What to See at Villa Romana del Casale
Complete guide to all rooms of the villa, room by room.
Visit Route
The visit follows a set route on elevated walkways. The full tour takes about 1.5 – 2 hours.
All Rooms of the Villa
Monumental Entrance and Vestibule
Villa Romana del Casale is entered through an imposing three-arched honorific gateway that symbolised the power and prestige of the dominus. Beyond the entrance, a vestibule opens onto a nymphaeum with four mosaic-clad fountains that once greeted visitors with the sound of flowing water. The remains of Corinthian columns and capitals attest to the lavish decoration that marked even the threshold of this grand residence.
The Quadrangular Peristyle
The quadrangular peristyle is the heart of the villa: a vast porticoed garden flanked by 32 Corinthian columns and centred on a large three-basin fountain. Nearly all the principal rooms open onto this space. The mosaic floor features medallions with animal heads, lions, tigers, horses and deer, surrounded by laurel garlands, reflecting the owner's passion for hunting and nature.
The Thermal Complex
The villa's thermal complex was also open to the public and included a frigidarium, tepidarium, caldarium and a large palaestra. The octagonal frigidarium is decorated with a marine procession of Nereids, Tritons and dolphins. The palaestra houses the famous chariot race at the Circus Maximus, a mosaic of extraordinary dynamism covering over 70 square metres of floor.
The Small Hunt Hall
The Small Hunt Hall offers a vivid account of daily life in the 4th-century Sicilian countryside. The mosaic depicts hunting scenes with dogs, hare and deer chases, falconry, and a joyful open-air banquet beneath a linen canopy. The attention to detail, clothing, gestures, vegetation, makes this room a precious ethnographic record of late-Roman Sicily.
The Great Hunt Corridor
The Great Hunt Corridor is the undisputed masterpiece of the villa: a corridor stretching almost 60 metres that narrates the capture and transport of exotic animals, lions, elephants, rhinoceroses, ostriches, antelopes, destined for amphitheatre games. The scenes span from Africa to the Middle East, with ships, carts and dozens of human figures. Two allegorical female figures at each end represent the provinces of Africa and India.
The Bikini Girls
The world's most famous mosaic: ten young female athletes wearing two-piece costumes remarkably similar to modern bikinis, 1,600 years ahead of their time. The girls practise various sports: running, discus throwing, jumping and ball games. One of them receives a victory crown and palm. The room probably belonged to an area reserved for the women of the dominus's household.
The Diaeta of Orpheus
The Diaeta of Orpheus is an apsed hall decorated with a large circular mosaic showing Orpheus seated on a rock, playing the lyre. Around him every animal species, deer, lions, birds, serpents, listens in enchantment, pacified by his music. The mosaic embodies the theme of the civilising power of art and music, a subject dear to late-imperial Roman culture.
The Palaestrites
The Palaestrites mosaic depicts a group of young women engaged in athletic competitions: running, discus throwing, ball games and an awards ceremony. Unlike the Bikini Girls, these figures wear more covering tunics. The mosaic is significant for the history of women's sport in antiquity, documenting active female participation in gymnastic competitions during the late imperial period.
The Triclinium and Ovoid Peristyle
The triclinium is the villa's most imposing banqueting hall, with a large central apse and two lateral ones. The mosaic floor depicts the twelve labours of Hercules and the Gigantomachy, the battle between the Olympian gods and the Giants. The adjacent ovoid peristyle, with its unique elliptical plan, hosted a garden with a fountain and served as the exclusive entrance to this reception wing.
The Private Apartments
The private apartments lie on the eastern side of the villa and comprise two symmetrical residential suites. The Hall of Arion is decorated with a mosaic showing the mythical poet riding a dolphin, surrounded by a procession of Nereids and Tritons. The other suite features scenes of Eros and Pan, fishing cupids and medallions with the Seasons. These rooms were reserved for the dominus's family.
The Basilica
The Basilica was the dominus's official audience hall, almost 30 metres long with an imposing terminal apse. The floor is in opus sectile, inlays of polychrome marbles sourced from across the empire: Egyptian red porphyry, Greek green serpentine and Numidian yellow marble. The walls were clad in marble and stucco. Here the owner received clients and administered justice, seated on a throne in the apse.
Visit the mosaics in complete freedom.
Our interactive guide tells you the story of each room directly on site.
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