Overview
The mosaics of the Villa del Casale alone are worth a trip to Sicily. The excavations, which are outdoors but have canopies protecting the mosaics, involved a luxurious Patrician villa on three levels, with about forty rooms, almost all paved in polychrome mosaic, covering a total area of about 3,500 square metres. The mosaics have been attributed to North African craftsmen, experts in the then innovative style, which we now define as late-antique, in which mosaic floor decoration abandoned the traditional division into panels, preferring large scenes conceived of as if they were carpets.
In addition to the famous ten girl athletes in a two-piece 'swimsuits', the mosaic cycle of the Great Hunt stands out above all, featuring a sort of geographical map of the known world at that time.
