Because of a landslide in the 12th century, the floors were covered in mud for 700 years, which protected them from severe\u00a0weather phenomena and from looters. The\u00a0site was\u00a0rediscovered in the 1950s and has been designated\u00a0a Unesco World Heritage Site.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Romans believed in exercising. After using the gymnasium, one would enter a pool filled with warm water\u00a0in the tepidarium.
\nThat was followed by entering the hot water pool in the caldarium. The last stop was the cold water pool in the frigidarium. Between the three pools, there was an area in which the bather was\u00a0massaged with oils and perfumes.<\/p>\n
At\u00a0the southern end of the building is the Room of the Ten Girls<\/em>, which contains the most famous of the mosaics. It shows young women\u00a0in bikinis working out as they prepared for the Olympic Games. After this amazing experience, we went to an agriturismo for a “light” lunch. First, let me explain that an\u00a0agriturismo is a working farm\u00a0that rents rooms to guests and also has a restaurant. Ragusa\u00a0is \u00a0situated high on a hill. Because of\u00a0\u00a0a devastating earthquake in 1693, \u00a0practically the entire town was destroyed. In fact, the only thing that survived \u00a0is an arch depicting St. George slaying the dragon. A new town has been built on the site of the former\u00a0one.<\/p>\n Our rooms were\u00a0fascinating. The 25 of us\u00a0\u00a0were assigned to one of three different buildings that had the same owner. One group was in the main building and another, in a building down the street.\u00a0\u00a0 Nick and I were \u00a0assigned to a room that was up four flights of stairs in a tower. Nick loved the room. As for me,\u00a0it wasn’t my favorite.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/DSG_5613.jpg\")
<\/a>The main entrance led guests through a courtyard\u00a0\u00a0lined with mosaics of animal heads. The Corridor of the Grand Hunt<\/em> is in the east wing. This 200 foot long corridor depicts scenes of hunting expeditions \u00a0for\u00a0tigers, leopards, elephants, antelopes, ostriches and a rhinoceros. \u00a0The hunting had taken place in a variety of parts of the Roman Empire, which\u00a0included today’s Italy, Africa and Asia.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Our lunch consisted of stuffed peppers, an antipasto of fresh pears wth cheese, prosciutto, mortadella, and fresh ricotta topped with crushed pistachios, \u00a0and eggplant and zucchini, both grilled. Then came the pasta\u00a0course, a combination plate of pumpkin risotto\u00a0\u00a0and ravioli\u00a0stuffed with ricotta \u00a0and spinach. This was followed by grapes and oranges. Susanna explained that this was considered a light meal because it did not include a main course or dessert. After being quite sure again that we had eaten enough for an entire village, we\u00a0napped on the bus as we headed to \u00a0the hilltop town of Ragusa.<\/p>\n