{"id":2335,"date":"2016-05-02T09:23:22","date_gmt":"2016-05-02T15:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dltwt.com\/?p=2335"},"modified":"2016-05-02T09:25:21","modified_gmt":"2016-05-02T15:25:21","slug":"villa-romana-del-casale-and-the-island-of-ortygia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/?p=2335","title":{"rendered":"Villa Romana del Casale and the Island of Ortygia"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On Friday, we were on our way to the island of Ortygia which is the historical center of Siracusa, Sicily.\u00a0 We also decided to make a side-trip to Piazza Armerina.\u00a0 The world’s most comprehensive set of Roman mosaics is found in the outskirts of this town.\u00a0 The archaeological site is known as Villa Romana del Casale which is somewhat difficult to find due to lack of signage and a confused GPS.\u00a0 \u00a0Apparently, the specifics of the villa’s history are largely lost to history, but experts have dated its origin to around the 4th century AD.\u00a0 It’s believed to have been either the hunting lodge for the Roman aristocracy or the home of a single\u00a0politician.\u00a0\u00a0 Apparently, there aren’t enough clues to indicate the real owner(s).<\/p>\n

The villa features more than 40 absolutely stunning mosaic floors that left us speechless.\u00a0 The mosaics were so amazing with exacting detail of daily life with dress, hairstyle and footwear.\u00a0 (This detail helped archeologists date the villa’s construction.)\u00a0 The mosaics were so bright, colorful and largely complete compared to the faded mosaics we saw in a mosaic museum we visited in Istanbul.\u00a0 They looked like they were laid down only a century ago!\u00a0 A true miracle for which we have mother nature to thank.\u00a0 The villa was buried under a mudslide sometime in the 12th century; and, the site was forgotten under the earth until it was excavated in 1929.<\/div>\n
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We walked along on high platforms above the rooms and were able to see a number of rooms laid out with these incredible mosaic floors.\u00a0 We thought that the “Corridor of the Hunt” was the most impressive floor.\u00a0 As you can see in the picture below, soldiers battle with tigers, then lead them onto ships bound for Rome where they fight against gladiators in Roman colosseums.\u00a0 Other parts of the “Hunt” depict a group of soldiers trying to pull a hippopotamus out of the water, and a wounded lion jumping onto a soldier.\u00a0 It is difficult to gain an appreciation of these fabulous mosaics unless one actually sees them in person.\u00a0 No doubt, it took many years to create all these incredible masterpieces.<\/p>\n

Our favorite and probably the most popular mosaic was the so-called “Bikini Girls”.\u00a0 In a fairly small, square room, ten wonderfully preserved and scantily clad Roman beauties are engaging in various athletics such as discus-throwing, running and playing with a ball.\u00a0 The girl in the center, apparently the winner, is presented with a golden crown.\u00a0 We were shocked to see women in bikinis depicted in a mosaic back “in the day”.<\/p>\n

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The Villa Romana (a UNESCO site) was recently renovated and is one of the most popular sites in Italy.\u00a0\u00a0 In order to view each mosaic floor, one has to almost stand in a slow line.\u00a0 Luckily, the crowds today were manageable.\u00a0 The place must be unbearable during the summer with undoubtedly lengthy lines with many hours standing in a line to view these beautiful mosaic floors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The tiny “magical” island of Ortygia, lingers on the edge of Siracusa and is connected to the mainland by three small bridges.\u00a0 Locals refer to Ortygia as the “White Pearl” of Siracusa.\u00a0 .\u00a0 .\u00a0 and indeed it is!\u00a0 It absolutely charms with its many narrow streets, ancient flowering balconies, beautiful squares and weathered buildings.\u00a0 The size and location\u00a0 of Ortygia reminds us of Balboa Island in Newport Beach, California.\u00a0 We arrived around 4:00 pm and we were able to cover the entire island on foot in about 1 hour.\u00a0 The waterfront of Ortygia Island has wonderful views and is full of enchanting churches and ancient buildings.<\/div>\n
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When we booked out hotel, we had no idea that the hotel was actually a B&B.\u00a0 We booked it because it had almost a “10” rating (10 is tops) on Trip Advisor. This B&B was not your typical B&B because it was not in someone’s home.\u00a0 It was actually in a small renovated building and lived up to it’s high rating.\u00a0 We had a very upscale, modern suite with a sitting room and large bedroom.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"On<\/a>
On a country road<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sheep<\/a>
Sheep dog – one of five<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Incredible<\/a>
Incredible restored mosaics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Noah's<\/a>
Noah’s Ark type of story<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"This<\/a>
This was the “living room” of this politician’s apartment<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Beautiful<\/a>
Beautiful statue<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Note<\/a>
Note all of the Olympic sports illustrated<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"This<\/a>
Part of the Hunt Room floor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Just<\/a>
Just how long would it have taken to design and install this?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\"Primary<\/a>
Primary fountain in Ortygia (Syracusa island)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Piazza<\/a>
Piazza Duomo in Ortygia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ortigia's<\/a>
Ortygia’s harbor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Friday, we were on our way to the island of Ortygia which is the historical center of Siracusa, Sicily.\u00a0 We also decided to make a side-trip to Piazza Armerina.\u00a0 The world’s most comprehensive set of Roman mosaics is found in the outskirts of this town.\u00a0 The archaeological site is known as Villa Romana del … Continue reading Villa Romana del Casale and the Island of Ortygia<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Si9J-BF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2335"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2368,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2335\/revisions\/2368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}