly at Tivoli and in Rome. After breakfast we walked down the narrow street from our hotel in Minori to the carpark by the jetty, and boarded a small bus to transfer us to the other side of the mountains to Angri near Pompeii. Here Andrea, our driver for the tour met us again with his larger bus to transfer us to Rome. On the way we stopped for a 2 hour guided tour of Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli, our last guided tour of this tour.

HADRIAN'S VILLA

The Villa was built between 118 and 138 AD by the Emperor Hadrian, who was reportedly born in Italica near Seville (Spain) on 24th January 76 AD and was adopted by, and then succeeded his father's cousin Trajan in 117 AD. The residence extended over an area of at least 120 hectares, the main nucleus of which occupied a tufa plateau at the foot of Tivoli enclosed by two large ditches. In order to create such a magnificent complex, whose original dimensions are still practically unknown today, Hadrian decided to move his official residence outside the capital, choosing a green territory with plentiful water, a short distance from Rome.

The Villa, with a visitable area of about 40 hectares, includes residential complexes, baths, theatres, and also various pavilions, nymphaea, and numerous gardens with alternating pergolas following an unusual arrangement, which does not reflect the usual sequences found in villas and domus, even imperial examples. The structures were connected to each other not only by paths above ground, but also by a subterranean road network for service use, suitable for both vehicular and foot access. Literary sources tell us that Hadrian, an extremely versatile personality, very much loved architecture, to which he personally dedicated himself: the daring characteristics of the Villa layout and the architectural solutions adopted, prove beyond doubt his personal involvement in the project.

The remarkable richness of the Villa's architectural and sculptural decoration was the subject of systematic research from the Renaissance onwards, when the monumental architectural remains were once again associated with the famous imperial residence. The plundering of marble, which have begun in the late Roman period and continued into the Middle Ages for reuse in churches and palaces, followed by the search for masterpieces of Hadrianic art for antiquities collections, led to a wide dispersion of the Villa's decorative elements.

As a result, almost all the major museums and collections in Rome and the rest of Italy, as well as across Europe, include pieces from Hadrian's Villa among their works.

In 1999, the site was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and placed on the World Heritage List.

It was nice walking amongst such historical ruins, and with no crowds, We were the largest group visiting today and there appeared to be few other visitors at the time. We left Tivoli at 4:00pm, and continued the last 45km to Rome to our Hotel, the Bettoja Mediterraneo, taking another 90 minutes due to a combination of heavy Friday afternoon traffic and Anti Israel / Gaza supporter protests. We eventually checked into our rooms shortly before 5.30pm, showered and got changed and headed out for a group farewell dinner at 7:00pm. Noeleene has picked up another cold and cough, so we arrived late at dinner after having to call into a pharmacy to grab some medication. It was a lovely meal, but another late night.