Going to Italy in Oct and want to go here. All tours seem to be on Tues/Thur or Sat/Sun. We want to go on Fri. Are there any tour groups that have tours on Fridays. If not, are the locations open if you want to go solo?
Update: Are both places open to the public on Fridays?
Posted by
Forest Grove, OR
11342 posts
You do not need a tour. We always took the train to Tivoli and walked 15 minutes to Villa d'Este. There are frequent trains from Roma, mostly from Tiburtina Station.
Getting to Hadrian's Villa (Villa Adriano in Italian) requires a local taxi or bus. The buses are infrequent, so a taxi is a better idea. It is a bit far to walk to-and-from as well as to tour it.
Posted by
10 posts
We just returned from Italy and one of our day trips was to Tivoli and Villa d 'Este. Very easy to do on your own if you know where to go. Take the Blue Line Metro to Tiburtina station (in Rome). Take the escalator down to the bus level. Buy tickets (2 euros one way, buy return tickets here as well) in the tobacco shop- buy them at the counter- not at the ticket windows. Go outside where the buses are, go to the #2 island and wait for the bus. The bus ride takes about 45 minutes. The bus can be busy with many stops. The students also use it so we had to wait for a less crowded bus coming back but the wait was only 5 minutes or so. When you get to Tivoli, look for a bus plaza where several buses are parked- get off there. The villa entrance is slightly downhill around a corner. We made the mistake of staying on the bus until the end of the line and had to walk a km or so back to the villa. Had a couple of senior Tivoli residents help us find our way- we spoke limited Italian and they spoke limited English- a perfect match. We felt a little like Colin Firth in "Love, Actually" when he is trying to propose to Aurelia. The whole town seemed to know these 2 Americans were trying to find their way to Villa d "Este! Fountains are wonderful! All gravity fed, no pumps. Built in the 1500's by a cardinal who wanted to be Pope. Jeff.