Top 5 of 2016 -- Ides of March

meh.



just kidding, they are absolutely gorgeous coins IOM.

 

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I say it in German....SEHR SCHON!!!!!!!

All five are stunning, great artistic designs/quality. Thanks for showing them.

 

Sie können sagen, dass wieder

 

I love both the Hadrian Aureii. It doesn't surprise me that Hadrian's coinage would be of unusually high artistic quality. He had an eye for design and detail that showed in the buildings he helped design so it only makes sense that his coins would carry over the same standards. I was at his villa a few years back and was amazed at the level of detail. Must have been a real artistic high point of the empire.

 

@Curtisimo where was this villa? It was not in Rome was it? I seem to recall reading somewhere that it was like 30 miles outside Rome?

 

Ah, I remember, Tibur (Tivoli). I had read that this villa was sprawling, but that model gives a whole new perspective.

 

It was about 20 miles east of Rome near the town of Tivoli. It was a few trains and a decent length bus ride to get there. I think most people who visit Rome don't go to the trouble because we pretty much had the place to ourselves. In my opinion it was totally worth the trip if you're ever near there.

 

My wife and I were there about three years ago, but I had forgotten about Hadrian's villa. We did, however, visit Ostia Antica, which, like you said, was nearly empty of tourists. The problem with our trip was that it was in the heat of summer. Daily temps rose to 103 F daily. Our last week we spent up in the hills in a town called Frascati just to get away from the oppressive heat. As it turned out, it was our most enjoyable time during that trip.

 

You can't go wrong visiting nearly anywhere in Italy. The history is just amazing. I didn't make it to Frascoti but got out to a couple of hill towns in Tuscany like Multipucciano and Siena and was just blown away by their charm. Wish I would have a week to spend in each one!

 

I visited Hadrian's Villa in ... 1966, and again two months ago. We have similar tastes in pictures:



Unfortunately, the tour guide was the worst I've ever experienced, but the villa was impressive nonetheless.

That's a great model of the villa -- did you make it?

Oh, wait, I just noticed the model was photographed inside a room in some sort of museum. Never mind!

 

Wow impressive picture. It doesn't look like there was a lot of people there when you went either.

That's unfortunate that your tour guide was bad that can really ruin a trip to an amazing place. Had something similar happen to me at Masada. We decided to go without a tour guide to the villa which worked for us because I had taken a Roman architecture class in college and we had covered this villa pretty extensively. We ended up staying and roaming around till they closed it up on us!

I do enjoy building models and woodworking but that model is a bit above my ability unfortunately It was actually near the villa and served as a kind of mini museum for the site.

 

A stunning year, IoM! Your #1 Three Sisters is my favorite and your Hadrian set is gorgeous and well-matched. I'm greatly looking forward to the rest of your Travel Series and other artistic Hadrian types!