Our inn at Piazza
Armerina was bare bones and COLD. It hosted a biking tour group of
26 Brits whose average age was maybe 55-60. We were about the only other guests. We
slept soundly under two heavy wool blankets, since there was no heat
in the inn.
In the morning, we
drove to the Villa Romana del Casale, which was only a mile from the inn. By
arriving just at opening, we had the whole place pretty much to
ourselves. As we left, the tour buses began pouring in.
The Villa was
huge: around 40 rooms, all of which had elaborate mosaics on the
floors. The walls too would have been decorated with frescoes,
although most are now missing. It certainly was a palace fit for, and
probably used by, an emperor.
The entire complex
is now covered to preserve the ruins, and there are walkways that
take you over and around all the rooms. The central courtyard was
huge, with rooms leading off on all four sides. At one end was the
Corridor of the Great Hunt, which was 197 feet of mosaics ( ! )
depicting all sorts of animals being hunted, captured, and loaded
onto ships for display and use for 
Some of the rooms
depicted their use, such as the two guys leading to the bathing area. Others showed girls in bikinis playing various sports; still
others had mythic themes. The largest room in the complex had only
fragments of mosaics, but archeologists believe it was for the master
of the house (the emperor?) to greet guests, seated on a raised
throne.
Later, I broke
down and bought a book showing many of the scenes that we were able
to see only from the elevated walkways in shaded light.
After our
self-guided tour which included signs with English texts, we checked
out of our frigid hotel and headed for Agrigento. Suzanne (our GPS) was given
an address, and off we went across the countryside. And since we had
plenty of time, we stopped several times to photograph some of the
vistas and the banks of flowers. Here's a small sample.
All was going well
until we reached a small town where we hoped to access a major
roadway to take us to Agrigento. The access road, however, was
blocked for construction, I guess, so Suzanne, bless her heart,
directed us to an alternative route that began down a steep, narrow
road and gradually turned into a dirt road which turned into a cow
path. Think Vermont's back roads in mud season...only dry and overgrown. We literally thought that we might be stuck there, unable to
turn around and unable to proceed. But intrepid Bob plowed on, and
eventually the road grew wider until we saw an astonished farmer
wondering what on earth we were doing coming out of a path used only by heavy tractors. I waved. He waved back, and
back we went in town to ask a man at a gas station (1) where on earth
we were, and (2) how to get out of there. He gave told us to drive 3
km in one direction until we saw signs for Palermo, then another 10
km until we saw a sign for Agrigento. His companion smiled and waved
a big circle indicating how far the round-about was. But the
directions worked, and we ended up on the road we wanted at long
last—no thanks to Suzanne!
I
chose our B&B for tonight and tomorrow night for two reasons:
they served dinner so we didn't have to go out (They don't do that
anymore.), and because we could walk to the Valley of the Temples
(You could, but you'd be illegal, so you need to drive to the
official gate.). Oh well, it's an interesting place at the end of a
long, rutted dirt road, only slightly better than the cow path we'd been
on earlier. And the window of our room opens onto a lush courtyard
filled with birds, flowers, peacocks, ducks, dogs, and who knows what
else?
Then,
from the terrace in front of the B&B is a stunning view of the
Temple of Concord (430 BCE) that we expect to visit tomorrow. It's
one of the three best preserved Greek temples in the world, other two
being in the agora in Athens, and in Paestum on the coast of Italy
just south of the Amalfi Coast. Turns out we've seen to the other two
on previous trips, and look forward to seeing this one tomorrow.
 |
| As seen from our B&B patio |
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