EUR - Mussolini's celebration of Fascism :-/ and other Rome, Italy Off The Beaten Path Tips

Mussolini planned this vast area of intimidating architecture for the 1942 World Fair (which never happened). It is vast, quite severe, very white, a big contrast to the intimate pleasures of central Rome. EUR, to me, represents the intimidation of Fascism.

EUR stands for "Esposizione Universale Roma". The area of buildings is not designed to walk around - big double-carraigeway avenues on a grid like an American city. Saying that, walk around it is what I did.

But there are four large museums with decent art and sculpture, and treasures from the Roman civilization.

The Museo della Civila Romana, is the place to see the impressive sculptures from Rome's imperial past. There is a large model which illustrates Rome at its height.

Catch a bus or the metro to EUR. I went by bus from Rome's main bus station.

Leave a Comment

Villa Adriana is very near to the hilltop town of Tivoli. It is a vast retirement home for the Emperor Hadrian, who was a cultured Roman and great collector of Greek art.

The Villa is more like a small town. It will take you a long time to explore it. Unfortunately that meant I ran out of time to explore Tivoli and the famous (Renaissance) Villa d'Este.

Villa Adriana is described in the guidebooks as 'romantic' but I would describe some of it as spooky. Full of ghosts! Very tranquil.

Some of the ruined buildings are big enough to climb up to the upper floors.

Watch out for the large underground passageway (cryptoporticus) which has been a destination for tourists for at least 600 years - you can see the graffiti written by very famous people (and me to *wink*) on the walls and ceiling!

At the very opposite end from the entrance is the tranquil 'water feature', the Canopus, is an exact copy of a famous Greek work of architecture.

There is a gift shop at the entrance. They sell guides and books on the Villa.

DIRECTIONS
I caught a bus towards Tivoli from Rome's main bus station. Villa Adrian is about 40km east of Rome. Get off the bus about 1km before Tivoli, at the bottom of the hill. Ask the bus driver to stop there for you!

Leave a Comment

Website: http://www.villa-adriana.net/