After an early breakfast, we head to Villa del Casale at Piazza Armerina, to beat the tourist crowds. Excavation began here around 1820. We stop at this 3rd century CE Roman villa, and though it is not clear who it belonged to, it was clear that the person was immensely wealthy. The single landowners had huge swaths of arable land and were very wealthy.While the Greeks were civilized in terms of arts and culture, in Rome being civilized was about material wealth. We startwith the three part bath, with terra-cotta tubing that kept the heat in all three rooms, with fires going and water above, and a huge 8-part changing and pool area, all with mosaics. The baths area is huge. The house was used by the Romans, the Byzantines, the Arabs, and then an 11th century landslide buried the complex. A few wall paintings are still visible, and the mosaics are beautifully preserved. To one side is the huge public latrine for the many slaves who worked in the fields and the villa, who were not allowed in the baths. A huge double-apsed room is like the Circus Maximus in Rome. The mosaics are gorgeous, and feature chariot races, lap counters, and illustrations of animals, spectators, even food vendors. Nearby was the private latrine of the house, continuously flushed by the second acqueduct (the first supplied the baths). The entry way is splendid with columns and frescoes of soldiers, where servants would meet guests, as is shown on the mosaic. All this suggests the imperial class. Inside is an enormous peristyle, with a huge fountain, surrounded by columns, with mosaic floors of medallions of various animals. The lady of the house (domina) is in the mosaic at the entry from the circus, showing the specific date. Two blond haired men in short tunics were slaves, Germanic, who were considered the best slaves. There are also two women slaves holding clothing and perfumes. Overall there are 35,000 sq. ft. of mosaics here.
We go to the south side of the villa, with the more functional rooms with geometric mosaic floors, each room a different design. One shows women being kidnapped, the Rape of the Sabine Women, the story of how the almost all male population of Rome get wives. When the Sabine men came to rescue their women, the women came out with their babies and laid them between the Romans and the Sabines, saying that they would need to battle over the bodies of the babies, fathers and brothers vs. husband, they came to peace, as the Sabines were absorbed into the Romans.
We continue around the peristyle to more private rooms with mosaics, one a dining room with a mosaic of the foods of the four seasons, with interlocking braided hexagons. Then a dining room filled with active figures involved in the hunt, of birds, rabbits, foxes, and boars. A huge hallway that spans the south side to the north side is the hunt of wild African animals presided over by “Miss Africa”, in all formats of capturing, loading animals onto carts and boats. It features lions, tigers, ostriches, birds, elephants, small gazelles, and more. It shows the extraordinary wealth of the owner, who could afford to bring in wild animals for a small menagerie, but most went to the games. At the other end is “Miss Asia” which meant the near East and Iran etc. even the expressions of the animals are individual and powerful. The men handling the animals protect themselves by muzzling the biters like the tiger, and putting wooden blocks across the horns of gazelles and bulls, some substantial subsidence has led to the floor undulating. We see the mother tiger distracted by her image in a mirror while a man on horseback steals her cubs. Next to her is a griffin, with a human captured in a box.
We come next time to music room, centered around Orpheus, around whom the wild animals would be calm, rocks would stop rolling downhill, arrows would fall to the ground. Next is the famous room with the mosaics of the women in what look like bikinis doing various sports. This is thought to be part of a festival of Flora, when women would be less clothed during this festival, the only time they could do this, usually done by the vestal virgins.
We exit the building to an outdoor dining and performance area overlooking the valley. We learn that five mud landslides came through here, and it is by chance that these mosaics were not washed away.
We enter the private area of the family. In one room of the dominos, women make floral wreaths while children compete in various arts and games, some playing musical instruments, some orating or acting, one piece even shows the musical keys. The antechamber shows four sets of children in four seasons with different teams of seasonal birds pulling chariots, in this one, winter wins. This may have been a room for the daughters. The nearby portico features putti fishing for various marine life. Another nearby room features Pan and Eros in competition, Pan representing sexual love, Eros a higher love. The next was thought to be the sons’ room, it features boys doing an early hunt, some more successfully than others, some even being attacked by the animals.
We go on to the Hall of Arion, a story of a man attacked by pirates, then playing a lyre, with all sorts of imaginary animals and creatures, and many Nereads with beautiful necklaces. This was a gathering place for the family, with marble walls instead of frescoes.
We go back to the master’s northern apartment we come to a large room with a beautiful mosaic showing Odysseus offernig the strong wine to Polyphemus, who had already eaten four of Odysseus’ men. It is a scene showing cleverness rather than the brute power of the stabbing of the cyclops, the more common scene usually shown. Next to this is the master’s chamber with scenes of love and medallions of women. We come to the last room, the huge basilica, possibly 40’ tall. No mosaics or frescoes here, all marble, which is more precious. This is where the important business was done, with the master seared on a raised podium in the half-round apse. It is a huge and imposing room, about 45’x90’ without the apse, as large as some of the larger houses in Herculaneum. The floor undulated from when the walls fell and the soil subsided under the sight of the mud.
This is truly an incredible place, seeing these gorgeous mosaics in situation, to understand how people lived, ate, played, slept, and interacted … at least how this was for the 1%, which is who lived here. As we depart, we see what would have been the roofline of the villa, which was located not far from the Gela River, which is mostly dry now as the climate has changed in the past 2,000 years. There used to be 7 free flowing rivers in Sicily, now there is one. This is an area of huge wheat fields, wheat being from this area and well adapted to the hot dry summers.
After an hour’s drive through wheat fields, vineyards, and orchards, we come to the winery wher we’ll have lunch, Feudo Principi di Butera. The building had feudal origins. It was purchased in 1997 by the Zonin family, whose Prosecco is popular in the US. However, Prosecco is really from the north of Italy, while Spumante is the term for sparking wine throughout Italy, including Sicily. We start with a sparkling Neroluce, a white Spumante that is new. They also gave the Silla and Insola grapes here, in additin9 t9 the Nerodiabolo grape which is the main red grape here. Harvest begins with August Nero D’Avoloa for sparking wine, then some whites, and then the Cabernet last. All the vineyards have their own irrigation systems. Grapevines give their best with limited water and heat, when under a little stress, so all the energy goes into the grape. This vineyards offers both red and white grapes, and 35 hectares of olive oil.
Lunch is abundant. We start with a lovely white Insola, with chickpea fried squares, fre#h ricotta, tiny pieces of breaded fried eggplant, a thin frittata, and olive. Next we have cavatelli with fresh tomato sauce and the Nero D’Avola which was very nice, then some me,on and tiny tarts with a smooth Syrah. All the wines were wonderful, as wa the food, with a beautiful view of the vineyards beyond. Historically the Branciforte family owned this area, the first noble family name in Asiciy. We descend to the cave, which is w9nderfully cook. The reds age her 12-18 months, 6,000 liters total. The Nero D’Avola grape is considered a wild grape, so they leave the typical wine in big barrels for 18 months then (these are harvested by machine) and the cru is in small barrels (harvested by hand), and aged for an extra 2 yeasr. The oak for the barrels comes from France and Slovenia. They also produce Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon here. The total production is 900,000 bottles per year.
We head toward Agrigento, our destination for the evening. After a short while we see the Mediterranean with Libya not far away across the channel, and lots of crops covered in white plastic to contain water and reduce bugs. As we drive along what seems like a small one-lane road, a huge threshing machine comes the other direction, Frances pco backs up and over so fhe tuck can pass, mere inches from us. We see wind farm installations and lots of solar arrays all over.
Douglas talks now of WWII. The British 8th Army was in North Africa against rommel and did not do well. The Alles landed in Morocco which gave limited (Vichy) resistance, under a,ontfomery they at El-Alamein, then won at Tobruk. The Americans got beaten badly at Casserine Pass, which led to Patton in charge. The British and Americans pressed the Germans, and Rommel was recalled. The dis ussion then was whether to attack directly int9bFrance, or aroma is, or Sicily. The thinking was that Mussolini was weak and people would rise up against him.Opeation Mincemeat led to the Germans being faked out about the Allied landing. We see the pillboxes a8medvat controlling accesson this critical road. At this point the. Riyish were more battle-tested than the Anericans. The British were to land at the point of aitaly and the Americans would land nearby in their flank. It was hard to coordinate the paratrooper drop, people were scattered all over, and the glider pilots often dropped people far from targets. Eventually the British moved up to Noto then Siracusa on the way to Catania. Meanwhile the American bombers were flying overhead and were accidentally shot down by American ships. Ashore the Germans hit hard, we see the beaches where the Americans had landed. Patton decided to move on his own to Palermo, which left British side open near Catania. By this time the Sicilians were ready t9 be liberated and to help the Allies, they were done with Mussolini. Supposedly the Ane4ican Maria asked their Sicilian counterparts to help the Allies. From Palermo Patton moved east, and it became a race t9 see who would get to Messina first, Patton or Montgomery. The Gernans had 60,000 forces, the Aies had 500,000, but the German leader kept the Americans occupied with a brilliant withdrawal. Narrow bridges slowed the forces. Who got to Messina first is a question still, but the whole Gernan army escaped across the straights of Messina. The next steps were the beaches at Salerno and Anzio, which kept some Germans busy dring this period, 1943.
Going along the sea toward Agrigento we see lots of farms and small clusters of housing. Greenhouses, olive trees, vineyards, and more are visible. After about an hour, we see the tem0es of Agrigento in the distance, home to some of the best-preserved Greek temples anywhere. Ther was a whole row of Tempe’s along the road, with the town to the side, protected by high walls. the Doric order of columns was invented in Sicily and spread through the the Greek world. 10,000 years ago, this was the bottom the sea, and there are many seashells embedded in type sandstone. We come to a corner of a temple which is actually parts of two temples combined when archaeologists first dug this area in the 19th century. There was plaster on the outside of the limestone columns the make them look like marble, wherevercwe see plaster, that part was covered and protected from weather. Most of the city was dedicated to Demeter and Persephone, and many such figures were found in the area. We are seated on the remains of an Archaic temple, not one of columns but like a house, “oikos” style, with a central altar with the remains of the iron oxide of the sacrificial fire. Our guide stands by the spot where the sacrifices took place, the Greeks thought of the smoke as the animal’s soul rising to the heavens. A round altar is the site of the Desmophoria festival. This is in the sacred district, no bodily fluids (sex, menstruation, etc.) or violence allowed among other rules. During this festival only women were allowed in the sacred area, and the bones of piglets were found in the central well of the altar, later gathered and spread on the fields for fertility.
We all over to an exhibit built to show how the huge blocks were raised up the temple walls using double pulleys and a winch. Nearby we see the huge stones which still have the U- shaped channels cut in them for lifting.
The is is the site of the third largest Greek temple anywhere, a Tempe to Zeus. Acragus was the name of the city, then under the Normans, Agrigento, then Girgente under the Norman’s. It was the largest in the Western Mediterranean. Early on the Zgreeks defeated the Cathaginians and had 2,000 Carthaginian solves t build the temple, It took 70 years to build, was destroyed 4 years later by the Cathaginians. The dimensions were 380’x170’, 100’ tall. It was knocked down by the Cartgaginoians to disempower the Greeks’ gods. This temple was unusual in that there were walls between the columns. This temple was. Isible from the sea, bright and white. We see the remains of the 50’ tall titans which held up the walls. Once a year, one hundred bucks were sacrified to Zeus.
We walk to another temple, one to Heracles, and can see how columns collapsed in an earthquake., the columns were aligned using using wooden or lead plugs.the re-erected columns were shored up with brick so it was clearly not original.thisvtempe was as large as the Parthenon.
The Romans took over this part of Sicily after the second Punic War, Sicily became a Roman colony, with a governor. While the Greeks hadpoliticians hold office for only one year, the Romans had one year for governors as well (70BCE). During the difficulties of Spartacus, the expected governor was busy fighting the Soave revolt, so the local governor here (Varies?) was extended for three years, plenty of time to enrich himself though corruption and bribery. He stole lots of stuff from the local landowners, even on local visits, he had deals with local pirates that split the loot with him. He took a liking to the Hercules statue in the temple here, Varies’ sent slaves to steal it at night, the people rose up and stopped his slaves. As soon as he was out of office, local leaders went up to Rome to see a local judge named Cicero, who took the case against Varies, who gets a lawyer named Hortensius. The lawyer kept delaying the tail until they would get a more favorable judge, meanwhile Cicero tried to move forward. Cicero gives his opening statement, Varies’ lawyer said it was all over and he should flee, Varies fled to Marseilles. About 20 years later, Marc Antony went aft him, and then Varies killed himself. nothing that he st8e was every specifically recovered, as the trail of provenance was lost. Cicero published his case since he never got to give it, the Varies Orations, which listed everything that was stolen.
A British man named Alexander Harcastle came here in the 1920s, fell in love with thecarea, he created the first collections here in his villa, and donated all the collections here instead of exporting or selling them.
We stop by Salvo’s dig, a fourth century CE Christian cemetery, after Christian became an official religion. Now Christians cou have above ground burials in rock tombs, instead of hidden catacombs.
Early on the Greeks built temples of wood. The temple of Apollo in Siracusa was one of the first in stone, but even in stone they retained some of the wood techniques such as fluting if columns. Fluted columns seem lighter than solid columns. The triglyphscarecsuggestive if the ends of late wooden beams. To make the temple attractive to the gods as a dwelling place, stone is more permanent. Temples play some optical tricks, the center of the low platform bows up in the middle, as does the upper architrave. The columns lean in so they will look vertical. If extended 2columns into the sky the columns would meet. The columns get closer toward the corners, and the corner columns are fatter. There are lots of ways the construction is fudged to produce perfect beauty on mathematical principles, so the eye matters more than the mathematics.
The temple we now see, Concordia, built 430 BCE, has never been fallen, after the Greeks, it was kept by the Romans, and then by the Christians who built a church around it that later fell down. We do not know what god this was for originally, possibly Castor and Pollux, they wird Concordia was found on a stone nearby. This one is built 6 front columns and 13 at the side, the front times two plus one. All this was based on the Golden Mean, and it is truly harmonious. The temple positively glows with the late afternoon (6pm) sun. Nearby is a 600-year-old olive tree with a massive trunk.
Lastly, we walk along the Ancient Greek city walls, which after the Byzantines moved their city uphill, became a necropolis from 6th-9th century. At the summit of the hill is the final temple, without a roof but with many original columns. It is incorrectly called the ate,pile of Juno, because there is nothing that indicate this,plus Juno was Roman not Greek. It is exactly the same as the Conciodia, but it has partly fallen and been rebuilt. We see the valley where people lived, as the temples were on what was then the hill. The Greeks built a 9,000 foot wall to protect the city. We overlook the original city and see the old quarry in the background.
We meet Francesco and the bus, quite tired after a long afternoon in the sun, and head to the nearby hotel with lovely views of the temples lit up at night. We have a nice dinner at the nearby Trattoria dei Templi, which had wonderful fish, and were joined by Barbara for a nice dinner and conversation.
