(Rome)...Scootering to Tivoli!!

(Fri. Dec. 4th)

Time for a new first in life. Riding, driving, a scooter. Been wanting to do this since 2002 when I came to Italy. And we decided to do it. More importantly also, we decided to go out to Tivoli, where Emperor Hadrian built a massive complex, because he wanted to live in the countryside and not the city. Considering it took us 1.5 hours on modern roads to get out there, Lord knows how long it took him to get to Rome by horseback or chariot or whatever.

And yes, it took us 1.5 hours. And we were going pretty fast. Like 40, 45 mph. On scooters. Trust me, that feels pretty fast. Especially up in the mountains, around turns. But anyway.

Here's Kat and Alex helmetting up. I was wearing a similar helmet, for the record. Shawna was my scooter mate, riding on the back.

John, Dave, Nate, looking pretty sweet in those helmets.

Here's our scooters. 150cc. Which was TOO BIG.

These things were heavy-ish, and powerful enough that you kinda shot forward when you gave it throttle. Felt easy to wipe out, cause they went fast and wanted to tip over. I felt constantly like one mistake and a split second, away from totally wiping out and wrecking my body and the bike. The rental was already like 40 euro or something, I forget, and we paid I think 10 extra for insurance. There were uh, some issues with some uh, spills, and some...collateral damage and associated costs. None for me, thank God. But a couple people weren't so happy at the end of the trip.

I have some other pictures of scootering that Shawna took, that I'll post later. When I post the "my friends' pictures" entry. Then you can see me driving, with her on the back and stuff.

Once we got up into the hills, we had a great view. Not much time to enjoy it, since I felt like I had my life and Shawna's in my hands every second, and was concentrating on staying with the pack- we were like a scooter gang.

We finally got to Tivoli (later than expected, cause it took us forever to get out of Rome- *I* was not navigating, for the record :) And we first went to Tivoli Gardens, cause some people had been to Hadrian's Villa, and also given the time, and thinking that the sun would be going down before we left, wanted to get back, and were actually willing to skip seeing Hadrian's Villa for the sake of safety. I personally wasn't neurotically thinking I'd automatically die if I drove back in the dark, and wasn't gonna come this far and not see a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

So the gardens, first. On the side of a hill. So lots of steps and cascading fountains. Pretty awesome.

And great views.

Longest series of fountains I've ever seen, wow.

HUGE fountain, built into the side of the hill. And by the way, at least originally, all these fountains were driven simply by the natural water pressure coming out of the hillside.

This thing actually opened up and was an organ that played once an hour, that was also driven by water pressure somehow.

After rushing through the gardens, and ditching everyone else and figuring out the scooter situation, and who was paying for what since we were splitting stuff but changing plans and switching riders, Jessica, Dave and I (Jessica and Dave driving together- she didn't wanna drive) we split up, and the three of us, me driving solo, headed for the Villa, through the town of Tivoli. First off, it was way easier driving with just me on there. But also more scary, cause at least with Shawna holding on I felt like I had a seat belt and something behind me!

Here's some random castle in town. Wish we had time to see it. Looked cool.

Hadrian's Villa! Our scooters! Not bad looking, at least they had lockable storage for our helmets, and they were blue. Cool.

Here's a model of the entire complex. Ridiculous big.

Ruins. This place was like a city, not a palace. Domes, colonnades, giant reflecting pools, building after building after building...like the whole Roman Forum again.

This reflecting pool is a pretty famous representative for the complex. I've seen many photos.

The sun was definitely starting to set, and we were trying to hurry, but the place was cool, so screw it. We also knew we hadta get back to turn the scooters in before the rental place closed. The setting sun made for great light though!

Sorta reminds me of Versailles.

Back in the city, after a harrowing drive following maniac Dave's driving through town after town (I swear he was trying to lose me) and trying to figure our way back into Rome the right way, we finally got back to the rental shop, after trying to make it back to a much closer one to our hotel, that we couldn't find and it was closing. Dave liked weaving between cars at stop lights. That is not easy to do. The bike likes trying to tip over at slow speeds. Man I can't believe I didn't damage or injure anything. Seriously.

But here's Vittorio Emmanuele II monument, all lit up. With Trajan's Column in the foreground.

The column is a spirally-written picture version of the conquering of something by his troops. The column is big enough that there are circular stairs inside and you can see small slit windows going all the way up the side.

So that was that for the day. Quite an adventure. It was really fun, but I was really glad for it to be over. I felt near danger the entire time I was on the scooter. So finally being able to let down my guard was quite a relief!