I am a bit ashamed of it, but I admit that despite the Villa Romana del Tellaro is just around the corner from Agri Camping Sophia, I visited it for the first time only in late summer 2017. The mosaics (bad) preserved would even have a higher artistic value than the already very important mosaics of the most noble Villa Romana del Casale in Piazza Armerina: why then is there, almost forgotten, with insufficient precautions for its preservation?


In late September, with the summer season in decline, I decide that it is finally time to get in the car to the Villa Romana del Tellaro. After about ten minutes, just before the bridge on the river Tellaro, I enter the road where the unequivocal road sign of my desired goal stands out. I slowly walk the road for about a kilometer, but I end up in the large parking lot of the one that after about ten minutes I discover being an educational farm. A gentleman informs me not to find me exactly in the Villa Romana del Tellaro and that to reach it I would have to go back about fifty meters and take a dirt road for another hundred meters. Thank you for the information and go back to the car, mulling between me and me on how I had escaped the sign of the entrance of the Villa ... Finally arrived at the Villa Romana del Tellaro, I go to the entrance promptly pulling out the wallet to pay the entrance fee. Yes, I get a ticket but, to my amazement, for free: admission to the Villa is therefore free, free, free.


Still disbelieving, I start looking lost in the meanders of the eighteenth-century farmhouse built on the remains of the Villa, now restored and used as a museum, until I meet a volunteer, a fashion guy, who asks me if I would like it be guided in the visit. Obviously I accept (I would have left as a tip the money put into account for the ticket ...) So begins to explain the genesis of the Villa, enriching it with notions on the historical context that, given my university studies, in truth are a pleasant review. After being mutually sympathetic and having seen me sincerely interested, he begins to confide in me that in the green shed that you see during the journey, they are a bit secretly (and very slowly for lack of funds) digging and cleaning other mosaics, without making too much publicity for fear that some bad guy can "browse". At this point I ask him why the entrance was not paid: he replies that when it was paid they would receive not only theft but also very sad requests for pizzo, then the Superintendent believed that the immediate entry was to eliminate paid entry. He explains that the same discovery of the Roman Villa of Tellaro was still linked to suspicious nocturnal activities and illegal excavations in the '70s: the underworld had begun to find and sell its archaeological finds on the black market. We pass in front of the mosaic depicting a complex hunting scene. He tells me that when the sirocco blows more than usual, some of the small pieces that compose it are detached and fly in the middle of the uncultivated weed. Unfortunately we are facing the umpteenth finding of the inability of the Sicily Region to preserve its archaeological treasures. And in this part of the island, unfortunately, negligence abounds.


In any case, the Villa Romana del Tellaro is a structure of great historical value that is certainly worth a visit, built in the middle of the fourth century as a noble residence in an increasingly cosmopolitan empire, as evidenced by the mosaics probably work by African artists, but politically more and more fragile. The construction of villas in the provinces of the empire in the late imperial era, which originates from the administrative decentralization desired by Diocletian at the end of the third century, is in fact the incipit of the encastellation process that was completed in the early Middle Ages. progressive emptying of cities in favor of fortifications in the countryside, less in sight and easier to protect. The Roman Villa of the Tellaro was also reachable by climbing the Tellaro river at the time navigable. As usual, on its ruins in the eighteenth century was built a farm: is not unusual that posterity systematically have exploited the foundations of older structures to build buildings in turn functional to their needs of life . So it is not science fiction to hypothesize older Greek structures at the foundation of the Villa of Tellaro itself. Only the central part of the Villa was found: there would still be so much to excavate and bring to light, but the chronic lack of funds and the fact that the foundations of the farm are entirely superimposed on the foundations of the Villa, they do not help to continue the work. It is highly probable that the construction of the farm has also produced substantial changes to the original layout of the Villa, as well as a fire probably occurred in the fifth century that would have affected above all the integrity of the mosaics. The particular artistic and historical importance of the mosaics derives from the refined polychrome used, from the attempt to graphically represent the movement and from the representation of scenes that allow to deepen some aspects of social life of the time. Emblem of the technical difficulty of the works of discovery is the mosaic of the Weighing of the body of Ettore, partly destroyed by the laying of the foundations of the farm, partly recovered from their exportation. Extremely interesting is the mosaic depicting a hunting scene, in which the figures are innovatively distributed in a not strictly linear way: the scenes are so distinguishable, but inserted in a unique context. The environment is probably African, given the presence of large cats, in particular a lion. Innovative elements, evident in the scene of the presumable ford of a swamp, are particular traits in order to highlight the movement in water and the clever use of chiaroscuro to give depth to the scene , particularly evident in the swastikas around the mosaic.
The serious condition in which the mosaics were found at the discovery has forced the restorers to detach them from the original premises in order to better work in the laboratories of the Museum Paolo Orsi of Syracuse. However commendable was the choice (also elicited by pressures from cultural associations and citizens) to bring them back to their original locations at the end of the thirty years of restoration work, in order to improve their value. However the current coverage to protect the mosaics is insufficient, so much so that recently it has even given birth to a little dog. Conscious of such inadequacies, Dr. Corrado Bonfanti, as current mayor of Noto, would like to bypass the regional Superintendency to take care of it personally, entrusting the management of the structure to a start-up of young people with public tenders. However, between decrees, laws and bureaucracy, the situation is stalled.