Photos at Hadrian's Villa.
On our way to Gubbio, we stopped at Hadrian's Villa for 3 or 4 hours; it is a retreat that the Roman Emperor Hadrian built for himself in the 2nd century because he disliked Palatine Hill in Rome. It is more of a small city than what we would consider a villa. There are two baths, a theater, multiple reflection pools, a hotel, and many other public buildings. We had beautiful weather, which made for a really nice walk around the ruins.
From there we drove to the small medieval town of Gubbio. We arrived in the evening after hauling luggage all over the place to get there. After we walked through the town, virtually all stone buildings reminding me a bit of Ireland, going up the hill it is built on. Apparently, the hill becomes the world's largest Christmas tree when they wrap the whole hill with Christmas lights in December. The next morning we had a bit of time to wander, as we were leaving a bit later to get to Moderna cemetary when it opened in the afternoon. We decided to walk down to the amphitheater closer to the edges of the town; it is still used for some performances today.
Photos in Gubbio, including the amphitheater.
We continued to Moderna cemetary, the newest portion of which was designed by Aldo Rossi. He respects the nature of the traditional portion of the cemetery by continuing its axis and maintaining some of the original ideas of the cemetery. However, while the original section was much more traditional with a lot of very symmetric and well-defined garden design as well as symmetric buildings, the area designed by Aldo Rossi is very sparse and simple to fit with his idea of a "City of the Dead." Cemeteries are not often thought of in terms of their architecture, so it was both interesting and awkward to visit it for that reason; we felt odd walking past so many peoples' graves.
Moderna cemetery photos.
We continued to Venice, getting there late in the evening; More on Venice next time!
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