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Sicily

The floors tell the story of daily life and heroic time periods.

The floors tell the story of life at this time.

The Hunt.. Another well-preserved mosaic shows a hunt, with hunters using dogs and capturing a variety of game.

Taking of animals from foreign lands to bring to the villa for display.

The Basilica this grand hall was an audience hall and the most formal room in the villa, accessed through a grand monumental entrance divided by two columns of pink Egyptian granite.

The complex remained inhabited for at least 150 years

While excavating in 1959-60, it was excavated a mosaic on the floor of the room dubbed the "Chamber of the Ten Maidens" it appears in a mosaic artwork which scholars named Coronation of the Winner. The young women perform sports including weight-lifting, discus throwing, running, and ball-games. A woman in a toga offers a crown and victor's palm frond to "the winner".

This photo shows the drainage system from 4 to 5 AD. It is still in use today.

A ship on the Great Hunt mosaic

Fresco - Semicircular atrium

Although less well-known, an extraordinary collection of frescoes covered not only the interior rooms, but also the exterior walls.

This floor in the main bedroom suite depicts sex at the time.

The villa was almost entirely forgotten, although some of the tallest parts of the remains were always visible above ground. The area was cultivated for crops. Early in the 19th century, pieces of mosaics and some columns were found. The first official archaeological excavations were carried out later in that century

View of the main hall what it could have looked like

Looking the opposite direction is what the great hall could have looked like

Caltagirone is an inland city near Catania, on the island of Sicily, southern Italy, about 43 miles southwest of Catania

Santa Maria del Monte.

The main landmark of the city is the 142-step monumental Staircase of Santa Maria del Monte, built from 1608 in the old part of the town. EAch step on the face of it has a different pattern of tile. Just beautiful.

The peculiarity is that each step is decorated with different hand-decorated ceramics, using styles and figures derived from the millennial tradition of pottery making. Once a year, on and around the day of the city's patron saint, St. James, 25 July, the staircase is illuminated with candles of different colors arranged in order to reconstruct an artistic drawing the length of the stairs..

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