A day enjoying Tagliacozzo again and a brand new city-Tivoli
Yesterday, we had spent most of the day sitting around Tagliacozzo and sampling various beverages. We found another nice wine bar outside of the Piazza area. It seems to me that the older humans frequent this space and the younger humans socialise inside of the Piazza. This wine bar gave us heaps of snacks-biscuits, cheese, ham etc. We were actually still quite full but Simon was determined to investigate this German like pizza establishment we had noticed a few night before, right beside the train station. The Restaurant is outside in a real beer garden with real leaves full of things that like to bite and make lumps on your body.
The menu was mainly pizza with the odd hotdog thrown in for the German theme. Terry was delighted to see that they served beer by the litre and promptly ordered a litre glass of beer the size of his head. It caused a massive transformation. Terry was no longer the sullen and moody boy. The beer uplifted him and he primped and preened for the paparazzi. I have the photo to prove it
We all ordered pizza, which was fine and just lovely. They served real chips there too and I acted like I hadn’t eaten chip in years, savaging a full bowl with Marion.
The walk back up the hill was okay this time. We invented a game for Marion and Terry. The game was called “Can you find the way back up the mad hill with no directions?” Marion started off well but Terry gained an edge by remaining calm. Terry won 2-1. Yay for him! The game was over and we had succeeded in getting home.
We decided to have a bit of a sleep in and catch the train a bit later to Tivoli at 11:45 approximately.
The train journey from Tagliacozzo to Tivoli is just under an hour. We got off the train and walked towards where we thought the centre might be. We were right! Along the way, we saw the entrance to the Villa Gregoriana, an very old garden type ancient park. It starts right up on the top of the hill and used to be a big dumping ground. One of those Popes in 19th century decided to do it up and he did a pretty good job. It is well laid out with lots of signage. It costed €5 to enter and it helps the upkeep. We weaved our way down the steps to blue lagoon type pools, cooling views of waterfalls in the “Valley of hell” and ending up at the top exit where the 2 temples are. The temple of Vesta is in pretty good condition but only because some Christians turned it into their place of worships years ago. Good for them.
The whole site is covered with cute and very wild cats scavving bits of bread from the cafe at the top. They are much friendlier in Rome.
When we had finished the humid walk, we were sweating and semi-wrecked. The sign at the entrance had admitted the walk could be uncomfortable in places. Nice of them to warn us.
We then took a saunter into the city of Tivoli, about a 15 minute walk. On first glance, Tivoli is an run down and characterless city but upon investigation, it opens up a bit. It has its own style but we all agreed that it needed “doing up”
(this is a complete joke, by the way. Years ago in a school I was teaching in, we were all chatting in the staffroom about Rome. I had said I loved it but one teacher who shall be nameless forever more piped up “hmm, I don’t really like Rome, it’s a bit rundown”)
Therefore, we spent the day looking for ways to improve the appearance of a wonderfully ancient city. Tivoli is also home to the most famous ancient site of Hadrian’s gardens. It involves a day trip and we just decided not to do it on this occasion. We strolled around and drank lots of cafe americanos. Bliss actually.
Tagliacozzo was busy again when we got back in. I got a nice, fresh cocktail and the lads had Belgian beer, which made them very drunk. Light weights. 9%? They stopped at one bottle sensibly. We then brought them to the last restaurant on their list. The usual place? It’s the only restaurant right on the Piazza. It was packed by 8 o clock. I think Simon’s meal won tonight. He got a pasta with pesto with a twist of lumps of potato and green beans mixed through. Yum. I got a highly salty carbonara. I ate half. Marion for a mushroom ravoli, which was lovely but full on and Terry got the ravoli ragu I had the other night. Nice as well. We treated ourselves to an ice-cream from the home made ice-cream shop just off the square. I had the almond and dark choc scoop. So good to just stroll around and think you’re Italian. Gonna miss you, gelato!
The walk up the hill was hard again tonight as we couldn’t think of any games to play. Everyone stayed up reading and chatting but I hit the bed again just so I could wake up refreshed.
2 more days to go and it’s hot out there!