"It's an elephant!"

Back on the road again, and it was terrible: pot-holed, ridged, completely uneven. Today's destination: the remains of a Roman villa, miles from the coast, and therefore our route (a special treat for me). But as we turned inland, the road improved, and the sun was out; everything was looking up.

It was sad to leave our wonderful campsite, but south, west and north Sicily are still to be discovered. And this Roman site is supposed to be a highlight: thought to be the hunting lodge of a 3rd Century AD Emperor, it apparently has some of the best mosaic floors in the world. And actually, they were great, such detailed, vivid representations of people and animals, that non-Roman obsessive Kevin and Jemima enjoyed themselves too. There were even some painted frescoes surviving on the walls: it must have been amazingly ornate and colourful in its day.

We were lucky too. This place can get very crowded, but we arrived at lunchtime, and after eating in the car park in Beatrix, headed off to the site just as most were leaving. After a wonderful couple of hours among the Roman ghosts, plus a gelato and the sighting of three enormous lizards, we returned to Beatrix for our journey onwards - by which time the car park had ten coaches in it, all heading in. Nightmare, avoided.

We had quite a long journey to our next stop, and it was late and we were all tired by the time we reached the outskirts of Agrigento, so we stopped in a convenient McDonalds before continuing through the dusk to our campsite destination. Which was closed. But thankfully I knew of another one ten minutes away, so we went there; and not only was it open, but it also looked much nicer. So we found a pitch, and settled in for the night. Our second stroke of luck for the day.

Behind us you should see the elephant (I am clearly more excited about this than Jemima...):

Enjoying the ruins:

Marvellous mosaics - a hunt (local to the villa):

Fishing:

Capturing exotic beasts for the Circus in Rome from a main walkway:

The so-called "bikini ladies" (actually pentathletes wearing their Roman era sports kit):
 

You can see an earlier mosaic floor underneath:

The master's bedroom (the bed would have been in the alcove, with scenes of harvest):

A well-earned rest:

Camping Scarabeo in Punta Brachetto to the Villa Romana del Casale in Piazza Armerina:

Piazza Armerina to Camping Valle dei Templi in San Leone, outside Agrigento: