It's like Disney World...for landscape architects

This morning we took the metro to the outskirts of rome to meet Joe and the rest of the class at the bus stop. We then took a 45 minute ride to the town of Tivoli. We headed right to the villa of Cardinal d'este, 1530's and stayed there for about 3 hours. Its amazing how beautiful and well maintained this old villa is. Most of the fountains on the hill still work. we watched the water organ play and spent time sketching and walking through the many gardens with wisteria and tulips in bloom. With over 500 fountains still in use, even on a warm day, we were quite cool and ready to enjoy the garden's splendor. After we ate a small lunch at the cafe on the balconys above the valley, we nixed the trip to hadrian's villa because it was so late in the day. Insteas we went to an area of the town known as villa gregoriana. Its an old valley that used to have a large waterfall run through it. The water was recoursed due to flooding and now there are numerous cascades in the valley. After 2 hours of steps, climbing walls, and sneaking in to roped off areas with the professor, we were quite tired and ready to head home to Rome. The bus ride back was extremely packed and i have to stand for about 20 minutes of it with some girls from the area squeezing in next to me. The horrible situation did not put a damper on my day though, infact, on the bus flying down the curvy roads of the hills, it felt as though i was on a roller coaster, weaving between the olive trees. This day was not a day so much of historical education, but more of a fun day of outdoors and beautiful scenery. It might even have been my favorite one yet in the country of Italy, but then again, i might be biased as a design student. Anyway, we are heading to Pompeii tomorrow morning and I heard Naples is well...an interesting area, so we will see what the day brings.