Hot Hot Hot

It’s July 4th and I’m in Italy! Not too much celebration going on here. I wore a navy blue and white striped shirt and some red sunglasses and for once did not pretend I wasn’t American. We also had some McDonald’s to celebrate! The dig’s been going pretty good since the last time I wrote. After the first weekend we came back to the site to find out that it had been broken into. There was broken glass everywhere and we found out that a lot of the special finds (coins and jewelry) that were found by the metal detectorist were taken. I have found three loom weights in total now, and one of them had its original top, which included original stamps, which may indicate its weight! This week was deathly hot and after we finished uncovering the road we were working on, we began a whole new section, which involves a lot of pick-axing, shoveling, and traipsing up and down the hill to dump out loads of dirt with the wheelbarrow onto our ever-growing heap of spoil. It’s exhausting and the heat doesn’t help, but the work is totally worth it. I’m going to be so tan and buff when I get back! Yesterday I went with a group to Tivoli to check out Hadrian’s Villa as well as the Villa d’Este. It was super hot and not terribly easy to get to but it was worth it in the end. Hadrian’s Villa is enormous! It must have been a beautiful place back in the day. Villa d’Este, which is downtown Tivoli (or should I say “uptown” because it is situated up in the mountains), is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. It definitely gave me an idea about how beautiful Hadrian’s Villa must have been one day. Villa d’Este is a Renaissance period villa situated at a very steep incline to allow for the natural flow of water to power the impressive collection of fountains that flow through the gardens. These fountains were absolutely beautiful, and to top it off, the mountainside location provided a lovely view of the Lazio countryside. It was hard to leave but we were determined to make it back for our free dinner at the hotel. I was so exhausted that night after my 12 hour journey to Tivoli that I went to bed pretty much right after dinner to wake up and go to Rome this morning. We wanted to check out the flea market, which was less than spectacular, but it was nice to walk around Rome today and see some of the major sites on the bus downtown. Looking forward to next week—hopefully I can survive the 105 degree workdays in the sun!