Piazza Amerina

This weekend the weather finally broke from the monotonous rain we've had since December and Bob and I decided it was a good time for a new adventure. We've been told often that Piazza Amerina was the place we should go and that's where we went. Everywhere here is close--it's a small island--and we were there in a little over an hour.

The villa we "just had to see" sat about 5 kilometers outside of Piazza Amerina. It (Villa Romana Casale) was a magnificent country home for the governor of Sicily (same as a president) and was built in a.d. 330 to 360. It was destroyed by a landslide in the 12th century and was forgotten about until the 19th century when some of the mosaics were found. They began to excavate but didn't get far before they lost interest (or money) and it wasn't until 1951 that a real excavation began. Okay--enough for the history lesson. Here are our impressions.

When we got there the day was beautiful but cool and we felt like we had the place to ourselves as we rarely passed another sightseer. As we walked down the path toward the villa we saw construction scaffolding and old walls and thought people were mistaken about it's beauty. Then we went inside-------

The floor of each room, terrace and portico was covered with mosaics. Intricate pictures of hunting scenes, wreaths with symbolic animals, and just plain decorative mosaics. It must have taken hundreds of artisans years and years to finish just the floors.

In some areas you could see the minimal remains of frescos (paintings on the stone walls) to match the tiles. What beauty it must have been when the governor lived there.

I really liked the duck.

They are working hard (for many years) to jigsaw the pieces into place or replace parts that are missing. Some will be forever lost but what is there is--I know I overuse this word--amazing. I know the photos can't really show how intricate this all is, but maybe you can get some idea.

After we were finished looking at the mosaics and had walked all around the villa we were hungry. We looked and looked for somewhere to eat and just as we were leaving town we saw a restaurant that looked good. Not being in the town but outside at the opposite end from the villa, the place was not touristy but very authentic Sicilian. As we looked at the menu, though, we saw several dishes we were surprised to see. Venison (we've not seen one deer in Sicily)......wild boar (I'm really glad we've not seen one of those) We chose something safe and Sicilian--pasta and had a really nice meal before heading home. I guess we weren't as adventurous as we thought.