The largest and most beautiful Roman mosaics in the world, with the bikini girls
Near Piazza Armerina, in the hills of central Sicily, a landslide buried in the twelfth century a sumptuous Roman villa of the early fourth century AD, perhaps belonging to a member of the imperial aristocracy. Rediscovered in the twentieth century, it holds about 3,500 square metres of mosaic floors, the largest and best preserved collection of Roman mosaics in the world, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The scenes are extraordinary: the Great Hunt, a corridor sixty metres long with the capture and transport of exotic animals from Africa and India for the games in Rome; the Ten Maidens, the famous "girls in bikinis" doing gymnastics and playing ball; the Labours of Hercules, the little fishing cupids, Ulysses and Polyphemus. Elevated walkways allow visitors to see the floors from above without walking on them.
Tip: visit early in the morning, before the tour groups arrive; the town of Piazza Armerina, with its baroque cathedral and the Palio dei Normanni in August, is worth a stop.
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