En route to Syracuse from Agrigento, the group made two stops. First, we went to the little town of Piazza Armerina, best known for the lavish ancient Roman villa found in the area, Villa del Casale. The villa, largely protected from the time and the elements by its situation beside a mountain, is most famous for its fascinating and mostly well-preserved mosaics, which cover all of the floors. Some of the mosaics illustrate common legends, like the Labors of Hercules, in the large dining hall. Others explain a little bit about their time, like The Great Hunt, which extends through a hallway and depicts a scene of men trapping exotic animals (tigers, ostriches, elephants) and boarding them onto a boat, to be put on display or pitted in area battles in Europe.
some of the famous bikini girls
The most popular of all the mosaics here is “The Bikini Girls” which is likely meant to depict the Roman imagination of Olympic sports for women, but is so well-preserved and comical to the modern eye that it really looks like it could have been put up just a few years ago… Since we were visiting in the off-season for tourists, lots of the mosaics were under restoration, which was unfortunate because they were all covered in a layer of dust, which made photographs difficult and much less vivid than if they had been polished. Some of the viewing areas were blocked off as well, but since our group was getting a tour from the site director, we were granted special privileges–like actually walking on some of the mosaics to see them up close!
In the afternoon following the villa visit we stopped at the archaeological site of Morgantina, where we walked all around to get an idea of what the ancient city would have been like–the old temples, houses, kilns, theaters. One of the grad students in our group took over from the professors to give the tour here because he had been involved with the site’s excavation for the last six years.
the site at Morgantina
These day stops, along with Segesta a few days earlier, were our only glimpses of inland Sicily, since everywhere else we stayed on the island was on a coast. The countryside around Morgantina was particularly beautiful and pastoral. As we climbed a hill to investigate the ancient houses, we heard the ringing of little bells and watched as a procession of sheep marched purposefully down the road, heading to their Sicilian farmhouse somewhere for dinner.