Villa Adriana

Hadrian, one of the top 5 greatest emperors of the Roman Empire, traveled throughout the Empire to take stock the vast wealth and resources in its domain. What Hadrian also did was bring back to Rome parts of different cultures that he liked and built a retreat, known both as Hadrian's Villa and Villa Adriana, for himself in the hills east of Rome.

It was the Las Vegas of its time and spanned an entire square mile.

Here's the large pool complex with the hills in the background.

Hadrian, himself an accomplished architect, designed these round domed structures. His architect made fun of them and called them "pumpkins" and was fired from his position and eventually executed. The holes you see had hooks in them to hold up the beautiful ceilings that one would see from inside this bath.

A "pumpkin" vault still intact.

The most famous part of the complex was this "maritime theater. It was a circular colonnade which had a round pool in which stood an island that could only be accessed by a drawbridge.

Once again, I personally get to see something we studied in Art History class.

All SYA Italy students will know what this picture is about and who it is in honor of!

And here they are doing their pose in honor of Augustus at Hadrian's Villa.