Day 12 (Tuesday, June 17): Bathing Beauties (and more)

Checking out of our Catania hotel, we travel 65 miles to the Villa Romana del Casale, located outside Piazza Armerina. This ancient site boasts the finest collection of Roman mosaics anywhere in the Empire and is a superb example of a country villa. Following a light lunch at Trattoria La Ruota, in the afternoon we travel to the nearby site of Morgantina which is currently being excavated by JBS alum, Professor Annie Truetzel of Davidson College. [If you want to know more about her dig, and perhaps support the work of the archeological team, click here <www.friendsofmorgantina.org>.] After that, we drive on to Palermo and our NH hotel in the Kalsa district.