Hadrian's Villa | A Virtual Tour

Hello, here we are, walks inside Rome, today we are in Tivoli in Adrian's Villa, next to me we have Barbara, she's going to take us around just to give us a little stroll about Adrian's Villa, the Villa of the Emperor Adrian, so enjoy your stroll with Barbara. Hi guys, everybody, welcome to Tivoli, I'm very proud to introduce you to this amazing place, Adrian's Villa. We are in the one of the entrances actually of the Villa that is known as Pecile. Pecile was the name of a huge four-sided porch where Adrian and his friends loved to walk around, you know the Romans used to say mense sana and corpore sano, healthy mind and healthy body, so after the big meal, you know about hours and hours eating, you really need to walk and this was the place. Walking around this beautiful rectangular, you know, porch about seven times, you walk exactly the right distance suggested by your doctor, so perfect fitness. In the center of this porch you got a fish pond, so in case Adrian and his friends want to eat some fresh fish, they could catch the fish directly here. This is a plant of rosemary, rosemary to dress, you know, with some olive oil, if you look around here, you know, this is a really amazing place, it's huge, consider the entire area originally covered a surface that was about twice the size of Pompeii and was the house of one man, but not a simple man, he was the owner of the world, the known world. Emperor Adrian, you know, actually arrived to the power about, at the age of about, you know, 42 years old, was in the year 117 and after he became the emperor, he decided to change the policy, you know, of the leader of the Roman Empire, so after Trajan had been a general, a military commander, the love to use violence and strength to conquer the other populations, I remind you that Trajan is the one that conquered Romania, that became part of the Roman Empire, Adrian decided to, you know, to use another, you know, way actually, to use culture, beauty, art, he had a brilliant mind, a kind of universal mind, he knew about everything, he was a mathematician, a poet, a philosopher, he knew about astronomy, medicine, more than all, he loved to be an architect. We know that when he was very young, you know, he used to go to the official architect of Trajan, Apollodoro, Apollodoro came from Syria, from Damascus, and Adrian, you know, used to go to this guy, you know, to show his beautiful projects, well, he believed they were beautiful projects, well, Apollodoro not so much, so since Adrian, you know, loved to design big domes, you know, I remind you that he's the one that designed the dome of the Campeon, just a little thing, so the young Adrian used to go to Apollodoro to show his projects, and Apollodoro one time started to yell at him, saying, you know, I'm tired of you, you're never going to understand anything about architecture, and go to design your pumpkins in another place, and the pumpkins were the domes, of course. After that, Adrian became the emperor, Apollodoro disappeared, we don't know where he finished actually. So, walking around this amazing place, you can see some beautiful olive trees, the olive trees are about 300 years old, more of them, most of them, but some of them even older, so a huge olive grove, you've got the lush of, you know, a beautiful nature, mixed with the beautiful, you know, remains of these buildings, amazing. This is the building with the triple exegra, this is the name, if you follow me, I'll show you something very interesting. The columns we built here show you fragments of the original granite from Egypt, and the part that is filled with the concrete, as you can notice. Unfortunately, we missed the colors of this place, they were just amazing. The columns here, for example, are made with a Greek beautiful marble, a green marble, called Karistio marble. If I wait for this marble to come closer, you can see the original color, that is really beautiful. So, this came from Euboea, Evia, is an island in Greece, and if you look in the floor, you can see a little fragment of the original floor, that show you the most incredible colors. So, when you come here, you got to use your imagination, and mix what remains, you know, with what used to be, and a good way to realize the beauty of this place is to visit the museums, because lots of beautiful statues, mosaics, and artworks are now preserved in the most important museums, like the Vatican, for example, of course. Okay, so now we go back to the main way, very special. Now we're gonna arrive to visit one of the most famous places of this villa. You got to imagine, the Hadrian, you know, traveled a lot during his life. He was emperor for about 20 years, between 117 and 138, and the scholars believe that out of this period, so about 10 years, he was traveling. He loved to go, you know, to check the condition of life of the people that lived so far away from Rome, or part of the Roman Empire, and he loved to enforce, you know, the limits, the borders, you know, of the empire, to keep safe the people faithful to Rome. So Hadrian is also the one that built the Hadrian's Wall, in north of England, to protect, you know, the English from the Scottish, that back in time were kind of barbarians, it seems. Now, this villa had all the facilities, all the comforts, you know. For example, they had here about three baths, three spas. Two were for the emperor himself and his friends, one was just for the slaves, because you have to remember, there were slaves and slaves, not all the slaves were the same. Okay, if you were, you know, part of the imperial slaves, very close to the emperor, you had lots of nice things also for you. So, later I'm gonna show you the bath of the slaves, but don't miss this olive tree, look at this. It's a masterpiece itself, look. This is about 500 years old. You can hear the cicadas, you know, singing for us, so this is the perfect place where you can enjoy the harmony between nature and archaeology. Back in time, around the 1700s and 1800s, lots of travelers of the Grand Tour, so-called Grand Tour, you know, used to come to Hadrian's Villa, and in many places around the villa, you can still see their signatures on the walls, you know. This testifies that Hadrian's Villa was in the list of the places that you couldn't miss, if you want to be considered like an intellectual in Europe. So, Hadrian's Villa is famous since a long time, even if it shares the same destiny of fire, you know. We had people like Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo, and later on Bernini, Borromini, they came here and also to study the architectures of Hadrian. If you look to the right, down there, you can see what remains of the lodging of the slaves. You see this vertical opening in the walls, down there. You got to imagine that these were single rooms, you know, divided in different rooms on different floors, you know. So, now it seems like it's all together, but there were like steps outside in woods and little balconies at the entrance of every single room. So, about 125 bedrooms. This was a street to, you know, reach the entrance of the villa. Down there on the left, you can imagine a staircase and on both sides, two fountains. The water plays a chief role in this place. Consider that Tivoli was pretty famous, you know, as a place for summer residences. So, all the rich Romans loved to have their villas here. Hadrian was not the first one, not even the last one. So, the archaeologists realized that around our countryside, we got the remains of about 300 ancient Roman villas. This, of course, I told you, was the biggest area of escape. Now, in a while, we're going to arrive to the so-called Canopus. This was a kind of open-air dining room where Hadrian and his friends had banquets. So, we can imagine, you know, around 5 p.m., you know, or less at this time of the day, we could hear music and there were dancers to, you know, make everything very fun. The food was a main character here, you know. Hadrian loved to eat, like all the Italians do. I saw, imagine these incredible parties given for him, where the chefs were even more than our master chefs, you know, and they were able to create, I don't know, something like a roast pork and then the chef, in front of the guests, opened the stomach of the pork and then came out like real birds flying away. So, it was a show. Right in front of you, you got a huge complex made of different, you know, rooms and these are the so-called great baths for the slaves. So, this complex was reserved for the slaves of the emperors. Later, maybe we can enter and take a look inside. But now, we reach the Canopus. Canopus actually is the name of an Egyptian town, not too far away from Alexandria of Egypt. And there, something very sad happened, you know, in the life of Hadrian. Hadrian, I got to tell you, he had a wife. Her name was Sabina, but they didn't like each other so much. So, after about six months from the marriage, they were separated. And so, Hadrian started to have lots of lovers. Lots of beautiful ladies, of course, but also young boys. That was very typical, normal. But one time, you know, he met a young man and fell in love immediately. His name was Antino. Antino was about 15 years old when Hadrian met him and Hadrian was about, you know, into his 50s, I guess. In May of that, he fell in love with this young man and they were together for about five years, traveling the world, going hunting together, you know. Wherever Hadrian went, Antino was with him. But one day, in Egypt, nearby Canopus, Hadrian and Antino went to meet a woman, a magician. Hadrian, like all the ancient Romans, was very superstitious. He loved to meet, you know, magicians to know something about his future. But that time, this woman predicted the emperor's death. She said, you're going to die very soon unless someone that really loves you sacrifices instead of you. And guess what happened? Just a few nights later, Antino and Hadrian were sleeping in a booth on the Nile River and once Hadrian wore a white tunic for the sacrifice and went to drown himself in the Nile. So, at the age of 20, he died. The day after, when Hadrian realized what happened, he was almost out of his mind for the pain. So, he decided to do something. Since he was the emperor, he could do whatever he liked. So, Antino became a god. Temples were built for him all around the Roman Empire and, you know, in the place where he died in Egypt, was built a town that was named after him, Antinopolis. Even a star was named after Antino in the constellation of the eagle in those days. This ugly statue, actually, is not the original one, of course, because the original is in the museum. At the moment, it's not open. The original one is in marble. Anyway, this is a reproduction, you know, made in the 50s of the 1900s, when this area had been excavated. The statues that you can see around were found during this excavation in 1954 and they were broken, of course. So, after restoration, they were, you know, preserved in the museum and they put some tubs here. The one that we were looking before is a river and, actually, if you look closer, you can see a sphinx. So, this is the Nile. On the opposite side, you got the Tiber River. So, Egypt and Rome together in the same place. Lots of symbolism, of course, in this place. Then, the nice guy in front of us, that all the ladies appreciate a lot, is Mars, the god of the world. It seems that the body is inspired to the body of Antino. Another symbol of Egypt is visible through the columns, if you look in front of you, on the left, is the crocodile. Can you see it down there? This is Octopus. The original crocodile is really amazing. It's made with this green marble I was showing you before in the column and it's green and got all the stripes. It looks like a real crocodile. Then, other statues around, but the most important thing, the water channel symbolizes the Nile, the river of Egypt. At the both sides, you got to imagine the three cleaner beds. These beds were, the Romans used to lean, to lay down with the grapes, you know, eating, and the slaves with the fan to keep them cooler. So, the place around evening, in the summer, became the place for the banquet. Down there was the place where Adrian used to eat. Now, all the summer, you know, dining room, if we want to call them in this way, Cenazio, Trichini, that was the original name, actually, were always, you know, cooled by the presence of the water. So, not only this canal, but even plantains. A little aqueduct, so just in the back of the building, used to, you know, lead the water in the system. And so, down below, you had plantains. So, everything was nice and cool. And Adrian had a special possibility. If he wanted to eat by himself, in privacy, he used to eat in the central part, you know, of the building there, almost like on a podium, you know, a little bit higher, of course. Well, he could order to the slave to open a waterfall. So, from the top, as a waterfall tank, you know, covers you, the rest of the people. The colors, I've told you before, women love the colors, but the half dome that you can see in front, was completely, you know, filled with mosaics, dark blue mosaics that imitate the sky. And then, marbles in the lower part, colorful marbles, you know. And then, I told you, the water with the reflections. This place is amazing to the eye, but of course, in the second century, had to be really something breathtaking. We are walking in a part that was covered. So, if you look on your left, you can see the basis of the columns. So, here, we used to stand a line of columns, also on the opposite side, and this was covered to protect the people from this hot sun, you know, in the summer. On the opposite side, as you can notice, you got the shade. So, no porch there, you know, because the Romans were very practical people, so they didn't use any cover up there. We are getting more closer, and now you can really appreciate this beautiful architecture. Of course, the architects, you know, that came later, fell in love with this place. Piranesi, Giovan Battista Piranesi, made a lot of beautiful drawings about these architectures. The ditches in the wall specify the presence of the sculptures. Under Hadrian, we had a large production of copies, you know, Roman copies from the Greek originals. So, these beautiful Greek masterpieces were reproduced, you know, at the time of the emperors, especially at the time of Hadrian, and this was very important because lots of Greek originals, much older, finished lost. So, thanks to the copies made at the time of Roman emperors, we have lots of information also about the Greek art. Wherever you see these little holes, okay, very regular in the wall, this means that here was marble covering. So, the clamps, you know, to sustain the marble cover left the hole. And here you got, this is called the tibadio. It's a half moon-shaped bench. Imagine carpets and pillows, and the closest friends of Hadrian that had the right and the privilege to sit close to him, could live here. There was the place where Hadrian used to sit, right there, and the water fell from the top. Look at the reflection of the water, you know, thanks to the sunlight, and imagine the blue mosaics. That would be really something special. And here, if you turn around, you can see the view, the head and head from each spot. Now, if we can enter, if you follow me, now enter inside, and you're going to feel, not you in person, but we're going to feel the difference of the temperature from outside and inside. It's really cooler inside here, fantastic. From the top, we're going to have a view, bellissima. This are some remains of the mosaics, simple black and white mosaics here. You can also take a look at these arches there. This is the aqueduct. So, up there, there was like a canal, where the water arrived. The water came from a bigger aqueduct, of course, because four of the eleven aqueducts, they used to take the water from the mountains down to Rome, back to Cyprus. So, it was easy for Hadrian to catch the water, to use the water here. These walls that you can see to the right, are nothing more than like obstructions, you know, to sustain the artificial, plus terraces and stuff. So, this is something artificial. Hadrian and his architects, you know, were able to create, you know, terraces to build things on. Sometimes the things are gone, and you can see only the foundation. This is like the wild rucola, rockets, I don't know how you call this. This is like a salad, very good, wild salad, with a couple of cherry tomatoes, some balsamic vinegar and olive oil. You've got a fantastic salad here. Maybe if you want to put some parmesan here, it would be an idea. So, yeah, it's a beautiful view, really enjoyable. You can even breath, you know, the herbs. So, this food is really something special for the people who love nature, you know, open air spaces and art, of course. The Romans understood very well that if you want, you know, to live happy, you need, you know, the help of nature. So, they had a huge respect, you know, for nature. When they didn't need, you know, the wood to feed the baths or the hot water pools. Now, we're going to arrive to visit the big bath, or the great bath, as they call it. The name is to distinguish, you know, this complex from another one that at the moment is still on restoration, known as the small bath. The small bath, for a long period, was believed the bath for the women and the big one for the men. But, you know, in modern times, the scholars understood that there was a difference between the big and the small bath, about people that used to go there, but it was not for sex, it was for rank. So, the small bath was for the emperor and his friends, the big bath for the slaves, simply because, you know, the number of the slaves probably was much bigger. Anyway, since the architecture is the most important thing here, if you look at the point of the small bath, you can understand that they are more important, because each room is different from the next one. And there's even a room that got eight sides, octagonal, where Adrian, for the very first time in the history, used the so-called mixed line. So, you got like this eight sides room, one like side is straight, the other one is convex, straight and convex, you know, this kind of architecture became really popular in the Baroque times, in 1600. And Borromini, Francesco Borromini, was a big fan of this kind of architecture. And we know that when Borromini, you know, had a day off in Rome, used to escape and came here, just to, you know, look and enjoy and learn from Adrian. So, the place is a UNESCO site, I told you, and the reason is that it's because it belongs to all of us. If you come closer here, you can see one of these beautiful cruciform vaults that still stands perfectly. And there's a detail that I'd like to show you. Look in the corner up there, you can see some remains of the original plaster that used to be the decoration covering the vault. And if you really pay attention in the corner on the left, you can see two initials, you know, left with the red pencil TS, and then there's a number, a date, 1763 or 69. Someone came here that time and left his two initials, initials of his name. How is possible? I mean, look how far away is from the floor. If you look at the floor and then look where it is, the description, it's really far away. But this testifies the huge work of the archaeologists, because we got to imagine that this room was completely filled with the dirt. So, at the time of this guy in 1760 something, it was very easy to arrive there, because the like level of walking, you know, was much higher than today. So, you can see the original floor level, thanks to the archaeologists and their big work. To the right, another impressive building, known as the Praetorio. Someone, some scholar, believed that this was the barrack for the Praetorians, the imperial guards. Some others prefer the version to interpret this building as a kind of a place to store, you know, material things that the villa may need. In the lower level, you can see some rooms. These are cubicola, bedrooms for the slaves. And if you come a little bit closer, you can see some paintings left, you know, on the wall side. It's very funny, because you can see different layers. Probably like for the, you know, wallpaper, when it becomes too old, you put another one on, something happens for them. Look at the paintings. So, now we are inside the bath of the slaves. You can see what means perfection. If you look at the vault, this cruciform vault is missing a branch totally, if you look in the ceiling, but still stands, 1,900 years old vault. This is because of the use of the arch. If you look in front of us, you got a perfect arch. The arch is not an invention of the Romans, but the Romans were able to use the arch in the best way. It was to use, to balance, you know, the weight of the domes. Look at the huge blocks of travertine stone, the white stone up there. They are, you know, the blocks that sustain the whole thing, thanks to the use of the arch. Also, interesting to notice in the vault, this kind of big bricks insert into the building itself. This is what another way to light the weight of the vaults, because the bricks are made in terracotta, much lighter than the material that, you know, create the mass of the vault. So, a couple of tricks, you know, to be able to create some beautiful, beautiful architecture like this one. So, the pools, to the right, you can see the tepidarium, so you have to imagine water here, warm water. On the opposite side, with the circle shape, the calidarium, hot water pool, not yet completely excavated, if you can notice. This was the pool for the hot water bath. And then, at the end, the frigidarium, the cold water bath pool. So, after you had all these beautiful, you know, immersions, you know, in the different temperature pools, you could have, enjoy a nice massage, made with perfumes and oils, and then you're ready for a party. So, the frigidarium here, beautiful. Of course, every time we see a niche in the wall, imagine statues. The statues collection of Adrian was something incredible. Consider that today, I mean, nowadays, spread in the most important museums around the world, we got about 400 statues from here. Probably, the collection was over 1,000, you know, and of course, all top-level masterpieces. Yeah, in the floor, some part of the original floor, this was a very, you know, plain floor that was typical, for example, of the gyms. And actually, outside here, this large space, it was the gym for the gymnasium, for the slaves. So, they could be in good shape for all their works. Another important thing that I got to tell you is that Villa Adriana, Adrian's Villa, got kind of an underground world, made of passages, underground passages, about five kilometers, about three miles of underground passages, known as cryptoportici, hidden passages, that are able to connect several parts of the villa. So, when the slaves had to move from a place to another one, they could, you know, use the underground passages without disturbing the eyes of the emperor and his queen. Passages are very similar to these ones. See, the small one is for a pedestrian passage, but the big one was for the chariots. So, we had an underground, you know, freeway for the chariots under our feet. And imagine that the archaeologists found even an underground parking for chariots. Unfortunately, part of the villa is not open to the public yet, because it's still in private properties. So, the large part belongs to the government today, but, you know, some parts are still in private properties, as well as the underground parking. Look, the huge cypress tree. Now, it's nice and cool. Adrian's Villa, it's been excavated since, you know, the 1500s, when it was rediscovered by a pope. His name was Pius II, from the family Piccolo, I mean, from Siena. This pope was a high culture person. So, after about 900 years, where the people even lost the memory of this place, think that in the Dark Ages, the people of Tivoli, they lived up on the hill in the village, used to call this area Old Tivoli. They didn't know any more about the presence of the Adrian's Villa. So, only in the rainy suns, thanks to this pope, they were able to understand that here once was the Adrian's Villa. And one of the first persons that came to make an excavation was the architect Piro Ligorio. Piro Ligorio, the one who built Villa d'Este in Tivoli. So, this villa, and the one built in 1500 in Tivoli, Villa d'Este, because are deeply connected with each other. Because the architect, Ligorio, took a lot of materials from here to the new villa. Also, a lot of ideas. Also, this idea of the use of the water in the garden in such an incredible way. So, we can easily say the Adrian's Villa is really the most important thing about the invention of Ligorio of Villa d'Este. If you want to drink, you can enjoy the little fountain there. And here we are. We have Alex, who is trying to drink in the English way, not in the Roman way. Okay. English stuff of the heat. Thank you. So, right in front of you, now you start to see one of the most incredible parts of the villa. It's known as the Golden Square. By the name, you can imagine what kind of materials were found during the excavations. The most incredible things. Ivory, alabaster, gold. And this was another dining room. Open air, always, so for the summer banquets. Even bigger than the other one. Where now is the grass, you got to imagine water. So, this was like a big fountain. And even down there are private toilets. Normally, when you visit the archaeological areas, you can see the so-called latrines, these toilets that were in common for all the people that the Romans used to go. But here, since you are in the summer residence of an emperor, we got the private toilets. And here, if you look, I don't know if it's possible to see so much, but there are just little fragments of colorful mosaic. But for sure, the most beautiful part of this section of the villa is on your left. Look at these fragments of a vault. They're absolutely different. It's called umbrella vault. You can imagine to be the emperor of Rome, what could be. I mean, this man had so many people, you know, asking for favors. It's easy to understand why he preferred to stay in Tivoli, not in Rome, on the Palatine Hill, when he was, you know, in the city. Because here he had the peace, you know, he had time to think, you know, to talk with his friends, the philosophers, about the sense of life. And in a while, we're going to arrive probably in the most interesting, you know, building of this villa. Got a very strange name. It's called the Maritime Theater, but it's not a theater, and it has nothing to do with the ocean. But this place is like a smaller villa in the big one, kind of refuge for Hadrian. So when he wants to stay by himself, you know, need really to relax, he used to go in this special little villa with nine different rooms, a private bath, small, and enjoy the silence, probably, and the loneliness that sometimes everyone is careful here. This area is the Imperial Palace. Unfortunately, almost nothing remains, but when you walk through this, you know, ruins, you can still see something interesting. Because, for example, here on the floor, there he built part of the original floor with the original marbles. And again, I'm going to wait for you with my water, the floors, to show you the colors. Okay, now get ready, because this is something really, really special. You want to go first? So the Maritime Theater. So right in front of you, you got an artificial island. There was a small villa, I was telling you, completely surrounded by water, a ring of water. And then again, a circle-shaped porch. You can see some columns to the right, but you got to imagine them going all the way around. And this part where we are standing was covered. There he built part of the cover, to the right, with a barrel vault. The name Maritime Theater was given by the Archbishop of Villa d'Este, Ligorio. When he made the excavation here, it was the first one, he found some like a marble decoration with dolphins, shells. That's why he gave this fancy name, you know, Maritime Theater. But I told you, this is a small residence private for the emperor. Originally, there were two foot bridges in wood, that was possible to lift up from inside. So really, the kind of symbolism of insulation for heaven. And then, if you look to the right up there, you can see a huge building back there, the so-called Greek Library. Adrian had a passion for the Greek culture. He could speak, you know, currently in Greek. And one time he said, I always govern an empire in Latin, but I live, love, and dream in Greek. So, huge respect for the Greeks. We're almost at the end of the tour. I hope you enjoy it. And, you know, we wait for you in Tivoli and at the Adrian's Puna. This will be a dream for a lot of people, either men or women, to stay away from everybody. Beautifully peaceful.