Posted by cynthia on Friday, May 19, 2017 in 2017 Blog post.

On Sunday, May 14th, we went to go see the Villa Romana del Casale in Piazza Armerina.  The tour guide talked a lot about how the villa was constructed.  Most villas at the time were made symmetrical, but this villa was huge and historians say this is because additions were made to it over the centuries.  While listening to the tour guide speak, all I could think was this: everything was so extra.  By “extra”, I mean “extravagant” and “excessive”. As a person who likes to keep things simple and only buy what is need, everything about the villa seemed unnecessary.

PHOTO: Villa Baths

For example, there were three bathing/sauna-type rooms.  One was full of hot air/water, one was full of tepid air/water, and the last was cold air/water.  Having this kind of entertainment is already a luxury.

PHOTO: Mosaics

In addition, the “public rooms” (rooms used to entertain guests) were often covered in mosaic and marble, just to show others that the owners of this villa were rich and sophisticated.

PHOTO: Floor of Mosaics

The mosaic floor surrounding the courtyard is covered in exotic animals- animals that people from Sicily would not have seen unless they traveled across the seas to places like Africa.  These animals were represented in these mosaics so that guests would ask questions about them, and the villa owner would answer and feel more knowledgeable.  Talk about having an ego.

PHOTO: Exotic Animal Mosaics

“Being extra” didn’t stop there though.  They also had frescoes painted on the walls of “public” rooms; of course, the sole purpose of having these wall paintings were to impress the guests.  The tour guide mentioned how they would also eat extravagantly; it was rude to refuse food, and since hosts kept bringing courses upon courses of delicious dishes, the guests would have to excuse themselves and force vomit to make room for more.  It was absurd.

PHOTO: Frescoes

Although all of these parts of the villa and way of life seemed incredibly excessive, there were other parts of the villa that the tour guide shared with us that surprised me.

PHOTO: Columns

Firstly, the columns in this picture above are different lengths, as evident by the blocks of stone on top used to make them all the same height.  This meant that the columns were reused- taken from another structure instead of made from scratch.  After seeing how extravagant the villa owners were with the rest of the villa construction, I found it shocking that they recycled the columns, not matter how expensive those would have been to make.

PHOTO: Christian Graves

Additionally, these Christian graves were reused too, as houses/resting areas for shepherds and (I imagine) poor people.  That’s dedication to reusing… if you’re going to sleep in someone else’s eternal resting place.

PHOTO: Repurposed As Homes

Upon reflection over all of these interesting facts, I’ve come to realize that people nowadays (especially in America) are not so different from the people living here in Sicily centuries ago.  I would say that people nowadays are even more extra than the villa owners.  Let’s just start the comparison with technology.  We have smartphones now that can pretty much do all the functions of a phone, GPS, laptop, and many other devices.  The cellphone was originally made to be a portable cellular device, but in recent years, many models have become inconveniently big (it no longer fits into the palm of your hand, let alone your pocket) and expensive (do I really have to blow $900 on this rectangle?)  We really don’t need all of these features, but people always want the latest and best model, and why would they want that unless it was to impress others (similarities to the villa owners I see)?

Let’s broaden our perspective a bit.  With everything becoming more efficient, we should need less, but in fact, we buy more, constantly worried about what’s trending, which is the best solution, etc.  Many houses are cluttered and we tend to have much more than we need.  We can’t even say that we’ve evolved from the eating and vomiting method of having meals.  American portions tend to be ridiculously large, and overeating is a nation-wide issue.  Yet, people who are excessive in some areas of their lives are frugal in others.  Everyone loves a good sale, and those short DIY videos for repurposing objects in the home are popular all over social media.  Of course, all of this is a generalization, and I’m not saying that everyone in America is this.  This is really just an observation I made at Piazza Armerina in connection to my perception of life in America.  From the fourth century until now, human nature really hasn’t changed all too much, no matter how much you want to say, “started from the bottom, now we here.”