After visiting Syracuse on Monday we opted for Tuesday to just hang around Modica and get to know it a little better, including taking a long lunch at a restaurant and making that our main meal for the day.
Again the sky was clear, and the sun heating the air so that by mid afternoon a temperature of 26°C could be expected. Rather than stick together, Mary and I went our separate ways, agreeing to meet at the obvious mid-town junction about ten minutes away. Mary had targetted the shops while I was intent on exploring the back streets for hidden gems of restaurants, starting with the high ground and working my way down to the valley floor.
View of Modica, looking NW, with one of the main streets prominent down below, at left.
At several vantage points I had the opportunity to peer down onto the roofs of the houses stacked apparently randomly below me. This space here is likely typical of the unseen open spaces which many of the homes possess.
Another view of Modica, this time looking toward the SW and the massive 300m high viaduct from which the occupants of SS115 traffic enjoy an aerial view of Modica.
My restaurant hunt was successful and so was Mary's shopping foray, which latter event put a predictable dent in our holiday savings. We met up successfully and headed for one of my finds, Basilico, named after Basil Fawlty. No, I was lying, after basil, the leafy plant that's eaten raw by humans.
Basilico was just opening at 12:30, as they do, for three hours or so before closing again until 7:30pm. Seating outside was appropriate given the weather so we did and settled down under a large shade umbrella overlooking a quiet tiny piazza packed with parked cars and only 50m or so from the main street. Lunch was delicious, and relatively inexpensive, and the Sicilian rosé we chose proved perfect for the meal.
According to Mary, who had one, the dessert was spectacular.
The remainder of the day was given over to doing nothing, except having a glass of wine on the balcony as the sun went down behind the roofs of ancient nearby Modican residences.
While researching this trip we'd become aware that a visit to an excavated Roman villa near the small town of Piazza Armerina should not be missed, if possible. Donna and Bob Bean confirmed that finding and so we elected to get to the site on the Wednesday, if at all possible.
This decision having been taken we set off from Modica at 9:45am, facing previously untried roads on a two-plus hour trek toward the NW, using many different main and not-so-main roads. Despite our worst fears, the journey turned out to be not so difficult, with only a couple of minor deviations from track as we encountered roads which were unknown to the roads database and one which the database said was there but we couldn't see, despite perfect visibility.
And so we arrived, on time around noon, at Villa Romana Del Casale. Numbers of large buses in the car park confirmed that we'd got to a place which was a big drawcard for tours. The car park had plenty of space and so we joined the throng heading for the entrance gate (€14 per person, no seniors' discount) past the inevitable displays for sale of tacky souvenirs of Sicily.
Our priorities were to find a toilet then a shady place with a seat where we could eat our usual delicious home-prepared ham and tomato roll. These done, we then ventured forth to what turned out to be a remarkable display. The villa was built by what must be assumed to have been a wealthy and influential Roman in the early AD period, about 1800 years ago. After the Roman empire fell apart, the villa was used off and on by the remaining indigenous people and their farm animals who made no improvements to it. At some stage it was buried fortuitously in a landslip. Archeological exacavations in the 19th and 20th centuries discovered a treasure trove of Roman architecture with the most amazing feature the extensive decoration of floors using mosaics, possibly the world's best remaining on view today. Some pics:
Not the villa, but a farmhouse overlooking the villa. Perhaps materials and/or ideas from the villa were used in its construction?
The mosaic images and designs are believed to have been created by artisans from northern Africa. To us it seemed that the mosaic material was marble, in a huge variety of colours.
Viewing access to the floors was mainly via roofed suspended walkways, giving an excellent view, while preserving the mosaics for the future. The best mosaics are all under a modern roof, based on the original villa's structure.
Portion of an entire room floor. These people were into hunting and fishing and the created designs reflect that.
Young women engaged in sporting competition, with the winner being offered a laurel branch, symbol of the victor.
The most amazing part of the preserved mosaics was an entire floor area 60m long (200 Roman feet) and about 8m (my estimate) wide. This depicted the process of capturing and transporting live wild animals to Roman cities where they would be used live in spectacular events in the various stadia, such as the Colosseum in Rome. This pic slightly distorted due to the camera location.
Part of the above mentioned tableau, an elephant being "encouraged" to board a ship.
Villa Romana Del Casale was well worth the trouble and cost, we thought, and we were safely home by about 4:30 pm for a refreshing break before once more, at around 7:00 pm, heading into the town centre, on foot, where I'd discovered the previous day an interesting trattoria up a side alley.
Having spoken personally to the trattoria owner, I was certain that it would open at 7:30pm, and not before. Nevertheless, we arrived at about 7:20 pm and found it in darkness, except for a small light in what could have been the kitchen, at the back of the small dining space. Mary doesn't like standing around and waiting, especially in narrow dark alleys when there's no one else around. She's also justifiably sceptical about promised opening times here in Sicily, but I managed to convince her to wait until 7:30 pm, only a few minutes. The possibility that I was right was reinforced with the arrival of another couple of possible patrons, looking at their watches and the darkened front door of the restaurant. Then there was movement visible right at the back. A cook waved to us and then advanced to and opened the front door, just as a trio of guests showed up in the alley.
In we went, grabbed a table, and very shortly afterward the cook came to our table and offered us the drinks menu. A half litre of the house red at €2 was quickly delivered to our table and soon after we were communicating our food choices to the wait staff, who had arrived just after the first patrons. This was the best meal we've had in Sicily yet, although only two courses, with the first course, an appetiser, shared between us. Mary knocked back the chance of dolcé (dessert), unusual for her. The cost, including wine: €26. We'll be back there in our last couple of nights here (and yes, it is open!).
By now the full moon had risen over the buildings overlooking the nearby square. So we sat there for a while on the public seats, among the four large palms and the war memorial, enjoying the surroundings before strolling up the gentle incline to our apartment.
Sitting in the piazza last night. That's the moon at top right.
Thanks for reading
Kev Long
Author iPad Traveller for iPad and Mac.
The technical stuff:
Our iPad is connecting to the Internet mainly through a cellular connection provided (prepaid) by the UK "3" network, including in Italy. On high ground and in town environments around Cornwall this connection proved quite good but many places, especially in valleys and in small coastal localities lack coverage so no or poor connection. So far, in Sicily, the connection has been good. There are quite a few WiFi options available although not always advertised. Just ask if you're unsure if available. WiFi is of course the preferred method of transferring large amounts of data but I have been posting these blogs and their images sometimes using only a cellular connection either from inside our apartment where possible or on the roadside.
The cellular connection gives us both in car and on foot navigation capabilities which are essential around Sicily, where mere printed maps struggle to provide sufficient detail at a manageable size.
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