Under one roof in Sicily's heart spreads the most extraordinary complex of Roman mosaics to survive anywhere: the Villa del Casale, UNESCO-listed since 1997, carpets its rooms with some 3,500 square metres of scenes — the sixty-metre Great Hunt, the famous "bikini girls" at their gymnastics, an entire empire told in tesserae.
The villa was a fourth-century magnate's residence; the mud that buried it saved it. Above, Piazza Armerina is a Baroque hill town with a green-domed cathedral; in August the Palio dei Normanni re-enacts Count Roger's arrival.
Villa Romana del Casale · cattedrale di Piazza Armerina
Pasta alla Norma · Cassatella di Agira
16 places to stay · top rated: B&B Dàmur 10.0 · Panorama Suite 9.8
Next up: Maria Santissima delle Vittorie, Sunday 15 August
Nearest airport: Catania Fontanarossa, 62 km away
Piazza Armerina is part of 🏛️ UNESCO heritage
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📅 Every year, on 15 August; the second occasion on 3 May
The patron of Piazza Armerina is celebrated on 15 August and 3 May. The Palio dei Normanni is bound to her cult, and gives the town half of its nickname.
A golden half-moon of shortcrust dusted with icing sugar, hiding cocoa, chopped almonds and chickpea flour: the sweet of Agira, in the Erei mountains, a recognised traditional product with its own municipal denomination.
Read more →Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
