Saturday, September 16, 2023; Villa Romana di Casale; Ragusa
Morning saw us on the road into the interior of the island, bound for the Roman Villa of Casale. Our GPS led us astray once again and we found ourselves on a rutted, potholed road. As we rounded a bend, we found our way blocked by a herdsman and his dogs as they guided a herd of cattle down our road.
The herdsman, using a long crop, cleared a precarious path for us down the left side of the road. Cows being cows, they were blithely unaware of us and a couple of them almost wandered into the side of the car. Once by them, we found a second “situation:” a herd of goats. At first we thought they were without a goatherd, but then we realized that two young men in a car were herding them. Just then a truck roared by us from behind, cut off the two herdsmen in the car, and screeched to a halt.
The driver of the truck leapt from his vehicle, plunged into the herd and emerged with a kid held dangling from its back legs. He opened the rear window of the truck and tossed the goat in squealing and kicking…at which point one of the goatherds got in his face and started yelling and gesticulating, which was returned in equal measure by the truck driver. We had no idea what was going on, and we all admitted later that we found the whole thing unsettling and vaguely threatening.
A couple of wrong turns later, we reached the Villa Romana del Casale. I had somehow imagined this to be a largish house; instead, it was an enormous structure with its own expansive baths, social areas, guest rooms, and expansive living quarters for the owner and his family.
Historians speculate that the owner was a high figure in the Roman senate and that the villa was the center of an enormous agricultural estate. The villa dates from the first quarter of the fourth century AD and thus might have been built as a refuge from the increasing turbulence as the Roman Empire neared its end.
The villa is known above all for its astonishingly well preserved and extensive set of mosaics, said to be among the most important in the Roman world. The most spectacular mosaics, known as the Great Hunt, are found in a large corridor that divides the more public from the more private spaces in the villa.
The Great Hunt has given rise to speculation that the master of the estate was engaged in the capture and transport of wild, exotic animals to Rome for spectacles.
Just as famous as the Great Hunt is the “Chamber of the Ten Maidens,” depicting female athletes competing in individual aspects of the decathlon.
The entrance to the apartment of the master and his family is marked by an amusing mosaic depicting cherubs at sea.
The villa certainly conveys a vivid sense of the daily life of a very wealthy Roman family; and the artistry of some of the mosaics is astonishing. We felt very lucky to have experienced this, our Roman diversion from extensive dives into the classical and the baroque.
I took the wheel for the drive to Ragusa, one of the gorgeous towns in southeastern Sicily that were totally rebuilt in the current Baroque style after a devastating earthquake in 1693.
Ragusa suffered near total destruction from the earthquake. The town is situated on a low spine in a landscape dominated by deep gorges and high ridges. After the earthquake, most of the population moved onto a higher ridge, now known as Ragusa Superior; those who stayed behind rebuilt the town as Ragusa Ibla. This is Ragusa Isla from the slopes of Ragusa Superiore.
We drove into Ragusa near the highest point in Ragusa Superiore; the driving wasn’t bad as we descended, first along Superiore’s main drag, the Corso Italia and then through a series of tight curves. But once we got into Ibla, everything turned into a nightmare. The streets are steep, impossibly narrow, and many of them are limited to authorized vehicles. I drove to our hotel without mishap, and we unloaded bags and wives. But driving to a parking place was an adventure I hope not to repeat. We took a wrong turn and found ourselves trapped in a pedestrian area, driving between restaurants, potted plants, and baby carriages. Once out of that we were in a narrow chute of a street with about 3 inches clearance on either side of the car. By some miracle we passed through unscathed and deposited our car far down the hill.
Our hotel, in a restored palace built in 1768, was just off the main square of the lower town, Piazza Duomo. The hotel has been lovingly restored by a young lawyer, retaining telling details and adding a modern touch.
Our room had an 18th century fresco on the ceiling.
And the world’s biggest hotel shower, too.
At the top of the Piazza Duomo is a site familiar to any viewer of the Montalbano mysteries: the cathedral of San Giorgio, with its famous steps and gates.
Ragusa, and Noto, which we would visit tomorrow, are fine examples of Baroque town planning, which draws heavily on theatrical devices for their effects. This is perhaps nowhere more evident than here, with the siting of this glorious church.
After a restorative gelato, we wandered down through the main streets of the town to the public gardens. The streets here are narrow and twisting, rising and falling as the narrow spine changes elevation. This is the church of San Giuseppem of 1590, reconstructed in the early eighteenth century.
As we reached the gardens, a public bus arrived and we hopped on for a ride to the top of Ragusa Superiore. A short walk brought us to the town’s cathedral, San Giovanni Baptista of 1694.
As you can probably tell from the Maserati in front, there was a wedding going on!
The streets around the cathedral are elegant and rather lovely! We thought that Viv and Iggles might get a kick out of the flying umbrellas!
We decided to walk down to Isla. Our way led us down the Corso to Santa Maria Delle Scale (our lady of the stairs), where a series of almost 300 steps plunge off the side of the high ridge and down to Ragusa Isla. The views were exhilerating, and we certainly earned our afternoon drink at a nice bar near the hotel.
Dinner was at a Slow Food osteria called Cucina e Vino.
We broke our habit and had pasta first (rabbit ragu for me and sardines for Sue). Meat was the order of the day, but it was a bit overcooked. So the meal was not bad, but not up to our Sicilian level. The wine, on the other hand, was superb: an Etna Bianco Superiore from Terre Nere was sublime; and the waiter, who was a sommelier, urged us to try a Tancredi, a joint project of the Donnafugata winery and, wait for it, Dolce & Gabbiano. The wine, a blend of cabernet, Nero d’avola, and Tannat, was unusual and delicious.