Piazza Amerina - Day Five

We left San Leone and drove northeast through some very pretty country, mostly agricultural, until we reached an old Roman villa that is famous for its mosaics.  Just outside of Piazza Amerina is a massive complex, originally the home of a wealthy Roman from approximately 300 ACE, probably positioned as a mid-point on trading routes from western Sicily to eastern Sicily and likely part of a trade route of wild animals from Africa to Rome.  We visited Villa Romana del Casale for several hours and while it's a bit out of the way, it's definitely worth the trip.

Villa Romana Del Casale

This house and its compound are tucked away in a small river valley just outside the more modern town of Piazza Amerina, far from the coast, basically in the middle of Sicily.  It seems an unlikely location for such an amazing place.

The ruins themselves aren't as complex or as complete as what we saw in Agrigento, as an example, but the artwork and floor mosaics are quite extraordinary.  We are probably very lucky that a landslide covered the place centuries ago, otherwise much of what is now in place and observable in one location would be scattered to private collectors and museums.

It's probably not correct to think of this as a house, more as a complex.  Walking in, you can see the ruins of the aqueduct that brought water to the complex, and a large bath, with the classic three pools that Romans enjoyed.  You can spend time in the baths, in several large meeting halls and in the private residence as well.  No matter where you turn, the mosaics on the floor will dazzle you.

This is the bath house - floors are raised to allow for fires to warm from the underneath

The toilet, which featured flushing water and a mosaic on the floor

I'll insert photos with descriptors below, mostly focusing on the range of mosaics.  The detail is incredible and it's hard to imagine how long it took to complete all of these mosaics.  Just the one in the reception hall, which is over 200 feet long and at least 20 feet wide and tells the story of capturing and transporting wild animals from Africa to Italy must have taken dozens of people months if not years to complete.

Baths floor

House Gymnasium

Reception Hall - 200 feet long

Female athletes

Piazza Amerina

After we had explored Villa Romana del Casale we decided to drive through Piazza Amerina and go north to catch a major highway toward Catania.  There were two surprises in store for us.

First, as we entered Piazza Amerina, we could not help but notice the cathedral that hovers over the city, built on the highest point of land and dominating the rest of the city.  We took pictures but did not stop.

Next, somehow, we took a wrong turn and ended up on the "scenic" route to Catania, driving through winding mountain roads, through a national forest and several small towns.  It was a beautiful drive through hilly terrain and agricultural fields, with views increasingly dominated by Etna as we drove further east.  While the scenic route took an extra 30 minutes over the highway route, we saw more of Sicily and had such sweeping views that we were glad we took the road less taken.

View of Etna from just east of Piazza Amerina

Finally, we finished our day driving through orange, lemon and other groves at the foot of Etna, and made our way to Zafferana Etna, a small town about a third of the way up Etna's southeast flank, and our jumping off point for the final few days of the trip.

Dinner 

That night, we had a limited choice of restaurants, so we went to the Trattoria La Pentolaccia, which featured rabbit, horse and tripe on the menu.  This area of Sicily does consume horsemeat, and you will find it on some menus but we did not try that out.  We focused more on sea food and pasta, over the other offerings.  Good food and good service as well.