The recently renovated  Villa Romana del Casale and its mosaics often feature on the itinerary when visiting Sicily and with good reason. What often doesn’t get included is a visit to the nearby town Piazza Armerina which in my view is another of Sicily’s hidden gems.

A day trip to Villa Romana from Siracusa by public transport involves an early bus or train to Catania and then a bus to Piazza Amerina. The general advice in Sicily is to take the bus option as they are generally considered more reliable. Once in Piazza Armerina it is necessary to arrange a transfer or shuttle bus to Villa Romana about 5 kms away.  We arranged for a transfer from Central Sicily Tours (the number one tour operator in Piazza Armerina and only one) to Villa Romano. As prearranged Roberto was there to meet us at the bus stop, a good thing as we timed our visit to coincide with a cold snap – it was 1.5C when we got off the bus and raining. The previous day’s snow was still on the rooves of the buildings.

 A web search of Puzza Armerina will probably tell you all about Villa Romana, as will a visit to Trip Advisor. They don’t in my opinion do justice to Piazza Armerina.

It is a town that doesn’t seem to have been afflicted with the Sicilan concrete obsession. The older part of the town was spared post WW2 concreting due to its being overlooked for development in favour of Enna. As a result a visit to Piazza Armerina provides a chance to see the old town as it was.

The town has many churches and piazzas. A number of the churches are not open but the works of art have been carefully removed and transferred to a gallery near the duomo.

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of tourist infrastructure with the number one Trip Advisor restaurant being a small family owned bar in the middle of town, Cafe des Amis which is “famous” for its arancini but should also be for having the cleanest toilets in Italy!

Piazza Armerina is a lovely town which will I’m sure eventually be discovered.

Duomo Piazza Armerina

However, the true reason for our visit was to go to Villa Romana, Continue reading →