My mom and I went to see the Borghese Gallery, one of my favorite museums of all time, earlier in the morning in Rome. (I have no pictures because they are strictly forbidden (you can't even take a camera or phone in). Just a note if you go there, you need to make an appointment on their website and prepay. After the museum, we ran into Aurora, an incredibly talented artist my age that happened to sit next to my mom on her plane over to Rome, for the second time (the first being before going to the Vatican). We decided that it was fate that we met again (because who just runs into the same person more than once in a city as big as Rome?), and since Aurora didn't have anything else planned, we all hopped a bus to Tivoli, a city just an hour outside of Rome by bus. We visited Villa D'Este. The actual villa wasn't this fantastic sight to see or anything, as the house was almost completely empty aside from the beautiful ceilings and frescos and a couple rooms of paintings, but the views from the Villa and the gardens were absolutely breathtaking.
From the villa windows, you could look out over the whole city.
My beautiful mother.
The gardens have hundreds of fountains everywhere, most being powered by gravity, not electricity.
I have never seen so many fountains in my life.
Even the walkways were lined with fountains.
Eagle fountain.
This was my favorite set of fountains. It looked like little ancient temples.
Boat fountain.
The stairs had flowing water running down the rails. I think this is how the other fountains were powered, just by that momentum.
This fountain was insanely huge. And it created a rainbow!
Above the large fountain, there was a water-powered organ! At a set time, the organ's doors would open, and water would make this wheel turn (you know those music boxes that you wind up and the little spikes get flicked by the bumps on the wheel? This was a giant one), and an organ would play.
View of the ponds (with fish in them!) from the top of the big fountain.
After returning to Rome from Tivoli, I "forced" everyone to go to my favorite gelato shop EVER that I went to with my humanities class. It's the best gelato in the world, basically. There are huge lines (that move fast) for it all the time, because it's SO GOOD. And it's cheap compared to other gelato places that don't get as good business because they're not as epically good. You should go to Rome just for this gelato place. Anyway, you wait in line to buy a ticket, then you go up to the counter to choose your flavors (you get 3 for 1.60 if you buy the small size), get your flavors, and put the best gelato ever in your mouth.
The gelato place is this beautiful, glowing beacon of light with all the contents of heaven inside on this sketchy street. It's fantastic. You really haven't tasted gelato ever until you've had gelato Fassi.
Then my mom and I decided to get dinner after on the way back to our hotel on Via Veneto. It's actually better for your digestion (according to Ayurvedic tradition) to eat dessert before dinner. (My three-year-old self knew what was up). On Via Veneto, there's a bunch of restaurants that have glass covered booths on the sidewalks. We ate in one of those. I got eggplant parmesan.
By the way, when eating in Europe, if you don't want bread, refuse it or else you'll get charged for it. Also, if you want water, say you want a glass of water, because otherwise they'll charge you for expensive bottled water. I swear they charge you to breathe here.
But anyway, great last day in Rome. :)
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