Tuesday, June 7
Quite well rested, I left the B&B and before leaving town, I bought some fruits at a local market. Not for the first and neither for the last time, I made more headway with German than English - many Sicilians have worked in German-speaking countries.It was fun cruising down a big valley to a small river, quite an out-of-worldly landscape, the price had to be paid on the other side with a very long climb – as far as I can remember, this was one of the very few rivers I had seen on this trip. Then Google recommended a side-road, these became increasingly harder to ride in the heat with the huge potholes. Throughout Sicily, I had the feeling the major highways and larger roads were renovated just for me, just prior to my arrival (🙂), the smaller ones were in desolate condition. I had to cut my way through a large herd of sheep - was quite fun.
It was after quite some time that I arrived at Villa Romana del Casele, the second Unesco highlight of my trip, not far from a town called Piazza Armenina. This is a Roman villa from the fourth century, with one of the richest, largest, and varied collections ofRoman mosaicsin the world. Mosaic andfloors cover some 3,500 square meters and are almost unique in their excellent state of preservation due to the landslide and floods that covered the remains. There is also a collection of frescoes covering both the interior rooms, and the exterior walls. I could have spent multiple days marveling at the wonderful floors depicting battle scenes, the hunt, all kinds of deities and kings - truly amazing, but my time budget called for two hours. It was a true experience and worth all the trouble traveling inland. One of the highlights was a mosaic of a woman bathing – her being in a bikini (!) – this about 1,500 years ago!
I left for Piazza Armerina, why do all towns have to be built on hilltops? This meant a big climb again and was just as impressed with the many churches and castles. There was a library with ancient books - so much to discover.
By now I was really starved for the sea. The coast was a 40-km drive on a nice highway, that mainly downhill. I guess I was compensated for the struggles of the past two days. I arrived in Gela, a town on the coast I was not so much impressed with, but it might have been to the fact that I was really tired. Similar to my arrival in Palermo, my B&B for Eur 25 was in a narrow street, with no sign of the landlord whatsoever. I did connect with the neighbors, they were really nice, offered my a plastic seat outside (where they seem to spend most of their days and some water). An elderly gentleman showed up, the the apartment was rather small, without air-condition or a fan, but it did cool down when opening the windows. It was very much a refreshing sleep.