Villa d'Este

Whereas the last two days have been filled with falling water, water diverted away from the centre of town to mitigate damage, today has been an exuberant treat of what you can do when you have silly amounts of water in the middle of town and want to play with it.

Villa d'Este is Tivoli's star attraction and I was interested to notice that despite vast manicured gardens, there is not a single seat on which to sit, contemplate, or even snog. I assume that this is to keep the throughput of visitors moving swiftly along, there is no shortage of those!

The house itself is huge and rather faded. Too many cherubs and beardy men dressed in bedlinen for my taste. I did see a couple of restorers at work on the exterior, using what appeared to be dentists' or beauticians' tools. I think they have a job-for-life there.

Inside the house there is currently exhibition called Eva vs Eva, all about ancient women who gave their blokes something to think about; including Medea, Delilah and Salome. I wasn't in a mood to read exhibition text but I cheered them on from the sidelines.

But the gardens are flamboyantly silly so I'm bringing you a few extras today.
Main pic is a weird beast; mostly mermaid with human head and breasts and a fishy tail, but curiously with horse's front legs. A quick Google tells me that it is an ichthyocentaur, or sea-centaur. I can't help but think that its only option for getting from a to b must be frightfully ungainly. No wonder this one is just sitting quietly milking it.

First extra is a wonderful length of three-tiered fountain-trough. The lowest level is all beast-head gargoyles with monkeys, lions, bears, dogs and a great many unrecognisable.

Second extra is the Fountain of Neptune from behind, where the tall fountains mimic the Italian Cypress trees perfectly, and the next extra is the same fountain from the front. Quite the centre-piece of the entire garden.

Finally, at the Grotto of Diana is a scaled-down model of yesterday's blip (approximately) with scaled-down Roman surroundings. A bit like having your own personal Legoland in your back garden. I wonder if Her Maj would like a replica at Windsor. She could always rename it “Britannia” if she were more comfortable with that. The two characters are practically indistinguishable.