CHRISTMAS IN ROME: ENCHANTED AT HADRIAN’S VILLA!

while planning for our grand first ever visit to ROME, i googled hadrian’s villa (villa adriana) and i saw a photo of THIS:

and my jaw dropped. to the ground. right then and there, it became my main REASON for going to rome – to see this magnificently romantic pool with my very own eyes. it would be okay if i didn’t get to go inside the colosseum, but to come home without visiting this villa, now THAT would have been a great tragedy.

sorry for my vigorous exuberance there, but really – this day could not come fast enough. it was going to be the icing on the cake of this already amazing trip! let’s start at the beginning of this fabulous day, shall we?:

after saying goodbye to our charming little hotel (how gorgeous are those doors, the floor, the staircase banister, and that elevator!!), we loaded up our car and took a short drive (30-45 minutes) to villa adriana.

villa adriana, located in tivoli, is the most romantic ancient ruin in my opinion and an absolute hidden treasure – especially in december! when we went the weather was comfortable, the winter light so dreamy, and we practically had the entire place to ourselves! the people we did meet were so friendly and we chatted with each other like we were the only ones invited to a secret party!!

if you go, we would suggest you pack up a picnic and pick up some juicy tangerines from the fruit & vegetable market just outside of the villa! there are so many places to just plop down a blanket (or sit on the steps or benches) and have a relaxing lunch. the kids tell us this place was their favorite part of our trip to rome!

i will miss these baby hands when they grow up! kate couldn’t gobble down these juicy tangerines (or is it clementines??) fast enough!

so in love with the silhouette of these beautiful olives from the ancient olive grove…

here, kate is trying to yo-yo her pinocchio (that we purchased at a sweet little toy shop by the pantheon yesterday) just like her big brother. unfortunately, the coil got all tangled and she couldn’t get it to go BOING BOING. she kept trying, never complaining, bless her dear little heart!

jack has the sweetest smile – i love it when his eyes light up! anyways, he tried to help but couldn’t so he called for back up!

daddy to the rescue!!!

we stepped inside this little building to view the diorama of the villa. the place felt so big to us that we still couldn’t make sense of where we were or going, but we were happy to be “lost” in this place that felt like time stood wondrously still!

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some love for my camera bag, too!! this bag holds my third baby!

this ancient olive tree used to be three separate trees – over time the branches or roots grew together. so beautiful!

so, at this point we had planned to end our visit here and drive over to villa d’este, but it was just so serene and peaceful and the warm winter light was streaming through the ancient olive grove so beautifully that we decided to stay and end our first trip to rome here. but for SURE we are returning as it’s been such a dream of mine to visit the gorgeous and lush tivoli villa!

do you see a little face here? the kids pointed it out to us!:

i couldn’t get enough of this ancient olive tree! so VERY beautiful!

a perfect day!

and now, here we are: at the most beautiful, most ENCHANTING part of the villa! this emperor sure knew how to design. just stunning even now.

what a gorgeous way to wrap up our first trip to rome! as we drove away, we were already missing it and couldn’t wait to come back.

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