Today we got lost.....

.........and found some amazing things. I know getting lost isn't new for us, and usually when we get lost we find something interesting.

Today we decided to go to a little town near a housing unit used for military families from our base. For some reason the housing unit is 45 minutes away from the base but it is near the town of Mineo (min-ay'-o). So I figure Mineo must have something there for the base to have it's people so far away. Nope...couldn't find a thing of interest...no good shopping area....no restaurants....not much to keep us there any longer than necessary to find our way out (not an easy task).

Coming out of Mineo we took a wrong turn and went down a road that literally led to nowhere. We should have had second thoughts when half the road was washed out (or caved in) and barriers were set up narrowing the road to only a bit wider than a car. But, no, we plunged on.

Sheep dotted the hillside and when we stopped we could hear their bells clanking as they moved along the paths to find just the right grass. Somewhere down the road, I'm sure there was a cow telling us we were lost (she must have been by the way she was staring at us) and still we drove.

Then, at the crest of a hill was an abandoned villa that I could tell had once been beautiful. It was falling in on itself but some walls were still there. I had Bob stop the car so I could wander through the villa and we explored.

The villa was on a hill overlooking valleys of olive trees, orange trees and grazing land. There were many rooms in the house and every room looked out over an amazing view. Balconies skirted most windows tall enough to walk through at several levels.

What looked like old wall paper on the walls was actually painted designs (frescoes) and you could tell they had once been bright, cheerful and welcoming for those who visited there. The ceilings gently curved upward giving the appearance of being domed. Sadly, though, the ceilings now opened to the sky and pigeons used these beautiful rooms for nesting areas.

As we looked into an area that resembled an old cooking or laundry room, we were greeted by the villa's present inhabitants. Pigs. Resting on large rocks that had once been the walls, they were enjoying a gentle breeze and the shade of what was left of the roof. They seemed to welcome us and one even came to say hello.

We decided it was time to move on and hadn't driven far when I told Bob to pull over again to see stone posts opening like doors into the rocky hillside. A closer inspection gave me the impression that these places used to be graves/catecombs/sarcofogi (I'm not sure what to call them). Inside was a roughed out room-like area with a bench where a loved one who had died might be laid to rest. There were three at that place and we saw more as we drove on down that road to never-never land.

Soon the road let us know we were going the wrong way by ending. After about five miles of driving we came to a fence where the road just.....died. No more road...turn around. So we did.

Just another of fletchers italian adventures.