Villa Romana del Casale

Villa Romana del Casale

A day trip back to the Roman villa to see the amazing mosaics

 Beautiful designs in every room of the villa, even the utility rooms where the apprentices learnt the art.

 In 1959-60, Gentili excavated a mosaic on the floor of the room dubbed the "Chamber of the Ten Maidens". Informally called "the bikini girls", the maidens appear in a mosaic artwork which scholars named Coronation of the Winner. The young women perform sports including weight-lifting, discus throwing, running and ball-games. In the top left hand corner you can see another lower mosaic which this one covered.

 Built in the middle of the 4th Century AD as a hunting lodge by a Roman patrician (it is not known for sure who the owner was) the Villa is home to some of the best preserved and extensive examples of Roman mosaics in the world. They are spread over  3500m2.

These extraordinarily vivid mosaics, probably produced by North African artisans, deal with numerous subjects, ranging from Homeric escapades and mythological scenes to portrayals of daily life

David sampling another Sicilian speciality - a canolo. Cannoli consist of tube-shaped shells of fried pastry dough, filled with a sweet, creamy filling usually containing ricotta. The ends are often dipped in nuts - this had chopped pistachio nuts on it.  They are not usually quite as big as this - the second half was taken home in my handbag!