We were on the move again today. We climbed aboard the Interbus at Syracuse railway station at 9am, bound for Catania Airport. The latter was the best place to pick up our hire-car, and Centauro gave a really good rate for a one-way 4-day hire to Palermo. It was pretty easy to find the hire place. We'd booked a Fiat 500 or similar. John was hoping to get the Fiat but we got a Hyundai I10. It's a good little nippy car, and we definitely wanted a small one knowing what the roads will be like around the island.
By 11am we were underway, and the 1.25hr drive to Piazza Armerina went by very easily. The roads were very good, by and large, and there wasn't much traffic. Driving the 110km odd to get there represented perhaps a quarter of the total driving we will be doing. We's decided that it would be much easier to hire a car than try and negotiate the logistics of trains, inter-city buses and local buses to get to the places we wanted to go. Many of the historic sites we are planning to visit are a number of kilometres out of the nearest town.
We had a reasonable view of Mt Etna as we arrived at Catania Airport on the bus, and then great views of the dry interior of the island. Much of the landscape looked barren, though the area surrounding Catania itself was intensively developed in orange and lemon orchards. Further inland some of the brown 'paddocks' were being churned over by bulldozers pulling ploughs, but we don't know what their intended use was. There were no animals to be seen. After a while the land became more favourable for olives.
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| Inland from Catania |
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| Piazza Armerina |
Closer to Piazza Armerina the land greened up again. The purpose of deviating inland to this part of the island was to visit Villa Romana del Casale. It is considered to be one of the most prestigious Roman relics in the Mediterranean, It was built in 350-320AD, probably for a Roman senator. It is world-renowned for its spectacular mosaics, all 3500 sqm of them, many in superb condition. The mosaics are not just pretty geometric patterns; in most of the rooms they tell a story or give some sort of description of life at the time, e.g. tools using in fishing, massive hunting scenes showing different techniques of hunting, captured animals being loaded onto vessels on various continents and then unloaded in Italy destined for the wildlife sports in the various arenas.
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Villa Romana del Casale - the heated baths
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| A hunting scene |
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| Collection of wild animals for gladiatorial combat |
The mosaics were simply stunning, and are apparently the richest, largest and most varied collection in the world. One was 66m x 5m. We were blown away. Thankfully they were all under cover, because the temperature outside in the sun was 31 deg and it was blazing hot walking between the different buildings. Being there in the middle of the day was great in terms of the limited number of tourists and it was possible to read the interpretation signs beside every room without having to look over shoulders. It would have been better if the mosaics were not so dusty; they could have done with a wipe down. By 2pm we were expiring. We drove the 10km to Piazza Armerina, found a carpark right outside our apartment, and found a cafe to have an ice-cold almond granita to cool us down. When we walked through the main street into the town centre the place was so unbelievably quiet we wondered if it might be a public holiday. In fact, though Google describes it as one of the most attractive medieval towns in Sicily, we were very underwhelmed. I think the vast deposits of pigeon shit on the buildings, footpaths and roads had something to do with it! It reeked, and there were feathers floating everywhere. Not pleasant. Many buildings for sale, it's not a town that is thriving despite being the jump-off point for the Villa.
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| The main drag into Piazza Armerina, probably the only cleanish street |
We managed to get hold of our host and he turned up to let us into his apartment. He was an older Italian, very friendly and chatty. John managed to pick up much of what he said, the rest was translated by gestures. The room was very nice, and after a shower and rest we ventured out to find a bite to eat. The town was so much more attractive in the evening. The few shops were now open. There were people about, and the light showed the town at its best. Street-lights lit up the buildings and dispersed the gloom so that the whole place took on a totally different persona. We walked some of the alleyways, deemed to be excellent examples of medieval architecture, and really enjoyed the feel of the place. What a difference to how we found it mid-afternoon!
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| Piazza Armerina at night (still pretty quiet) |
Our host suggested two small restaurants nearby for dinner (actually there were only two choices and one was closed because it was Monday). It was a lovely meal. John chose the antipasto plate for an entree. When it arrived it looked beg enough for an entire meal.
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| John's antipasto |
The town looked lovely at night from our room.
