January 7: The Road to Agrigento

By 9 o’clock, we had piled into the bus and said “Arrivederci!” to Syracuse, now on the road to Agrigento. Along the way we ogled out the window at Mt. Etna still spitting out smoke from its eruption last week and the expansive agricultural landscapes, until we made our first stop of the day in Caltagirone. 

Mt. Etna from the bus

Caltagirone is a town known for its ceramics, and the rich ceramic history that it carries. As we learned in the city’s ceramics museum, this tradition began when the Greeks inhabited Sicily. The locals at the time, the Siculi, wanted to imitate the Greeks’ style of black on terra cotta, which they accomplished with varying degrees of success. This trend of imitation did not stop there, though, as these manufacts (artifacts/pieces made by hand, or “mano”) showed the ingenuity of Caltagirone’s ceramists through the ages, creating mock porcelain, spanish-style ceramics (“lustri” or lustrous ceramics), and even marble.

Greek Urn/Vase, part of a private collection at the Caltagirone Ceramics Museum

After a devastating earthquake in 1693, the city and the surrounding areas were destroyed and ceramists were commissioned to create imitation baroque-style pieces for the reconstruction of Caltagirone, including in homes and churches. Today, the tradition of ceramics survives in the countless shops, studios, and installations of ceramics around the city. Some examples we saw were in a ceramics studio where we watched an artist throw a pot on the “tourni,” or wheel, and had the entire ceramic process explained to us. We also got the chance to purchase some ceramics of their own, and Mike was especially excited about his water whistle. Another significant site was the Stairs of Santa Maria del Monte, a long staircase in the middle of the city which connects the ancient and modern parts of the city, decorated with ceramic tiles, potted plants, and lights that change with the season or occasion.

Once we left Caltagirone, we drove a short way to our Agro-tourism lunch, which took place inside of a converted Roman villa. Here, we got to experience a taste of Sicilian slow food, with everything we ate coming from the fields we saw sprawling down the hills as we entered. The three-course meal was beyond delicious, including fresh tomatoes, cheeses, salads, sausage, eggplant, bread, and more. Of course the best part of the meal had to be the dessert of Italian Christmas bread, panettone, and fresh oranges (which Clara was highly fascinated with due to the “foliage” that was still on the oranges when they arrived at the table). Thoroughly stuffed, we left the lunch, found a dog to pet, took some pictures, then waddled back onto the bus to our next stop, an excavated Roman Villa at Casale.

Post-meal happiness

We got to the Villa about an hour before closing so we were a little rushed going through, but the history and preservation of the site were breathtaking nonetheless. Part of the reason that this site is so famous is because it was buried by a mudslide and forgotten about until it was excavated in the1950’s, and it was discovered that the mosaic floors and some of the frescoes and other architectural features were still in place, preserved underground for all those years. That’s why, to this day, there are still vibrant, mostly intact mosaics covering the floors. The Villa sits at a key point on the trade route from Catania to Agrigento, which linked the Middle East and North Africa in the Roman Empire, and is surrounded by workable farmland and situated near a river which delivered

running water to the Villa via aqueduct.

A beautiful picture of Mike telling us all about the glories of the Ancient Roman toilets.

What we know from piecing together context clues from the Villa’s size and its decoration, it likely belonged to an elite general who lived there with his family, and was even once speculated to belong to the Emperor. The mosaics were probably created by African artists since they depict a mixture of animals from the Apennine Peninsula and from Africa, like wild boars and deer next to elephants and lions that mainland Roman artists would never have seen, and there are clues to the techniques that they used to lay the mosaics that are unique to mosaic artists in Africa. Some of the most striking mosaics were in the private entry to the bathing quarters, depicting the lady of the house and potentially other family members or favored servants (alluding to her high status in the household, contrary to our beliefs about ancient gender roles), and the Ambulatory of the “Great Hunt,” a walkway depicting the span of the Roman Empire by showcasing the spoils of the hunts from India to the Mediterranean. But my personal favorite mosaic was the mosaic of the “Bikini-Clad Women.” This mosaic depicted women in “bikinis” engaging in exercise and competitive sports, something that is as far as I know unique to this space. It really gives us a special glimpse into the lives of Romans, and especially roman women, who we really don’t know that much about other than what the limited historical records and artifacts tell us. Unfortunately, we had to depart the Villa before we had the chance to explore it ourselves. However, we got to experience something truly special at this site, seeing into the past and into the lives of the ancient elites.

We all piled back onto the bus one last time for the day, and it was almost silent due to a large portion of us (including me) falling asleep after our long day. But, we all made it safely to our hotel in Agrigento and are excited about another day in Italy