Walking among Hadrian's Memories

Rome's ancient palace on Tiburtine hills lights up for August nights with magical views

Places can evoke long-lost times and customs, but first and foremost also a strong recall of Hadrian as a man.
Villa Adriana in Rome reveals itself to visitors in the moonlight, with no secrets but those kept by a human soul: that of the great emperor masterfully portrayed by Marguerite Yourcenar in her Memoirs of Hadrian. "Every stone embodied the unique conglomerate of a will, a memory, occasionally a challenge. Every building stood on the plan of a dream."
On the slopes of the Tiburtine hills, construction of the villa began in 118 C.E.; after 20 years or so, the emperor managed to live in it for just a few months.
The residence, however, managed to become the translation of a dream into reality. Built over an area of 300 hectares, the imperial villa was the result of a knowledgeable combination of architecture and nature, due to Hadrian's own talent: he was, among other things, an architect, a philosopher and a poet.
The depth of the project and construction of Villa Adriana manages to resurface with a penetrating lyricism in the new visit procedure established for this monument. A suggestive trail under the stars in the silence of night, listening to the memories of time. Aided and abetted by the poetry of the night, expert archaeologists turn into fascinating guides across time: from the quadruple portico of Pecile, through the Baths, visitors reach the Canopus, welcomed by a beautiful pool where the reflections of the statues seem a perennial memorial to the tragic drowning in the Nile of Antìnoo, a young man whom Hadrian met in one of his travels and fell madly in love with.
Within the Canopus, the solemn banquet hall relives in the images of Fellini's Satyricon that flow from the fissures of the stone walls, while Ovid and Anacreon retell the incredible apparatus of the banquets of the period, centred on wonderment, with their wine, dances, and drunkenness of the hearts.
Then, the maritime theatre, a peculiar element of the villa. The islet amidst the water is the truest reflection of Hadrian's intimacy: this is where he went to meditate. Here, in this indefinite place between the land and the sky, the trail among the talking ruins comes to its end.
From time to time, one gets the feeling of being an invader, breaking into a time and a place where one never belonged. But history can be generous, sharing with us a few of the marvels it managed to preserve.
The only pity is that the memories of Hadrian, in order to survive, had to make way, albeit temporarily, to blindingly coloured Smart cars, which dot the trail. Ignoring them is impossible, but we prefer to remember just the echo of Hadrian's steps through the corridors of time.

Publication Date: 2004-08-08
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=4244