Beautiful mosaics! I'm amazed at how well preserved the majority of the mosaics are. I'm intrigued by the Gymnasts room... I don't think I've ever come across suggestions of women of that era exercising in the way modern women do. There is so much incidental and cultural knowledge lost to the ages :)
Splendid and Hue There's something about reflections in still water that makes stopping to take the pic oh so worth it. Beautiful picture in a blog full of great shots!
Sicily Ake you are making Sicily very attractive! Love your photos of the sights. I wonder if this building on the pinnacle was part of a defensive structure of some sort? That's probably the only way I can answer the 'why' part of your question :)
A fortress of some kind? It would make sense if the building is a fortress of some kind. It is a good theory, better than anything I've been able to come up with. /Ake
Mosaics Wow, what an amazing collection of mosaics, and so well-preserved and intact. As you say, the landslide ironically preserved the place as well as destroyed it. Great pictures too, well done Ake!
Villa Romana We agree that it seemed odd this was located where it was. The mosaics are so lovely. We had a great visit and we enjoyed hearing your observations.
All around Sicily We enjoyed our time in Sicily... the ancient ruins are magnificent. For us, we thought the towns were dirtier than on mainland Italy and we found the people overly assertive. Fortunately, it didn't ruin our trip.
I guess I am used to dirt... I didn't notice that the towns were dirty. But then I almost never do unless a place is really filthy. I guess I have been to so many dirty places that I have gotten so used to it that I no longer notice. /Ake
Incredible! Although I have been to Sicily, I do not remember hearing about the Villa Romana del Casale. Thank you for bringing it to light for me! The mosaics are incredible, so I appreciate your photos and the information you have given us here!
They are better IRL The mosaics are even better in real life. It is no coincidence that the sight is a world heritage. I am glad that you enjoyed reading the blog. Thanks for doing that. /Ake
Sicily Sicily seems filled with sights. The ancient temples look amazing, particularly the fog-covered ones! In my recent car rentals, I understand also the freedom they bring, but also the relief in returning them!
Filled with sites Sicily is indeed filled with interesting sites. I could on this trip only see about half of the places I wanted to go to. One reason was that about one third of the island was too far from Palermo to travel to with reasonable effort. /Ake
Sicily Wow, Sicily looks amazing! I'm glad you were able to fly south a bit over this winter, I imagine it would be sorely needed over the Swedish winter. You visited Stromboli, the end point of the Journey to the Centre of the earth! I visited the starting point in Iceland last summer. And what a Nativity Scene! I would have also enjoyed visiting the island that gave its name to the word volcano.
Stromboli - Jules Verne I wish I had known about the connection between Stromboli and Jules Verne when I was there. That would have given the visit an extra dimension. /Ake
La Zisa An intriguing 900 year old palace with an inviting name. A great addition to TB's "Palaces & Castles" thread in the Photography Forum. Check 'em out.
Thank you for adding photos to the forum I try to add pictures to the forums myself every now and then. But often I don't have time so thank you for doing it for me. /Ake
Marvelous! It's been a few years since we visited Palermo and reading your blog reminded me of places I had forgotten when there!! However, you visited places I was unable to see. We didn't get to visit Stromboli on foot but I saw it as we sailed by and I think it was emitting steam that day. Your photos are excellent!!
We are Emma Holmbro and Ake Dahllof. We live in Stockholm, Sweden.
We have travelled more or less regularly since the mid 1990-ies and it seems like the more we travel the more difficult it is to decide where to go next. Not because we are running out of places to visit but because we find more places we want to go to faster than we manage to travel to them.
Some of the things from our travel bucket list we have ticked off since we started this blog in 2006 are
Angel Falls in Ven... full info
RENanDREW
Ren & Andrew
Beautiful mosaics!
I'm amazed at how well preserved the majority of the mosaics are. I'm intrigued by the Gymnasts room... I don't think I've ever come across suggestions of women of that era exercising in the way modern women do. There is so much incidental and cultural knowledge lost to the ages :)