ON THE ROAD TO PIAZZA ARMERINA

Today, we began our driving tour in a rented Fiat. Bob, who did all the driving, was comfortable with the stick shift and said that the car handled well. Our destination was Piazza Armerina, about two hours driving time from Ragusa. But . .

     Our GPS, “Suzanne,” (yes, Brad, she is named after your mother!) turned out to have a mind of her own, and she took us off into the countryside to places that never even appeared on our Michelin map, so the trip took almost twice as long. The roads were so narrow that it was rare to find a place to pull off. Fortunately, traffic was extremely light, so the drive was not too tense. [Bob here: Suzanne was programed to the wrong place by me. The errors were not all her fault! But at one rotary, she said to take the 2^nd right. During our several go-arounds, we tried each exit and not one satisfied her. Finally we simply headed away and she 'recalculated.']

     I wish I had photos of the countryside, but since we could not stop, and our photographer was doing the driving, we have none. All I can say is that it was astonishingly beautiful: rolling hills, fields and roadside banks of spring flowers—yellow mustard and daisies, red poppies, deep purple crown vetch, and others we could not identify. The most striking were the banks of yellow flowers with the red poppies mixed in. We promise pictures tomorrow. For sure!

     Oh, and all across the countryside are amazing stone walls built without mortar some two hundred years ago. Apparently, peasants were given the right to pass on their tiny farms to their heirs, so they took the time to clear their fields and build these walls. Having built some stone walls myself, I can really appreciate not only their labor, but also their artistry.

     Tomorrow, we visit Villa Romana del Casale, which is sumptuous even by decadent Roman standards. It was probably a “hunting lodge” owned, maybe, by the co-emperor Diocletian (286-305 AD). In the 12^th Century, it was covered by 33 feet of mud and no serious excavation occurred until the 1950s. So the mosaics, which the villa is famous for, were amazingly well preserved. We''ll have a look.