A medieval landslide buried it, and the mud served as a strongbox: the Villa Romana del Casale preserves three thousand five hundred square metres of floor mosaics, the richest and most varied ensemble the Roman world has left us. Hunting residence of a fourth-century magnate — perhaps a governor, perhaps an emperor's kinsman — it has been UNESCO-listed since 1997.
What to see
The Great Hunt corridor, sixty metres of beasts captured for the amphitheatres, with ships, tigers and elephants; the celebrated "bikini girls", prize-winning athletes who look clipped from a magazine; the Ulysses and Polyphemus mosaic and the private baths. Raised walkways let you read the floors from above, like drawn plans.
Visiting
Two full hours; the route runs under shelters that heat up in summer — early morning or late afternoon is the right call. Ticket office and services at the car park, then a shuttle or ten minutes on foot to the villa.
Getting there
The villa lies five kilometres from Piazza Armerina, in inland Sicily's heart: by car from Catania or Agrigento (ninety minutes), or bus to Piazza Armerina and local shuttles in season.
Our editors' tip
Save the bikini girls for last, after the Great Hunt: you will see they are no charming anachronism but the portrait of a world where women's sport had podiums and crowns. Then pair hilltop Baroque Piazza Armerina: the cathedral at sunset closes the day with the right panorama.