The Adventures of Wickse, Eric & Sharon: Villa Romana del Casale

Being very big fans of mosaic art we were drawn to the small, provincial town of Piazza Armeria to pay a visit to the nearby Villa Romana del Casale. This stunning 3rd century AD Roman villa was once the home of Marcus Aurelius Maximianus, and in keeping with being the hunting lodge of the co-Emperor of Rome, it needed to be decorated to a suitable standard...and so enter the very best mosaic artists of the day!

First visitor of the day, at the unassuming entrance to the Villa

The villa itself was buried under mud following a flood in the 12th century, and the mosaics remained hidden for 700 years before being rediscovered in the 1950s. The mosaics cover almost the entire floor area of the villa - some 3500sq metres, and are considered to be some of the foremost and extensive examples of this form of Roman art in Italy. The range of subject
matter is quite considerable, ranging from classical Greek mythology to battles, African hunts and fishing expeditions. They are however in quite some state of disrepair, and it was both very interesting, but also quite alarming to watch the teams of young archaelogical(?) students undertaking the painstaking restauration work...it all seemed quite casual, and we didn't see
as much respect for this ancient art as we'd expect.

We were also quite surprised at the housing of the complex. A clear plastic roof had been erected over much, but certainly not all of the works, with narrow catwalks for the tourists to file past. The plastic material would have made it totally impossible to linger very long in the heat of a summer's day (luckily we'd made the extra effort to arrive at opening time!), and didn't appear to provide the mosaics much shelter from the elements either. We had to wonder whether this was indicative of a rather omnipresent sense of Sicilian ambivalence, or whether they just really couldn't afford anything more. Although with over 2000 visitors a day paying €8 a pop I'd hedge my bet on a case of the former rather than the latter. (And what of the ring of vacant and burnt out souvenir stalls in the carpark? Well we are in Mafia territory after all).

Restorers at work with the gear placed randomly over the original works

Despite timing our arrival with the early opening of the complex, the light just wasn't on our side, and unfortunately many of our photos just don't do any justice to these fabulous works of art. Here's a few (quite a few actually) for you to enjoy...