Summer; summer, summer, summer...
-lyrics from 'Summer' by The Cars...
Well, summer is finally here and I am loving the new pool that the 24 Hour Fitness has built complete with the chaise lounge chairs and such. Still working on the quicker underwater lap times, my personal goal is to be able to comfortably go back and forth an olympic lane underwater on one breath (I'm about 1.4 lengths on a good try now).
Thinking about pool related stuff reminded me of an excursion to Tivoli and Villa Hadriana outside of Rome, where they have a two thousand year old swimming pool. Notice that it needs a better pump / skimmer combination, and probably a bit more chlorine. I tried to test the water for them with my little travel kit, but the guards got angry for some reason.
And here is an aerial shot of Hadrian's villa... Keep in mind that people were physically smaller back then.
Here is a picture of some archeologists I met that were digging on the grounds of Hadrian's villa. What a dream job that would be, I need to double check my application for fieldwork here so I can also do this. In a different spot of ground, of course because they archeaologized the heck out of this spot.
I very much enjoyed Villa d'Este in Tivoli. It is a huge mansion house built in the neoclassical tradition and has hundreds of interesting carved fountains in its unique gardens. On the typical 'grand tour', tourists would stop here in the eighteenth century. I stood on the exact spot that George Inness painted his 'View of Rome From Tivoli', which now hangs in the Dallas Museum of Art.
Hopefully, everyone else is having fun with the start of summer (and if you live in Australia, to effing bad, hahahaaaaa!). Just kidding, I hope you can jump on a plane and fly somewhere nice.
Now if you will excuse me, I have to put on the sunblock and stake out my favorite chair by the pool.
L'estate è qui, finalmente! Tempo per nuotare e divertirsi... Proprio come Adriano, nella sua piscina disgustoso senza cloro. :)
postscritto - Mi sono divertita a Villa d'Este e le fontane oltra volta.
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You’re trying to make me jealous with this new pool thing, aren’t you? Just so you know I have a bathtub and a bikini at home so I’m not bothered by chaise lounge chairs and such. Nope, not jealous at all. The lights in my bathroom produce natural light just like the sun but unlike you, I don’t have to put on sunblock. So summer here we come!
ReplyDeleteGoing back and forth on one breath?! Very impressive.
Imagine how much of a chick-magnet that pool was back in the day though?
ReplyDeleteI don't think I could swim one length of a kiddie pool without having to stop for a little standing break. I'm more of a splashing-in-the-shallows type.
; )
Also, I think archaeology would be super interesting, but if you're clumsy like me you could get into a lot of trouble for breaking that priceless ancient stuff.
Yes, summer's here finally too. It arrives here at the last minute. One minute minus 30 next hey! Summer!
ReplyDeleteHowever...
A 2,000 year old swimming pool? Think of all the PEE that's been in THAT over the years. :)
I'm ignoring YOUR pool. I'm not jealous one bit. Sniff.
Dutch Donut Girl - Not trying to make you jealous at all. If you were here, I'd take you down there. BTW, where is a good swimming beach in the Netherlands? I've been to St. Maarten, but not sure about Europe's version...
ReplyDeleteSoda, you'd be ok with the archaeology stuff, they just want you to record where you find it, and I'm not sure if they care so much if you break it (well maybe they do).
ps - the ancient pool would be a babe magnet. I'm totally digging one now because you said that...
Vegetable Assassin, Canadian summer??? Ugh, 2000 year old pee... double Ugh... and it's still warm in the kiddie end (bleh)...
Don't be jealous, I'll get you in if you happen to find yourself several thousands of miles South in Texas, there's plenty to do down here besides go to the gym pool...
There are many beaches in the Netherlands, but the beaches around Scheveningen & Zandvoort are the most well-known.
ReplyDeleteThey both have a nude area. Not that I ever visited those lovely places.
http://www.holland.com/global/discover/coast/resorts
Pool schmool. I have a lake. Ha.
ReplyDeleteDutch Donut Girl - Interesting and thanks for the link, I've never thought of Netherlands as a beachy place!
ReplyDeleteOther Worldly One - a whole lake????
PS - All, sorry, I had the name of the Cars song wrong quoted above. It's actually called 'Magic', but I'm sure you can understand my confusion about the title.
Yes. I bought it with my credit card. So now it's mine. The end.
ReplyDeleteWe had a pool in our apartment complex in Boston years ago, and it was quite good, though not as fab as yours.
ReplyDeleteAnd later on we will have a lake like Other Worldly One, only on loan. For a week. And just a slice of it, sort of, but still.
I know that Cars song and it is easy to mistake the title - they sing the word summer so obsessively!
So have you decided against going on your own archeological summer dig?? You should do it, blog about it and...blog some more about it!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the lyrics up there...very clever, summer 4x in a row... ;o)
and I love the smurf village up there!
Otherworldlyone, I am very impressed. I've always wanted to purchase my own geological feature like you. I would have been more impressed though if you ended your comment with 'Fin.' lol
ReplyDeleteLidian, but it will be your own slice of the lake for a week that no one can mess with. You'll have to set up a blockade to be sure.
Lopez! I'm leaning towards a mosaic course in Ravenna this time with continuing service to Venice. I've still got to make sure I get the very best dig assignment, no old two liter plastic bottles from the mid-70's or other lame archaeological discoveries for me...
The jealousy, it consumed me.
ReplyDeleteSend a little sunburn my way... thanks.
I wanted to be an archaeologist, as well, but when I heard that a fedora is not part of the uniform, I lost interest.
ReplyDeleteWell, not really, but I figured my luck would have it that I'd be stuck going through someone's buried latrine as opposed to digging through Roman ruins.
So you're trying to say the Romans were positively Lilliputian? Heh.
ReplyDeleteAmazing on the underwater swimming business. I come from a long line of small-lunged asthmatics, so you get to be my genetic hero.
LiLu, haha don't be a hater you award winning blogger, you... I'm psychically willing clear skies in your direction now. :)
ReplyDeleteMJenks - I was thinking of picking a weird trademark hat too like a sombrero and maybe carrying around maracas to shake when I find something. Seriously though, the fedora is on Zahi Hawass also...
Jocelyn - lol, and yay, no one has ever told me that I was their genetic hero. And, why does that sound like an odd Bette Midler song?
Damn it.
ReplyDeleteI always kind of wondered about the archaeologist's protocol. I mean, if you are one...can you just go anywhere you want and start digging stuff up? That doesn't seem probable.
ReplyDeleteSo the Romans were Lilliputians?
ReplyDeleteOtherwordlyone :)
ReplyDeleteShawn, I'm not in the club yet, I'm just in the acolytes' circle, so I'm not sure what the actual rules are, like if there are 00 agents who have a license to dig anywhere (but I suspect there are).
Girl Interrupted!!! Yes, they were very small and all the artifacts actually belonged to giants. Isn't it obvious? :)
Hallo!!by patty
ReplyDeletePatty :)
ReplyDeleteIl tuo blog mi rende felice. Ciaoooooo!
(Patty has a retail blog that reminds me in some ways of Shopgirl101's), but in Italian.