Rome: Day 6 (8/18/19)
A very productive day if I do say so myself! I did quite a lot all in all.
I took the 7:45am train to Tivoli, and learned that just holding an EURail Pass will get me on most trains without having to print out specific tickets or anything which is great! My main goal for the day was to hit the Parco Villa Gregorianna, which I later learned has the 2nd tallest waterfall in Italy at a little over 100 meters! But alas it was closed when I checked the gate a little before 9:00 so i wandered up the road a bit to a couple pf landmarks that were pretty close by. Very disapointing: a big arch and a nasty looking fountain with some half-dead fish. But a little further on I found a trailhead for a the Monte Catillo Nature Reserve which looked like a decent walk so I decided to check it out.
The trail started off as an easy, if not a little steep, walk up a gravel road that was just absolutely dead empty. I saw 1 guy coming down right at the start and 2 mountain bikers a bit later but that was it for the whole trail. Great views of Tivoli and its gorge with decent shade most of the way up. There was a bit of an issue with flys which seems to be ever-present and unrelentingly determined to land on my face, especially around the horse droppings here and there. I couldn’t go faster to try to outrun them either, since my knee was still hurting if I extended it too far. Once I reached the ridgeline I took a short branch off the main trail in pursuit of some respite from the flies and was rewarded with what appeared to be a nearly abandoned ranch that was absolutely covered in a gag-worthy miasma of ancient horse poop, rotting hay, and a hundred generations of dead insects that covered the ground. Majorly nasty. Needless to say I turned my ass right around and cranked my way back to the ridgeline junction ASAP.
At this point the sun was beating down pretty hard and I was Big Sweating. Fortunately the flies didn’t seem to like the heat and eventually buggered off, thank god. Beautiful view from the ridge or the surrounding countryside and there was a even a little shade after a while so i was able to sit down and take a half hour break to cool down and smash yesterday’s pizza. After that I crushed through the rest of the trail and emerged a 5 minute walk from the trailhead, so I made my way back to town. Clocked in around 2.5 hours of walking, and I was feeling pretty good still considering the heat. Really glad I did it in the morning when it was cool, since it way about 85 degrees out and climbing without a cloud in sight. That ridge would have been suffering incarnate if I started at like noon.
I walked back to the Gregorianna entrance gate, which was thankfully now open, and snagged a 5 Euro ticket plus a quick lecture on the park’s history. Turns out the river in the ravine used to run through Tivoli proper but kept flooding, destroying the town every few years. So they held a competition to find a solution and the winning guy was some bishop or something that recommended they redirect the river through the mountain via tunnel into the gorge to create this massive waterfall. The park looked super neat, since you strayed on one side of the gorge and descended to the river then climbed back up the other side. I was feeling pretty pumped looking at some of the places of interest around the park that you could get to via mountain path offshoots. It turned out to by super neat and I really liked the park, so I ended up taking every optional offshoot available. I covered literally 100% of the park in about 2 hours, which I consider an achievement since I stopped at a lot of places to marvel and they guide said it takes about 90 minutes to walk just the main path. In any case, it was absolutely gorgeous. Waterfalls, whimsical valley trails, old roman cliff side ruins, ancient Poseidon-likened caves. 10/10 would visit again, Tivoli was definitely worth a day trip!
After that I hiked over to the Tivoli central fountain via a wandering, nonsensical route through the medieval town’s architecture. I have to say its freaking beautiful there. Winding lanes through rustic houses 500 years old that suddenly give way to little squares full of laundry lines or overlooks into the valley several hundred feet below. Picturesque Italian village. Took a few hours a the fountain to sit and read. Caught the 5pm train back to Rome (they stop running in the afternoon around there I found out).
I hit Xiang Zi for diner again tonight. Decided to treat myself since I like the food and got a shrimp wok, tofu + veggie soup, and fancy rice. And oh my lord. Its delicious yo, like this is seriously killer food. Spicy shrimp, crisp veggies, and a light mellow soup. Plus they served the wok on a little stove with a flame and everything so bonus points for presentation. A damn good meal to finish off a great day!