Day 14: Roman Ruins

History, history, and more history. Today was an amazing day and we didn't even have to wake up early! After breakfast, we settled into the car for a kind of long drive to the Piazza Armerina to visit the Villa Romana. It once was the house of a rich man. You could tell how glorious it was just by the ruins.

Although the still standing columns were impressive, the part we went to see was the floor. Many of the original floored mosaics still intact- some perfect, others not. Ranging from geometric patterns to actual storylines, they were magnificent.

That part that really amazed me though, was that they survived 2000 years of bad weather, storms, people, etc. it was astonishing.

Since I have taken three years of Latin, we have studied ancient roman houses, culture, and mythology. It was extremely fun to read the signs and have already had some insight into what they were saying. Here are some pictures of the Villa.












The overall theme of the main house was the great hunt. That is why there are a ton of animals.





















They apparently had bikinis back then.



You had to go outside (that part of the house wasn't still standing) to get to the "dining" area. This part of the house had a mythology theme.


















Winding around another path, we were back in the main building. This was the masters private apartment.





















The next portion was the entertainment hall. It was huge. Think IMAX screen plus some.




































Mattia and Quinn enjoyed stepping on the tiles whilst I scolded them for ruining history. They just laughed. After this portion of the house, the boys ditched and Giancarlo, Mariella, and I finished up the tour.
















































Situated throughout the house were weird modern art pieces. Nobody knew why they were there.












When we got back to the boys this is what we saw:




It was extremely hot so I didn't blame them for sitting in the shade.

Leaving the house, we went to lunch at a quaint restaurant with delicious food. I was oddly full for some reason so I didn't eat much. Here is my sausage being happy at that fact before being devoured by Federico:



Driving a bit more in the car we happened upon a strip mall and got out to look around. The best part of the whole thing was these giant cylinders that misted water on you. It was a heavenly break from the heat.

Since we are in Italy, we obviously got gelato and ate it overlooking one of the most famous stores ever.






After perusing the mall a bit more (Federico saw a famous Catania soccer player at Nike) we got back in the car and crashed the rest of the way home. Sofia played on my phone and took some beautiful pictures.



















Once at home, we goofed around the rest of the night. We had pizza for dinner and the. Watched an Italian dance movie.