Another day, another Villa.

today we started by walking over to the Villa D'Este, a large old mansion with a famous backyard. Lucrezia Borgia's son, Ippolito D'Este, a former Papal ambassador to France, decided to build a formal garden with water fountains. Lots of water fountains.

Designed and built in the 16th century, it uses the steep drop (a couple of hundred feet) behind the house to create terraces and pathways and incredible water pressure to power dozens of ornate fountains. Some of the fountains shoot 30 or 40 feet in the air, all by gravity pressure.

There are incredible ornate designs, including a 'hydraulic organ' where the rush of water forced air through the pipes and the Rometta, miniature representations of famous Roman buildings and icons. There is also a complex fountain that falls 50 or 60 feet down with multiple spouts and waterfalls, built into the side of a cliff. My favorite was the Avenue of the Hundred Fountains...a city block long series of tri-level carved spouts. Impressive.

After the very steep climb of the ramps and stairs to street level, we packed up and headed out of town. The wrong way. But, in one of those fortuitous turns, we saw an angle on the city that we had never seen before, which showed us the Grand Cascata. We had read about the 400 ft Great Waterfall and had seen a skimpy little falls from the hotel. I just figured the water was low. Wrong falls. On the back side of town is a huge (man made) water fall. For some reason, they built a tunnel through the mountain and diverted the river to create this enormous falls. You would never know it was there....

On to San Benedetto del Tronto in the Marche on the eastern coast for Romina's wedding. First a stop to pick up porchetta sandwiches at a panini truck on the side of the road and then onto the autostrada for the 2 hour drive. About halfway is a 10 km tunnel under the 9000 ft. Grand Sasso d'Italia, a snow capped mountain in the Appenines. Just before, we stopped to eat our sandwiches at a rest stop. Just us on a picnic table
on the side of the road with the Grand Sasso behind us. Not a bad view.

After dropping off our ridiculous amount of luggage at the hotel, we went into town for the passagiata. I've been to San Benedetto a couple of times to visit and my parents were there last year. So we think we know our way around...but we take the 'scenic' route. there's a ton of traffic and we are stuck in the middle of it. Finally we get into town and start walking. It's packed and we work our way out to the beach, so that mom can see the sea. The Bar Jonathan, well named, but suspect food wise, is our first gelato possibility. Outstanding as it turns out...a real find and a cool little bar. Maybe we'll get back there to check out the scene.

Dinner is with the out of town guests at a pizza place on the south end of town. We arrive a half hour late and meet up with Thomas's relatives and a few others. Romina and Thomas are MIA. No big deal, except the waitress hates us and won't serve any food because Romina has made an arrangement! We order some drinks and have some delicious focaccia. it turns out that I know a few of the other guests. Bart is there. When Romina and I first met, we drove a tiny old Italian car from Mantova to Amsterdam to deliver it to Bart so that he could sell it in Holland. We had a hell of a trip, the car was a classic (i.e. piece of junk) and we got stopped at the Swiss border because we had hand-drawn construction paper license plates and were missing some of the tax forms. Romina talked the Customs police into letting us through, but she had to beome a temporary truck driver. It was great...So it's good to see him again, and then Annette shows up, who lived next to Romina's boyfriend of the time (Wilfried) in Amsterdam. We were supposed to stay at his place, but he couldn't be there when we arrived and somehow the keys didn't end up where we could get them. Annette took us in. We borrowed some mattresses from a neighbor, carried them up several flights of narrow stairs to Annette's tiny apartment, where we drank wine and slept jammed between the furniture.

Romina and Thomas finally arrive (the priest made her go to confession after the rehearsal...and what can you do...it took an hour!), we eat, we drink ( the pizza is average...Italian pizza's only so-so...but the french fries are delicious), and have a generally good time talking to everyone, watching the lingerie show on Italian TV (it's Victoria's Secret every night), and generally carousing.

Tomorrow, my second Abbadini wedding.

JZ