Hadrian began building this villa around 118 and rebuilt in it his favorite places from years of travel across the empire, so a walk through the ruins is a tour of memory rather than a plan: the Canopus, a long reflecting pool lined with caryatids and Egyptian figures, recalls the Nile; the Maritime Theatre is a circular colonnade around a moat and a tiny island villa, where the emperor could withdraw from his own court.
More than thirty buildings spread across a site larger than Pompeii, drawn in bold curves that only Roman concrete made possible. UNESCO inscribed it in 1999, and the site is among the most rewarding half days within reach of Rome.
