Day 11 - Villa Romana del Casale

Landscape in the interior of Sicily

Today we said goodbye to Punta Secca and started making our way northward up the western coast of Sicily. As we drove along the coast to Gela, we saw mile after mile of the countryside totally covered with plastic greenhouses where they grow the tomatoes and other vegetables that Italy is known for all on a year round basis. At Gela we headed inland and toward Piazza Armerina on our way to see Villa Romana del Casale. The land there immediately turns more hilly and arid and you occasionally saw a prickly pear farm or two, but not much agriculture otherwise.

Room of the Ten Maidens

Our first stop was at an ancient Roman villa (Villa Romana del Casale) which dates back to the 4th century AD. In the 12th century it was covered by a landslide and was only rediscovered in the 1920s and excavation work still continues today. It is most famous for its floor tile mosaics and quite fortunate that the landslide covered it for centuries keeping it well preserved. Many of the rooms are elaborately decorated with these tiles depicting scenes about the hunting and capturing of exotic animals in Africa and Asia and their shipment back to Rome. One of the most popular rooms is the "Bikini Mosaic" room showing girls doing sports such as weight lifting, running, discus and throwing a ball. The girl in the toga in the lower left is giving a crown and a palm to the winner. Unfortunately when we were there the place was overpopulated by tour groups which really detracted from the experience.

Scale dei Turci

From Piazza Armerina, we drove to our hotel just outside of Agrigento in Realmonte. All in all we drove about 3 hours today.

The hotel is located right above the Turkish Steps (Scale dei Turci) where allegedly Turkish raiders once climbed up to invade the town. It is actually a unique calcium formation called Marl which I believe is similar to the "White Cliffs of Dover."

Dinner was an interesting experience. We drove up in the hills to go to an Osteria in Realmonte where we waited with some others until someone called and found it was closed for some unknown reason. A group of older men suggested we try Volpe. We went where they told us but the restaurant was named Eclisse. We ate there anyway and had a very nice meal  (spaghetti for Jeanne and veal for me) at at least half of the price we had been paying elsewhere. They were super friendly and even they gave us a nice appetizer of panelle, bruschetta and olives. The owner stopped by and we chatted in Italian about America and his trip from New York to Miami on a Harley. Turns out the owner's name is Volpe and the townspeople just refer to the place by his name. That was small town Italy at its best.