Bella Villa

Just a few kilometers from the town of Piazza Armerina, visitors to Sicily find the Villa Romana del Casale. Dating back to the late third century/early fourth, this lavish Roman villa boasts the richest, largest and most complex collection of mosaics in the world.



Buried beneath a landslide, the villa remained a secret until the 1900s. It was discovered, according to our tour guide, when a farmer found bits of mosaic beneath the straw in his donkey's stable. Suspecting he'd stumbled upon something important, he called the authorities and excavations were begun.

So far, fifty rooms have been unearthed, most of them protected from the elements by large plastic coverings. In the summertime, the heat inside the villa can exceed 115 degrees. We were told that tourists suffering heatstroke is not uncommon. Good thing that ours was a late winter visit.

Mosaics adorn the villa, inside and out. Mythological subjects and depictions of daily life were a common motif. Much to my delight, so were birds.

These decorated some type of water receptacle near the main entrance. We were on our own in the villa, without benefit of guides, so it was often difficult to determine the purpose of what we were seeing. But hey? It was a bird. So I had to have a picture.

This is The Corridor of the Great Hunt. Each mosaic features a head of the many different wild animals hunted in the most distant parts of the empire.

Here is a close up of one of the many cats the Romans hunted. The colour of the corridor mosaics are muted by an accumulation of dust. I confess I enhanced a picture or two (just a little) in order to get an idea of their original beauty.

The corridor leads to larger, more complex scenes throughout the villa, each continuing the story of the hunt. There are mosaics to illustrate the capture of the beasts...

...and mosaics illustrating the transport of the animals, by ship, back to Rome.

Some of the captives wound up at the Colosseum, pitted one against another (or against humans) for the enjoyment of the Roman spectators.

Others lived out the rest of their days performing in the Circus Maximus.

In the Room of the Fishing Cupids, several different fishing techniques are depicted in mosaic. This was a dining room for guests. Because we were on a ramp (and because sunlight cast shadows from all the scaffolding on to the floor below) it was impossible to get a good shot of this amazing mosaic. It covered the entire floor.

However, I did manage to get a close up of the prey.

One of the most popular mosaics in the villa is the "Room of the Ten Girls In Bikinis." Which begs the question -- who really did invent the two piece sensation? The floor is a two-piecer too. The Villa Romana del Casale was built over an older villa. I'm not sure if the floor in the corner is part of the first villa or simply a change of heart on the designer/owner's part. Certainly the girls do more to catch the eye.

Throughout the villa, we saw what little remains of the wall frescoes. Unlike the mosaics, the frescoes have suffered more at the hands of time. Given the beauty of the mosaics, one has to believe that the frescoes were equally as grand. We may never know.

But who can tell? Only 1/3 of the villa has been excavated; so much more is waiting below the Sicilian soil. How many secrets have yet to be revealed? How many more treasures will again see the light of day?

No doubt the archaeologists at the Villa Romana del Casale wonder too.