Adventures with Julia

Saturday, September 30, 2023

We did a walk through part of the Villa property with Gabriella and saw some caves and a couple of tombs. Then we finished packing up and departed. We were among the last to leave. Here are a few more images of the property.

These images add to our memory of the Villa. And we received a few more images that belong in the last evening photos.

We still had a few more days in Sicily and headed first for the Villa Romana del Casele in the middle the island, to see the tile work we have heard so much about. The drive through the countryside was very pretty and interesting. Mark had no trouble with the roads as they were reasonably wide and he could go fast. He especially enjoyed the stick shift of the MG SUV we are traveling in. We reached the Villa Romana in about 1.5 hours. After finding a place to park among the large busses, we waited for our guide to arrive. She was late, but by the time she arrived, the crowd had dissipated and we could walk freely along the overhead walkways and see the tile work easily. We spent a couple of hours at the Villa Romana. The tile work was most impressive. It was all made of marble in the 3-4th centuries. We walked on elevated walkways throughout the Villa and could identify the purpose of many of the rooms from the size, shape and images on the tile.

The ladies above were gymnasts or olympians. Notice how different they look from women in other scenes, who are much more voluptuous. There are scenes of hunting for animals; bringing animals from Asia and Africa onto a ship. Carrying animals in boxes. Catching fish in nets. Pictures of many different animals. There are intricate geometrical patterns throughout the property in the service areas and passageways. Below are people gardening and harvesting plants; Mermaids swimming with unusual fish; voluptuous naked ladies with animals and fish and more. It was a lot to take in. It is unknown who the family was that lived in the Villa or who built it and designed the rooms. The tile has survived in such perfect condition because it spent centuries covered with mud from ancient earthquakes and mudslides.

More voluptuous ladies, mythical figures and wild and domestic animals. About 2:30pm we finished with our guide at the Villa Romana del Casale and drove another 1.5 hours to Agrigento and checked into our hotel, the Villa Athena. We wandered around the Villa and then ordered a drink for our patio. Soon we encountered Mimi and Phil, who had the room next to ours and we moved over to their patio. About 7:30 we went upstairs for dinner on the terrace. Martin and Catherine White joined us and we enjoyed the evening as if the birthday week had not ended. The view of the Temple Athena from. our table was a treat. Afterward, we said our good bye’s to Martin and Catherine and went to bed. Tomorrow we will explore the temples in Agrigento before heading for Mon Reale and Palermo.

Sunday, October 1, 2023

Mark and I took a morning tour through the Valley of the Temples. Our guide met us at our hotel and we walked through a gate into the archeological park. The park was quite large and we walked several kilometers to see the best preserved temples. The first was the Temple of Athena. It resembles the Parthenon in Athens, except that it is complete. Several centuries after it was built and destroyed, christians restored it and made it into a church. More recently, it was returned to the shape of the original temple and became an archeological site.

After walking around the Temple of Athena we walked to and around The Temple of Concordia and the Temple of Zeus.

The Temple tour took about 2 hours. Fortunately we did it early enough in the morning to avoid the crowds and the heat. We packed and headed cross country for Palermo via Monreale, the famous cathedral we had heard about. The scenery was full of small towns and villages and various agriculture fields and orchards of orange, olive and almond trees. We arrived in Monreale about 12:30, took a long time finding a place to park and then went to lunch, as the cathedral was closed until 2pm. The cathedral was huge and spectacular. It was built by Norman King William ll in the 12th century. The walls were mosaics of glass and gold leaf. Very stunning to see. The interior of the cathedral contains three naves, each of which has its own group of mosaics, which cover about 10,000 square meters in total.

The building was overwhelming in every way.

From Monreale, we drove to the airport to return the car. It had been a good companion for over a week, but we were ready to be free of the burden of the risk of hitting other cars in the very narrow streets and finding parking in those same streets. Then we took a taxi into Palermo city to our downtown residence, called Hotel Villafranca. That evening we reconnected with Mimi and Phil and had dinner in a pizza joint a few blocks from the hotel.