Blogs from Piazza Armerina, Sicily, Italy, Europe
Mosaics at the Roman Villa near Piazza Armerina and a night out in Cefalu
Published: October 26th 2010Europe » Italy » Sicily » Piazza Armerina
October 25th 2010
The ruins at Megara Hyblaea provided a fantastic start to another day of exploring the wonders of Sicily. Next we journeyed inland to Piazza Armerina, famous for a Roman Villa with marvelous mosaics. The Villa Romana del Casale, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was built in the first quarter of the 4th century A.D. and is best known for containing the largest collection of stunningly detailed Roman mosaics in the world. A village, Platia, grew around the villa and at least the outbuildings of the villa were in continual use up until the villa was covered by a landslide in the 12 century A.D., after which point survivors of the landslide moved to Piazza Armerina. Historically, Visigoths and Vandals destroyed much of the complex as well. Tetrarch Marcus Aurelius Maximianus' sprawling villa takes up 4200 sqyd ... read more
November 24th 2009
Ah! It's been so long since I've written I don't even know where to start. We finished up the olive harvest in Pisa and got to watch the olives be pressed into olive oil. It was pretty exciting and they sent us home with a jar of our own handpicked olive oil! It was so strange though, the olive oil is kind of spicy when it's first made. I think I'll miss it so much at home because I don't think I'll be able to find fresh pressed olive oil. From Pisa we made our way down the coast by bike to Naples. It was my unfortunate choice to spend the night in Rome on the way because I thought it would be less expensive. We planned to take the train one stop out of Rome ... read more
Piazza Amerina----Villa Romana
Published: September 23rd 2008Europe » Italy » Sicily » Piazza Armerina
September 23rd 2008
Wednesday 10th September Villa Romana - Whole family dinner My parents and us were up and ready by 8.30am ready to drive out and visit Villa Romana del Casale in Piazza Armerina. The great thing about the 3rd century Villa was that it was covered for many years, which protected it from an earthquake and just general aging. The majority of the Villa is covered with a Perspex roof which apparently is causing conservationist major concern as 80% of the mosaics are fading. The heat under that roof, on that hot day, was horrible. We were sweating profusely and started to run out of water very quickly. Once we started to look at the floor, we were also amazed to see a cut out section that showed us the floor underneath. There was a whole ... read more
July 5th 2008
(June 15th) After getting our free breakfast at the hotel bar (cappuccino and a chocolate creme filled croissant...yeah I was being the fat kid that morning), we headed back towards the east coast of the island with a few stops on our way back. Oh, on the way there, we stopped at a gas station to fill up (gas is ~$10 US a gallon by the way), and I saw a whole bunch of children surrounding this red vending machine. So, being curious as to what was in this vending machine besides candy, we went over to look. It was a vending machine for Adult videos! Hence, the collection of fascinated children surrounding it. We made another stop at a Medieval castle on the coast, which happened to be closed for renovations at the time, so ... read more
June 30th 2007
This morning we checked out of Gigliotto and backtracked north to Piazza Armerina and then west about 2 or 3 miles to Villa Romana Del Casale. The remains of this roman villa contain over 3,500 square meters of mosaics, many of which were preserved by a landslide that occurred in the 12th century. The villa is of uncertain origin, i.e. the owner has not been identified, but one thing is clear, the owner(s) led the high life of a typical Roman mogul. The mosaics give a glimpse into Roman life in the 2nd to 4th centuries AD, particularly the privileged class. In additions to baths, public latrines, scenes of the hunt and mythological struggles, there were glimpses of Roman erotic art. We completed our tour, and headed back past Piazza Armerina and Gigliotto south about 20 ... read more
