Once you have seen the Villa d’Este you have seen the best of Tivoli. The town is pleasant enough but there’s not that much to do. We recommend visiting Villa Adriana, about 5 kilometres west of Tivoli.
The vast area occupied by the Villa
This was probably the largest and most sumptuous villa in the Roman Empire and was the retirement home of the Emperor Hadrian for a short while between 135 AD and his death three years later. It occupies an enormous site and you need time to see it all. We took 2 days in all,on our Tivoli trip. The first day we saw Villa d’Este, stayed the night in Tivoli and having left quite early, spent most of the next day at Villa Adriana.
The Pool with Egyptian figures
The villa buildings are the least well-preserved, but much else is recognizable. Hadrian was a great traveller and a keen architect and parts of the villa were inspired by buildings he had seen throughout the empire. It was his wish to replicate some of the wonders he had seen on his travels through Greece and Egypt.
More buildings
We hired earphones and a guided tour, in English of course. This was in our opinion, the way to do it, or it would be impossible to know what you were looking at. Another way would be to take a tour with a guide from Rome itself.
It occupied a huge area
We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and it was a part of history we were only vaguely familiar with, but a very worthwhile thing to do for we folk who are passionate about all things Italian.
The view of Tivoli from the gardens
Have a great time!