Petersontravels

On our way from Agrigento to Ragusa we made a slight detour to visit Villa Romana Del Casale, which is quite literally in the middle of nowhere.  The large and elaborate Roman villa dates from somewhere between 310 and 340 AD.  It is a UNESCO World Heritage site that is famous for housing one of the largest and best-preserved collections of ancient Roman floor mosaics in the world.

The mosaics are in excellent condition due to having been buried by a 12th century landslide and left untouched until their discovery in 1950.  To better preserve and show off the mosaics some structures have been built over them.  Some of the structures are meant to duplicate what the villa was thought to look like.  The first spot you visit was the thermal bath house.

The floors of the bath house rest on brick pillars so heated air from underground ovens could be run under the floor to heat the space, heating both thermal baths and a dry sauna.  The ovens needed to be run continuously to maintain the heat, so only the very wealthy could afford such spaces.

These are some of the mosaics in the thermal bath area, which aren’t in great shape compared to other parts of the villa.

The thermal baths had an adjacent “frigidarium”, where cold water flowed in via an aqueduct.  This mosaic depicts a servant who was assisting a guest.

This is the entrance hall that welcomed guests into the villa’s central courtyard.  The partial columns are original.

This is the main courtyard of the villa.  Running around the courtyard walkways are mosaics depicting various animals.

The animals vary throughout the courtyard.

Here is a better view of a section of the walkway.

This goat seems to be grinning at you!  Creepy!

This is the “Room of the Little Hunt”, depicting various hunting scenes.  Remember, we are looking down on the floor of a room.  It’s easy to think these are on a wall but the only designs we saw on walls were frescoes and they were in poor shape.

This part (lower right) shows an injured hunter on the ground, while his fellow hunter shoves a spear into the boar to save his companion, with hunting dogs assisting.  There’s even a figure in the back getting ready to pound the boar with a rock.  The details of these mosaics are amazing!

I particularly liked the part of this mosaic where somebody is giving their hunting dog a treat.  Good boy!

The largest mosaic at this site is “The Great Hunt”, and with the size of this thing it appears the owner of the villa was seriously flexing!  If this video doesn’t load it’s because of the internet in this hotel….to be fixed at our next stop!

“The Great Hunt” does not depict a hunt where the animals are killed but instead a hunt of exotic and ferocious animals from far off places that are to be brought back to Rome as part of a circus spectacle.  Below is a depiction of sailors trying to load what appears to be a gazelle onto a sailboat that also has oars for maneuvering.

This appears to be an attempt to bring aboard a water buffalo, with other wild animals in the background.

I found the mosaics in this next room to be surprising as it looks like a bunch of women in bikinis.  However, they are all competing in athletic events.

This woman is running with small weights in her hands.  These weights were used to assist somebody with making a high jump.

This woman is obviously the winner of the competition, given she is putting on a crown and holds a laurel branch in her hand.

This large space was the reception hall where the owner of the villa (still unknown to this day, despite much speculation) would meet with his various guests and subjects.  He would sit in a throne at the far end of the massive space.

In the private residential quarters of the villa are more intimate mosaics, this one supposedly depicting “Cupid and Psyche”, an ancient Greek story from the 2nd century which holds the title of “A Golden Ass”.  Is that the depiction here??  It’s in exceptional shape (the mosaic…get your mind out of the gutter!)

One last mosaic to cleanse the palate, this cute little bird.

After departing the villa we realized we had no internet so no way to map our way to Ragusa.  I tried driving east as I knew that was the direction we had to go but still no internet, so I finally found a hotel, pulled in and got their wifi on my phone so I could lock in a route.

We stopped on the way to visit the ceramic capital of Sicily, Caltagirone.  The streets were so narrow I parked outside the city center and we walked in.  It was raining at that point so I really only took this one photo of this huge stairway that leads up from the center of the town.  There are ceramic stores EVERYWHERE here, so if that is your thing give this place a visit.  Many of the ceramics you will see in Sicily are made right here.

We made it to Ragusa with plenty of daylight left, which was the ultimate goal, as I hate driving at night!  This is the view from our room at the San Giorgio Palace Hotel.

We will be touring Ragusa the next day, but I had to take this night time photo of the famous Baroque cathedral Duomo di San Giorgio.

Coming up, we take a tour of Ragusa Ibla, one of the cutest little hilltop towns you will ever visit.

 

 

 

From Selinunte it was about a 90 minute drive to our next destination, Agrigento, known for their ancient Greek temples (what part of Sicily isn’t?).  There is an excellent hotel that sits right adjacent to the site, maybe 100 yards from the temples, called Villa Athena.

I decided to splurge here because of the incredible view from their “Villa Suite”, and we were very fortunate to have excellent weather here so we could utilize the huge patio that comes with the suite.  The view from our room is incredible!  That’s the very well preserved “Temple of Concordia” basically in the back yard of the hotel.

Off to the left sits the Temple of Hera, also fully visible from the hotel.

We were treated to an excellent sunset that evening.

We decided to do a dinner at the hotel they call the “Orto Experience”, served in their gardens.  While it was a great concept, they simply served WAY too much food!  I have never in my life been hungry enough to  have eaten half of it!  It would not be a repeater.  I didn’t take any photos as I was too buy moaning and groaning over how full I was and how much food was being wasted.  I hate wasting food!

The “Temple of Concordia” lights up shortly after sunset.  The impeccable hotel grounds are in the forefront. We didn’t venture into the pool as it’s not heated and quite chilly this time of year.

You can buy your ticket for the “Valley of the Temples” from the hotel, and they have their own access point right in the parking lot.  Upon entering I took a photo looking east towards the Temple of Hera.  Even though it was the off-season there were plenty of people here.

An interesting note, the tourists here go out of their way to attempt to walk right into you, like some sort of a test.  It was bizarre….and happened multiple times, so it wasn’t a one off.  Kim and I have taken to just stopping in our tracks when we experience this (it’s happened elsewhere in Italy).  Very strange behavior.

As you walk east (stopping here and there so you don’t get run over) the remains of the southern city wall come into view.  This wall was originally built as a defense against attack from the sea, but after the threat of attack went away it was converted into an early Christian cemetery between the 4th and 7th centuries AD.

They carved tombs right into the soft rock of the walls, many of which have eroded into vistas through the rock.  Not sure where the bodies went!

At the eastern end of the site is the Temple of Hera, built around 450 BC in the style of the Archaic Doric period.  Initial restoration efforts started in the 18th century to stabilize the structure.

In the early 20th century significant work was done to reassemble some of the temples columns.  The temple has visible burn marks from the Carthaginian siege of the city in 406 BC, but they must be in the interior of the temple which we could not see.

It’s a spectacle to see at every angle!

The light and the sky were perfect for photos!  You can actually see where they used reinforced concrete to rebuild the columns.

This is a view of the “Temple of Concordia” towards the west, which is only half way towards the end of the site, showing you how large it is.

The “Temple of Concordia” zoomed in.  Great perspective from here!

We then walked back west to get closer to Concordia.  This is where the bulk of tourists congregate.  This is the largest and best-preserved Doric temple in Sicily.

The temple was built in 440 to 430 BC and was named after Concordia, the Roman goddess of Harmony.  It was converted into a Christian basilica in the 6th century which is why it survived the destruction of pagan places of worship.  It underwent extensive refurbishment when it was converted.

The Christian changes were removed when the temple was restored in 1785. Apart from the Parthenon in Greece it is considered the best preserved Doric temple in the world.  If you look at the lower right of this photo you will see the Villa Athena Hotel in the background.

A little further west you pass by a group of endangered Girgentana Goats, the only animal endemic to Agrigento.  They have amazing twisted horns!

Closer towards the western edge of the site is the “Temple of Hercules”.  This is the oldest of the temples here, dating from around 570 BC.  It was partially restored with original materials found on site in 1924.  You can see the reinforced concrete, just like Kim and I saw in Easter Island with the restored Moai.  Look at that incredible sky!  I love it when nature cooperates!

A little further west are the complete ruins of the “Temple of Olympian Zeus”, built around 480 BC.  Not really much to take a photo of but these huge “Atlases”, stone figures standing almost 25 feet high.  These were situated between the temple columns, appearing to hold the weight of the upper portion of the temples.  They have been interpreted as symbolizing the Carthaginian invaders turned into slaves by the Greeks.  This one is a replica, the original found here is in a museum.  Still quite interesting!

Back at “The Temple of Concordia” is this modern sculpture of “Fallen Icarus” by Polish artist Igor Mitoraj, installed in 2011 and meant to be temporary.  It was created with intentional cracks and missing limbs to fit in with the ancient classical ruins.  It became so popular the artist donated the sculpture to the site permanently.  It definitely gets it’s share of photos!

On the way back to the hotel we were treated to a partial rainbow over the gardens.

We also saw this large flock of goats come down into the valley adjacent to our hotel, so I had to take a short video.  If the link below doesn’t work I’ll fix it when we move to a hotel with better internet.

I took a photo of Kim lounging on the bed from our balcony.

This is the massive balcony.  If you come here just do it!  It was well worth it (to me).

One last shot of the sunset with my first glass of wine.

Coming up next, we make our way east and stop at “Villa Romana Del Casale”, an incredible collection of Roman floor mosaics.