20 September 2023 Villa
Romana del Casale to Ragusa
Unfortunately, we had to leave the beautiful farmhouse where we spent the night as
we continued our trip around Sicily.
Today we are headed to Ragusa with several stops to break-up the drive.
Our first stop was only a 30-minute drive from the farmhouse
– the ruins of Villa Romana del Casale, located just outside the city of Piazza Armerina (another old city built on top of a hill).
Built in the 4th century AD, this Roman villa or palace had
been a hunting lodge until it was completely covered by a landslide in the 12th
century. No one knows for sure who built
the villa, but it is presumed to have been a rich aristocrat that wanted to get
away from chaos in Rome as the Roman Empire was falling apart. The villa had 60 rooms, each with their own
theme and mosaics to match. Even the
servants’ rooms and latrines were covered with mosaics.
It wasn’t until the 20th century that excavations
discovered some of the most beautiful Roman mosaics in all of Europe. These mosaics, covering 3700 square feet,
included depictions of heroes and gods, scenes of hunting, and games were both
whimsical and full of detail of the everyday life of the Roman upper class.
The following is an explanation of what we saw as we walked
around this beautiful villa. I have included a simple map of the layout of the Villa at the end of explanation. Not all rooms we visited are called out in the map.
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| Entrance Courtyard |
We entered through the Entrance Court, a large horseshoe-shaped
open area courtyard.
Once inside we were
in a porticoed entry hall, which connected to the thermal baths, which
consisted of a Tepidarium (cold bath), the Frigidarum (hot bath), massage room
and a large latrine.
There was also a
servants’ entry into the baths called the Aedicula of Venus (as small fragments
of a statue of Venus were found there).
Romans loved their baths, and these rooms were located by the entrance,
so presumably visitors could cleanse themselves before entering the main
villa.
Romans followed a strict
procedure for using the baths – they would first warm themselves in the
Tepidarium, then sweat in the caladrium (a hot plunge bath), and finally a
quick dip in the cold Frigidarium (with its mosaics of sea creatures-dolphins,
sea lions, and tritons) to close the pores.
They could then have a massage in the massage room.
A nearby room (Circus Maximus) with mosaics of chariot races
held in the Circus Maximus, is the Palestra or the gym.
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| Floor of Gymnasium-Chariot Races |
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| Frigidarium Bath |
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| Massage Room |
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| Tepidarium Bath |
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| Porticoed Entry Hall |
As you enter the main part of the villa, you see the central
courtyard (Peristyle Courtyard), around which the rooms of the villa are
located. This one had a garden with
three basins in it and was surrounded by 32 columns. A peristyle is a continuous porch formed by a row of columns
surrounding the perimeter of a building or a courtyard.
Around the courtyard was a walkway or Quadrangular Peristyle through which all the
main rooms were reached. The floor of
this walkway contains 162 square mosaics that show the head of an animal (bear,
tiger, boar, etc.) in the center of a wreath.
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| Peristyle Courtyard |
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| Quadrangular Peristyle |
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| Quadrangular Peristyle |
The first rooms we saw were the servants’ and the guest rooms (Northern Rooms). One room (Room of the Four Seasons) had mosaics depicting the four seasons and was presumably the guest dining room. Another room (Room of the Fishing Cupids) showed cupids with fishing nets, harpoons, and fish traps. Another room (Hall of the Small Hunt) depicted scenes about hunting (as seen from bottom to top: (1) Release of the dogs and spearing a boar; (2) Sacrifice to Diana, the goddess of hunting; (3) Hunters at a banquet under a large red tent; and (4) Hunters giving thanks.
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| Room of Four Seasons |
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| Rome of the Fishing Cupids |
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| Room of the Small Hunt |
At the east end of the Quadrangular Peristyle you come to
the most amazing part of the villa – the Hall (Ambulatory) of the Great
Hunt. This 200’ passageway was used by
guests waiting to be officially received and showed the villa’s owner’s
obsession with hunting for exotic animals.
Here you will find mosaics of lions, elephants, ostriches, rhinoceroses,
deer, fish and other animals. It shows
the different phases of hunting these animals, from their capture in Africa, to
being loaded on ships, and finally their arrival in Sicily where they were used
as entertainment in amphitheaters.
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| Killing the Animals |
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| Loading the Animals on the Ship |
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| Unloading the Animals from the Ship |
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| More Mosaics from Hall of the Great Hunt |
Following the Hall of
the Great Hunt, you come to the Room of the Palestrite (gymnasium) with perhaps
the most famous and unique collection of mosaics – the Bikini Girls – 10 young
women dressed in bikinis and engaged in training for athletic activities and
games. You see them possibly playing
beach volleyball, lifting weights, discus throwing, and running. In the center of the mosaic is the winner who
wears a crown and carries a palm frond, a symbol of victory.
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Bikini Girls - Perhaps the First Beach
Volleyball Game |
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| The Bikini Girls |
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| Bikini Girls - The Winner is Crowned |
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| Music Room |
Right next to the Bikini Girls room is the Sala di Orfeo or
the Chamber of Orpheus. It was a room
reserved for playing music and the mosaics represent musical instruments.
We then walked back to the southern end of the Hall of the
Great Hunt and crossed over to the other side where the Master’s Southern
Apartment Rooms (S-E Master Quarters) were located. These rooms
feature mosaics with children which has led scholars to believe that these were
the rooms of the owner’s children. The
rooms include the Semi-circular Atrium ( with scenes of fishing), Vestibule of
the Small Circus (a small semi-circular room in the center of the Atrium),
Vestibule of Eros and Pan (Antechamber of the Cubiculum (bedroom) with Alcove),
and the Son’s Bedroom (Cubicle of Child Hunters).
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| Vestibule of the Small Circus |
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| Atrium with fishing scenes |
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| Vestibule of Eros and Pan |
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| Son's Bedroom with Hunting Scenes |
The last set of rooms
are the Master’s Northern Apartments (N-E Master Quarters), located at the northern end of the Hall
of the Great Hunt), where the owner lived. In the vestibule of the
master’s bedroom is a large mosaic of a famous episode of Homer tricking
Polyphemous (a three-eyed man) with a cup of “grape juice” from Homer’s
Odyssey. And in the master’s bedroom is
a scene of a young man with a crown embracing a young girl as he
undresses. The wife’s room was known as
the Fruit Cubicle, but most of the wall mosaics have been destroyed – only a
tiny cupid is still visible. The floor
contains mosaics of fruits – pomegranates, peaches, apples, and grapes.
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| Villa's Master's Bedroom |
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| Villa's Master's Bedroom |
On the opposite side of the Hall of the Great Hunt is the
Villa’s basilica. It is currently under
renovation so there is not much to see.
This basilica is not a church – in ancient Rome a basilica was a large
public hall where the master, seated on a throne, would greet his guests and
also dispense justice. The room had no
mosaics, but the floors and walls were covered in slabs of marble, some of
which is still visible.
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| Basilica |
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| Basilica |
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| Remnants of Marble Flooring in Basilica |
We did not visit the Elliptical Peristyle and Triclinium (the Great Dining Hall) as that area was closed for renovation.
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| Layout of Villa Romana del Casale |
This was truly wonderful stop and one that should not be
missed by anyone visiting Sicily. It was
amazing how vibrant and colorful these mosaics are, considering they were
created 20 centuries ago.
From the Villa we drove for about an hour to the Tenute
Senia Winery. As we left the area around Piazza Armerina, we were greeted with spectacular views of the countryside -- lush multi-colored rolling green hills, olive orchards, and vineyards.
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| View of Piazza Armerina |
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| Beautiful Countryside of Sicily |
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| Sicily's Beautiful Countryside |
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| Countryside of Sicily |
This winery, run by the Mortilla sisters, Angela and Valentina, has been in their family for
generations. Although wine making is a
male-dominated industry and the sisters themselves were unsure that they would
be able to carry on the family’s legacy, their memories of growing up on this
estate emboldened them to carry on their father’s tradition. And successful they were – winning many awards
for their wine making. They even changed
the bottle labels to represent womanhood and its link to Sicilian mythology. Our visit here included a wine tasting and lunch. As with everything else Sicilian, the wine was very good.
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| Part of our Wine Tasting |
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| Label Honoring Women |
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| Grapes on the Vine |
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| Our First Look at Ragusa |
We then continued our drive to Ragusa, arriving about
4:00.
We will stay here for three
nights.
Unfortunately, the bus was not
able to take us directly to the hotel.
As the hotel is located in the Old Town, buses are not allowed.
They used to drop of tourists at the steps
leading to the Old Town, but for some reason, the current mayor moved to bus
stop ½ mile down the hill from the steps.
It was a long, hot, and tiring walk to the hotel.
After getting checked in, we went on a short
orientation walk around the hotel.
We
chose one of the restaurants located near the hotel and had a lovely meal of
pasta and fresh Sicilian vegetables.
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