A visit to Villa d'Este with our cousins

As expected, our guests slept in this morning. Jack slept upstairs in Olivia's room (in Charlotte's bed since she was out of town) and he and Olivia of were up late last night chatting. Only Avery was up bright and early at 7am -- although he entertained himself until almost 9am so the rest of us could sleep.

It was another scorching hot day. What to do for our outing? By this time of day, the beaches would already be crowded, but water was the right idea. So we drove to Tivoli to visit the Villa d'Este. Josh and I had taken the kids last September, and I thought Jack and Kathy would enjoy it. At first Olivia couldn't remember where we were going, but she did as soon as we arrived.

Upon arriving in Tivoli, we first had to get a bite for lunch. We sat down at a mediocre place and were glad that at least we got in and out quickly. Then we walked over to the Villa d'Este.

Villa d'Este was developed, by Cardinal Ippolito of d'Este, as a living museum. The Cardinal, son of the infamous Lucretia Borgia, was immensely wealthy, highly cultured, and often ostentatious. Ippolito suffered a bitter disappointment when he failed to become Pope after a lengthy conclave. Exiled to the turbulent Tiber region, he sought solace in the creation of a magnificent garden that he believed worthy of the ancient city of Tivoli. Art historians say the Cardinal, a renaissance patron of the arts, immersed himself in the project in an effort that spanned more than two decades, and in doing so, brought forth some of the most amazing and intricate engineering feats of the century. The architect behind the fabulous creation was Pirro Ligorio. The water-works, fountains, sculptures and design of the garden are truly spectacular.

After visiting the beautifully frescoed, lower-level rooms of the villa, we took the kids out into the garden. They literally had a field day. The garden, which consists of terrace above terrace recalls the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. But here at the Villa d'Este (dating from 1560), the garden includes fountains, grottoes, water effects, reflecting and fish pools. The kids ran, played, shouted in the grottoes, and the biggest hit of all was catching the polywogs in one of the fish pools.

After leaving the Villa, but before departing Tivoli, we sat in the main Piazza and enjoyed a gelato. Then, we drove home to get a break from the heat (although the kids were wet).

In the evening, Stefano, Elena and their boys came by for a visit. We sat in the garden and an aperitivo along with Kathy. Later on, dinner was Morris's famous chicken curry. By 9:30pm, Charlotte had returned on the team bus from Spoleto, and I went to collect her from AquAniene.

She had a great 50 free race in the morning session, and qualified for the finals. She broke the 30 second barrier and finished 7th. Charlotte also swam on her first Aniene relay of the year. Normally, as a non-Italian citizen, she cannot score points for the team and thus is prohibited from participating in any relays. But this was a private meet, and as such, not regulated by FIN. She swam 100 fly on the 4 x 100 medley relay. She reported that her teammates were upset that she didn't swim a faster leg. But, she swam her leg in the same time as her individual race yesterday, not slower. It was just unfortunate that she dove in 1st and touched the wall after 3rd after her leg. After the anchor leg, the team finished second. It must have been a very exciting race to watch.

It was time to work on getting everybody to bed. In the end, I was exhausted.