Camping Rais Gerbi would make a good base for a longer stay – plenty of space, good facilities (including a restaurant open out of season), a pleasant local town with plenty of shops and good options for trips with buses to Cefalu and Palermo and access to the interior and the area around Mount Etna. There is also a station 3 km away that would give more options. The railway actually runs through the campsite but it is in a deep cutting, muffling the noise and the trains don't run during the night.
It was time to leave Finale and we had planned our last archaeology visits before we left Sicily. Two sites were mentioned in our guide book but we had spotted another on the Michelin map earlier on our route. As the Michelin map also shows sites that are not open to the public, we agreed that we would only go to the first site if it was signposted. We we reached the area we found a sign indicating the site, Halaesa, was 3 km off the road so we set off along the side of a wide valley soon climbing steeply. We found the site open and parked up outside the gates. Walking past a deserted ticket office, we started investigating the site inspecting first a small Roman necropolis with a tomb in excellent condition. We then followed an ancient road up to a large building further up the hill. This was a 17th century monastery that now housed the ticket office and a museum. The five staff in the ticket office seemed surprised to see us, we were certainly the first visitors of the day an probably the first for a week!
We visited the museum first and after showing that we were interested in the displays, the custodian volunteered some information in English. His English wasn't very good but he gave us a good tour of the two rooms and told us things that we would never have been able to establish from the Italian information boards. One find was fascinating and an archaeologist's dream. In the 17th century two fragments of a Greek tablet were found and they described the town in some detail. It split the site into areas and listed the important buildings in each. The archaeologists have established where each area is and now now exactly what lies buried in each! Less than 5% of site has been excavated and it will keep them busy for many years. It is only possible to visit part of the site but we followed an ancient road in better condition than most modern Sicilian roads up to the Agora (market place). Here we could see the shops around the edge and a cast of the beautiful statue of Cerere in its original position, the original being displayed in the museum. We then walked on to the site of the theatre, only a rear wall of which is currently uncovered. It is however possible to see the position of the stage set way down the very steep hill. The custodian had told us that the theatre is likely to be excavated next year and the indication is that it was able to seat over 5,000 people. The view over the river valley, the position of Halaesa's ancient port and the sea is lovely. We weren't able to go up to the acropolis and the Temple of Apollo, which was a shame.
A major diversion caused by a road closure delayed us but we eventually got to our second site, the Patti Marina Roman Villa and were greeted by another group of 5 bored custodians. This is a huge villa of a very wealthy Roman and had quite a long history undergoing a number of modifications. Unfortunately, it is in poor condition, the many damaged mosaics being covered in dust and difficult to see. It was obvious from the small areas where water had dripped on to them that the mosaics were in lovely colours but it was difficult to appreciate them when they were so dull. Collapsed pillars had often been left in position over the mosaics and we couldn't quite understand why. Surely, once they had been recorded, they could have been removed? Frankly not worth the visit.
We had planned to visit Tindaris this afternoon but time had run out so we went just a few minutes beyond to the campsite, 'Villaggio Turistico Marinello' at Oliveri, under the hill that Tindaris sits on. The site is covered with very tall trees providing welcome shade in the blazing heat of the Summer but making it very gloomy at this time of the year.
Photos: Halaesa Roman necropolis (2nd - 3rd century AD) that would have looked like a mini temple with a triangular pediment – the niches held cremations in urns that were still in place with funerary offerings when excavated; Halaesa - the beautiful 2nd century AD statue of Cerere; The museum in the 17th century monastery – the monks didn't have such a bad life - this was the their winery and still has the presses in place – the hole in the floor is where the wine was stored; The position of the Halaesa theatre – the flat area in front of the large concrete car park is the stage.
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