Driving in Syracuse is an adventure. It reminds me a lot of when I was driving in Venezuela - the right of way belonged to he who took it. So I was taking a lot of right of way on this trip.
This is our route, roughly. We learned a lot from our driving in France a couple of years ago. It is better to have a map than to rely solely on a phone's GPS. And yet a phone's GPS is a critical piece of the navigational equipment, as it tells you where you are. Doreen navigated, I drove. The map below is not exactly correct, as we got off track a couple of times before we realized the value of the phone telling you where you are. We went over the top of some mountains (hills, maybe) on very, very narrow two lane roads. Sort of scary. But a good trip.
And if you like mosaics, well worth it.
The villa had been covered in a mud slide, which protected it from looters. (And, as I said in my fb post, the British Museum. One of my good friends, and the Queen's Own Apologist, took umbrage with that. The truth is a harsh mistress). The excavations started in earnest in the 1960s and the results are spectacular.
My photos can't really do them justice, but here you go anyway.
This is an image of a tiger who was given a mirrored ball so she would think it was her kittens in the ball, but it was just her. Then the hunters would steal the kittens.
These are "The Bikini Girls" but they are really athletes who have been competing in various sports:
Astounding work:
Antelopes did not fare well in these mosasics:
And neither did most wild animals. But I suppose that is to be expected as the hall was named the Hall of the Hunt
Elephants. But not miniature elephants.
These are the big dogs telling everyone else what to do
For example, wrangle the ostriches.
This is the cyclops looking for Jason and the Argonauts.
A bull.
The surrounding hills:
and various broken tiles.
This is our route, roughly. We learned a lot from our driving in France a couple of years ago. It is better to have a map than to rely solely on a phone's GPS. And yet a phone's GPS is a critical piece of the navigational equipment, as it tells you where you are. Doreen navigated, I drove. The map below is not exactly correct, as we got off track a couple of times before we realized the value of the phone telling you where you are. We went over the top of some mountains (hills, maybe) on very, very narrow two lane roads. Sort of scary. But a good trip.
And if you like mosaics, well worth it.
The villa had been covered in a mud slide, which protected it from looters. (And, as I said in my fb post, the British Museum. One of my good friends, and the Queen's Own Apologist, took umbrage with that. The truth is a harsh mistress). The excavations started in earnest in the 1960s and the results are spectacular.
My photos can't really do them justice, but here you go anyway.
This is an image of a tiger who was given a mirrored ball so she would think it was her kittens in the ball, but it was just her. Then the hunters would steal the kittens.
These are "The Bikini Girls" but they are really athletes who have been competing in various sports:
Here I am examining the outside mosaics, which are available for touch.
Astounding work:
Antelopes did not fare well in these mosasics:
Elephants. But not miniature elephants.
These are the big dogs telling everyone else what to do
For example, wrangle the ostriches.
A bull.
There are so many mosaics it is impossible for me to capture them all. As a matter of fact, they had a "No Photographs" policy here. But I did not see anyone abiding by it. So won't even count this as a "misbehaving" post.
More, as always, to come.
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