Day Fifteen:Visit to Villa Adriana, built in AD 120. This blows my mind. Over 2,000 years ago, this architectural marvel was created using concrete, travertine,bricks and other “modern” materials as a retreat for Roman Emperor Hadrian. The architecture is complex, there is a theatre, dormitories for visiting dignitaries, baths, great rooms, latrines and dining areas and various fountains and pools all supplied by an aqueduct. As a mason, Caesar has the knowledge to explain how they constructed the walls and columns and it was interesting to watch him feel the bricks and stone and imagine how they created particular floors and walls. I was fascinated with the large baths and how pleasant that experience may have been under the Roman sun peeking from the dome above. Truth is, we’d be more likely to have been one of the 2,000 slaves who kept the place going than one of the dignitaries, priests or high ranking politicians visiting the place. Over time much of the marble and artwork was pillaged for other buildings but some floors remain intact and the black and white floors of the dormitory remind me of my current bathroom floor. Amazing. Spent the evening walking around Tivoli talking about this marvelous site.
Darby is a borough in Delaware County, Pennsylvania where you can stand with one foot in town and the other in SW Philly. It is bordered by Darby Creek. It has a public library erected in 1743 and a cemetery more than 300 years old. The Quakers lived there early in the colonial era. In 1900 3,429 people made their homes there in 1940 10,334 residents of Darby existed. It is here, in November 1960 where I had my first view of the world.
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Villa d'Este, Tivoli, Lazio, Italy
Day Sixteen: We wrap up our journey with a visit to Villa d’Este a 16th century villa commissioned by Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este (1509–...
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