We made plans this day to see three places, Piazza Armerina, Villa Roma del Casale, and Caltagirone. The rural roads on the way there brought us through some rich fertile agricultural lands.

From the south, we passed numerous greenhouses, most dedicated to Sicily’s best and supposedly sweetest tomatoes. (We ate a lot of tomatoes on the trip, none like the cardboard ones we often get at home.) As the landscape changed, we saw many fields of artichokes looking ready for harvest.

All over Sicily, we saw wild cactus plants, full of early prickly pears, and their beautiful yellow flowers. Here, we saw neat rows of prickly pears being cultivated on numerous farms.

(Side Note: We went through one little town that had a JFK highway, not the only place we saw honoring the former president. Of course, the American-Sicilian connection is strong, with so many Sicilians, including my grandfather, welcomed into Ellis Island 100 or more years ago. And, then all the American sacrifices in WWII. We have been to the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Nettuno on the Italian mainland and did a trip report in 2018: Memorial Day: Nettuno Military Cemetery; Rome day trip When encountering Sicilians speaking to us in Italian, we often say English (meaning language); and it is sometimes interpreted that we are English (as from UK). We get a modest reaction to that, until we elaborate with “Americano”, and, wow, do they warm up. Especially with older Italians. Although the younger ones, as I will mention in a later post, are clearly enamored with American culture. And, yes I am aware of the British WWII contributions, but just passing on observations).

As I wrote earlier, the countryside in Sicily has so many different looks, and it certainly stopped our car many times.

This is a pretty village and extremely quiet. Most visitors to this town are not going to the historic center but to Villa Romana del Casale, a few miles down the road. We also were on our way there, but stopped for a quick walk through the ancient town. Tourists were in such short supply, one local man spotted us and pointed the way for us to go into an old church. Both the cathedral and the theater, two of the most prominent buildings here, were covered in scaffolding.

That town looks so interesting! I’d love to wander those streets.

The focus of our trip today was the remarkable Villa Romana del Casale. And, my silly memory from it was that I was wrong to believe that bikinis were invented in the 1940's or 1950’s. The Roman villa from the 300’s probably was built for someone of very high rank, perhaps even one of the co-emperors of the day. Much of the almost 40,000 square feet of magnificent floor mosaics not only survived centuries of over-growth, neglect, theft, and floods, but they still have stunning colors and interesting subject matter. The “bikini girls”, who are gymnasts, get a lot of attention, but the many busloads of tourists, who come daily to this fairly remote rural spot, are there to see much more, from every day Roman life to mythology to wild animals.

Of course, these are ruins, first professionally excavated in 1929, below the crops that had been planted above them for centuries, followed by more serious efforts beginning in the 1950's.

Great photos. Looks like they got rid of the horrible plastic roof?

I have read that the original (1950's excavation) plastic roof was terribly hot, possibly damaging to the mosaics and was mostly replaced 10 or more years ago. Glad we missed that.

Yes, they were doing renovations when I was there. The plastic roof was all of that, plus it made for lousy photos. Yours are so much better than mine.

It’s mostly about the ceramics in Caltagirone, but it is also a vibrant city brimming with tourists. This is Sicily’s production center for ceramics, and you see them on bridges, buildings and spilling out onto sidewalks from the many shops selling them. There are many beautiful churches, one with a sacristy with an unusual “Vespa for Peace” display amidst a WWII backdrop . And, some of the finest looking commercial buildings we have seen here.







































Almost everyone comes here for the world famous steps, nearly 150 of them, that connect the upper and lower parts of the village. We had a slide photo taken in 1953 by a prior owner and left in one of our former homes. As you can see, the steps, built in 1606 were a little uneven then. In 1954, they added ceramic tiles to each of the risers with varying themes and apparently straightened out (rebuilt?) all of them as well.



Caltagirone 1953

Here is one of those off the radar places in Sicily, surprising Scicli. Abandoned hilltop cathedral, magnificent baroque churches, caves, nice shops, palazzos, and an old drug store. Within sight of the sea.

































































































Police Detective Inspector Montalbano, in a very popular Italian TV series, has his headquarters in Scicli, and wages a fictional war with the Mafia. In real life, there once was a serious effort to dissolve the municipality here due to alleged Mafia connections. But we decided this was perhaps the safest town in our journey.

We were in Scicli for a few hours. Left our car in a busy paid parking spot in the middle of town. On our way back, I noticed I had lost the keys; we had tried on some clothes in a cute little shop and maybe I left them there. I always lock the car with the key remote, so I was sure I couldn’t have left them in the car. Then I recalled that I was distracted by a kind older gentleman after we parked, concerned that we were in a pay spot, while he was leaving a nearby white-lined free space. We tried to explain, without the benefit of a mutual language, that we had already paid through our parking app before we got out of the car. And, that distraction led me to do something I don’t often do. Leave the keys in the ignition of our unlocked rental car. For three hours. Undisturbed by anyone.

There are so many palaces (palazzos) in Italy. There were several in Scicli, and a couple that offered tours. We are always curious about what is behind the doors and walls of these many private palazzos. So, we paid for what amounted to a private tour of Palazzo Bonelli-Patane. The late 1800’s building was decorated and furnished by a noted Italian artist in the early 20th century. It is move-in ready. And, we were very impressed.

okay, you've convinced me we need to visit Scicli (and I do love Montalbano) :~). is there someplace you would recommend for lunch?
fantastic photos.

Thank you. My next post today will be about the rest of our day when we went to the nearby beach communities. That's where we ate. It was at Marina di Ragusa. And, these beach communities are popular spots for Inspector Montalbano, and there are Montalbano tours based there. We had planned to watch some of those episodes before our trip, as someone on TripAdvisor recommended, but we still haven't seen them.

Really enjoying this report and the photos. It's almost a personal guide to the island!

Thank you. That's what we were trying to find before our trip. That is one of the reasons, at the beginning of the report, we included places we had been to before, and did not repeat, so they would not be missed by someone relying on this.

We decided to take a peek at three beach towns, since we arrived with the first beach weather of the season. Donnalucata is a very quiet old fishing village with a decent size golden sand beach, a couple of seafood spots, and a nice promenade. And, no one at the beach, and it looked like we were the only visitors on this gorgeous day.

There were more golden sands, some sand dunes and a seaside promenade in the very small community of Marina di Modica. And this time, there were beach-goers.

Of the three beach towns, Marina di Ragusa looks like the place to be. Wide sand beaches, shallow waters and lots of shops and restaurants. And, a parking lot big enough to give us an idea what summer must be like. We enjoyed a whole red snapper for lunch.

Donnafugata Castle is about 10 miles from Ragusa. Except for one school group, we virtually had the place to ourselves on a warm, sunny Thursday. Some parts of the castle can be traced to the 1300’s, but much of what you see now belongs to the 1800’s. The castle currently features a fashion exhibit, including items worn by the Baron and others who lived here in the late 1800’s. The massive 122-room castle has many furnished rooms. Some added restoration is needed as some of the decorations are in tatters.The grounds include 20 acres of gardens and out buildings, a huge stone maze with lots of dead-ends, and signs of practical jokes by an obvious fun-loving baron.

we are hoping to spend some time walking the promenade between Marina di Ragusa and Punta Sec, with a stop for lunch. what glorious weather you've been enjoying!

Our trip covered the month of May, and yes, the weather was fantastic. A few days after we left, they got a big heat wave with temps to 100 or more. We had a few days in the low 80's, but mostly 70's, and we don't recall any humidity. When are you going?