Wed 22 May - Ragusa
Before we get to today, I must tell you about our dreadful accommodation in Agrigento. It was all show and no go. Definitely a case of all that glitters is not gold. We first encountered its deficiencies when we got to our room. It was totally prohibitive to a night's sleep. Others of our group had worse tales to tell with rooms that had no windows or ventilation of any sort. All the beds were far worse than imaginable. One wing smelt of sewage and the showers were too small for more than a foot wash. Globus will definitely be hearing about this misery.
We were so relieved to get out of this beautiful looking place, say Andiamo (let's go) and do the 2 hour drive to Piazza Armerina to visit another UNESCO site, Villa Romana Del Casale. To reach this we drove through vast areas of olives, oranges and grapes which were covered by netting - whole hillsides of netting. The motorway went up  3,000ft above sea level to the highest city of the Apernine range.
Here we disembarked from the coach to meet our new local guide who took us through a vast Roman hunting lodge thought to be built in the 4th century AD and lived in until it was buried in a mudslide in the 12th century. It was discovered in 1950 and is being restored.  The remarkable feature of the huge villa is the use of mosaics on all the flooring. Each area has a theme and the floor is decorated with appropriate mosaics, the most famous of which are the "bikini girls" in the women's gymnasium. We were spellbound for a couple of hours while our guide told us the history and culture of the times. Although I am concerned over the cost of this trip, I can see the value of the experienced commentary. So many tourists were just trotting around having no idea of what they were looking at.
After lunch we were bussed to Caltagirone which means the City of Jars, another UNESCO site famous for its ceramics. The building feature is the Staircase of Santa Maria Del Monte which boasts 146 steps, each face with a contrasting design leading from the piazza straight up to the magnificent cathedral  -- which I can tell you nothing about because Peter and I preferred to sit in an equally magnificent ristorante at the bottom and indulge in a decadent gelato fantasy. We were delighted to be driven around the historic city in an open-sided train with 8 little carriages each seating 6 people. Such outrageous  fun.
From there it was a short coach trip to Ragusa where we are staying for 2 nights. The conditions are far superior and we fully expect to enjoy our nights' sleep. The dinner was infinitely better.