Hi, everyone. I just wanted to tell you that over the past 24-48 hours my blog site crashed. I was heartbroken, thinking that I had probably lost all the posts of this trip. I was smart enough to backup everything just before leaving on the trip, so not all would have been lost from the past couple of years. I know that you have probably been having trouble seeing the thumbnail pictures in each post and that probably most didn’t open to a larger size when you clicked on a photo. That apparently was a precursor to a crash. I have been frantic about this, but the good tech support at Green Geeks, my hosting company, found that a plugin I was using on my site to help with controlling spam comments and attacks on the website had crashed bringing down my blog. Tech support disabled the plugin, and voila, I’m back in business. My apologies to you who tried to log in and couldn’t and to those of you who wanted to see photos, but couldn’t. I hope all is well now and that things are working properly. If you still are having trouble accessing the blog or can’t see photos, please email me so that I know there is still a problem. I’m now a couple of days behind, but fortunately Wednesday and Thursday weren’t touring days so I won’t have much to tell you. I hope you are enjoying the posts.
When Christine was swimming in the sea in Malta, she struck up a conversation with a woman. When the woman heard we were going to Sicily she told Christine about Villa del Romana Casale, a very large excavated Roman villa that has fantastic mosaics. The woman said it was a must visit. That peaked Christine’s interest and so from Catania we booked a tour to the villa along with a stop at the Valley of the Temples, another archaeological site in Agrigento. We had seen a Roman villa, Domus Romana, in Mdina, Malta in 2016. It was a very small villa but had a few beautiful mosaics, so we definitely were interested in going to Casale to see more mosaics.
Our tour was through Get Your Guide which is a contracting organization that uses local guides. Our guide, Allessio, is a Sicilian who spoke excellent English. There were 5 other people on the tour, Irina and Igor, Russians who now live in Washington, D.C., and 3 women originally from Brooklyn, Diana, Palma and Cynthia. Again, a small world. We had a good time getting to know them and the 3 were very fun. Allessio was very knowledgeable and gave us quite the history lesson on our 2+ hour drive to Agrigento.
We didn’t mind the drive at all because it afforded us the opportunity to see the Sicilian countryside. Outside of Catania, we drove through the Catania plains, the largest agricultural area on the island. The main crops in this area are oranges and olives. It was interesting to see some of the old irrigation systems still in use, long, raised stone troughs running down the hills. We then drove out of the province of Catania into the province of Enna. The terrain changes from plains to rolling hills and some mountains. Enna is a wheat producing area and the wheat fields are all up and down the hills. There is a special kind of wheat grown here in Sicily. During Roman occupation Sicily was the granary for the entire Roman empire where all the wheat was grown and from where it was shipped throughout the empire.
We finally arrived at the Valley of Temples located near the ancient Greek city of Agrigento founded around 580 B.C. The Valley of the Temples is probably the most important testimony of the ancient, classical culture of Sicily. It brings together the temples of gods and goddesses as well as the area of the necropolis and sanctuaries. Agrigento, the Greek city called Akragas, in its glory days, was one of the most important and most culturally-advanced Greek cities in the Mediterranean.
The archaeological park consists of eight temples (and various other remains) built between about 510 BC and 430 BC: the Temple of Hera, the Temple of Concordia, the Temple of Heracles, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the Temple of Castor and Pollux, the Temple of Hephaestos, the Temple of Demeter, and the Temple of Asclepius (the God of Medicine). Only 4 of the temples have standing columns. All are situated in the same area on rocky crests south of modern day Agrigento (not really in a valley at all!). The juxtaposition of the temples in relation to modern day Agrigento was really quite interesting to see, just as it was in Taormina when viewing the ancient amphitheater while also seeing the modern housing of Taormina.
We first visited the Temple of Juno. It is an amazing sight and can be seen from afar when driving to the part. It is situated on the eastern-most crest of a hill and is quite thrilling to see. It is very visible from nearly everywhere around Agrigento. Of the 34 original columns, 25 are still standing, all of the ones on its north side.
I was certainly very excited by this temple, but then we walked about a quarter-mile down the main pathway,my eyes saw the Temple of Concordia, and wow! It is the largest and best-preserved Doric temple in Sicily and one of the best-preserved Greek temples in general. Only the Parthenon in Athens is better preserved. The temple was converted into a Christian basilica in the 6th century dedicated to the apostles Peter and Paul by the bishop of Agrigento and thus survived the destruction of pagan places of worship.
Along the walk between temples Juno and Concordia were large outcroppings of sandstone. These were at the edge of the hill and so there was quite a drop off, and a fantastic view of the countryside out to the sea, which is about 3 kilometers away. The sandstone had been sculpted into a necropolis and there were several catacomb-like structures that were used to bury the dead.
A little further down the main path we came to the Temple of Hercules. It is the oldest temple in the park. Inside it kept a bronze statue of Hercules himself, which the Akragantines loved very much. The temple, destroyed by war and natural disasters, today has only eight columns left, but nonetheless, it is still wonderful because one can get the closest to the structure and a lot of the broken columns lying on the ground.
There are other areas where temples once stood, but they are rubble and broken columns. One can see some of the foundations and can get an idea of how large some of these structures were. And even the broken bits and pieces of columns are interesting to look at with their fluting or designs.
The last temple we saw was the Temple of Castor and Pollux. It now only has 4 columns remaining of its original 34. There is a beautiful rosetta carved in one of the blocks at the top in the corner which is indicative of how ornate this temple once was.
I thought going through the Valley of the Temples was amazing and I’m really glad that this was part of our trip to the Villa del Romana Casale. After the temples, Allessio took us to a restaurant for lunch. Thankfully, it wasn’t as expensive or extensive as the lunch in Castelmola. Christine and I both ordered a seafood salad, which was wonderful. All kinds of seafood, including more octopus, were in the salad. It was refreshing after our hot walk through the Valley of the Temples.
Then back in the van for an hour drive to the Villa. This drive was quite interesting because much of it was on back roads bumping along the countryside. We got to see farmhouses up close and we passed through several small villages. It was nice to be able to see a little of rural life in Sicily. We also whizzed through the ancient village of Piazza Amerina, also built at the top of a mountain. I wish we had had some time to wander around a little.
Villa Romana del Casale is a large and elaborate Roman villa or palace located about 3 km from the town of Piazza Armerina. Excavations at this site revealed one of the richest, largest, and varied collections of Roman mosaics in the world, for which the site has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The villa and artwork contained within date to the early 4th century AD.
The mosaic artwork cut into walls and walkways, are unique in their excellent state of preservation due to the landslide and floods that covered the remains. The villa began being excavated only in 1954, which in itself is truly amazing. Although less well-known, an extraordinary collection of frescoes covered not only the interior rooms, but also the exterior walls.
The villa had about 50 rooms, each used for a different purpose. The mosaics contained mostly in the floors give some clue as to what the rooms were used for. It is unbelievable how well preserved the mosaics are. They are incredibly detailed and depict all kinds of activities and scenes, telling wonderful stories. Really an amazing place.
It was then another 90 minutes in the van back to the hotel. We were all tired, but very satisfied with our touring today. We learned so much and saw things we’ll probably never see the likes of again, except for maybe some things in Athens in a couple of weeks. That conversation Christine had with the woman while swimming really produced a wonderful experience for us.
Loving your posts. Makes me want to copy your whole trip sometime.
Thanks, Eve. You know I originally started this blog for the 6-pack back in 2016. I’m very happy that you are reading it and enjoying it. I’ll keep at it even though it is a lot of work. It does make a difference knowing that someone appreciates it. Thanks!