Sicily: Part Six

Syracuse was, according to the Roman orator and philosopher, Cicero, ‘one of the most important and certainly the most beautiful city of the Greek world’. Archimedes, the great natural philosopher and engineer was born and practiced there. Plato went there twice to try to teach the un-teachable Dion, nephew of Tyrant Dionysus II, just political science. Syracuse definitely was a prominent spot on the map of the classical world and the ruins underscore this.

During the latter half of the brutal twenty seven year Peloponnesian Greek civil war involving Athens and Sparta and their allies (431-404 BCE), Syracuse became the stage for one of that war’s most decisive battles. The most riveting account of this battle is from the Greek historian and political scientist, Thucydides, in his classic, ‘the Peloponnesian War’. What I saw when viewing the site gave me goose bumps, as its geography was exactly what Thucydides had described. I saw what is left of this great ancient city, its theaters and then the quarry where the Athenians and her allies, who finally would lose the war, had been imprisoned.   

Also, here you also will find a couple of pictures of modern Syracuse, a city where I think I could enjoy a long visit.

Theatre with a capacity of well over twenty thousand. The low-tech acoustics can be demonstrated to work with precision:

‘Theatre in the Round’, designed by the Romans for their gladiatorial games: 

The quarry where the defeated Athenians and allies were imprisoned:

Inside the quarry:

Eroded quarry sandstone:

Central square of modern Syracuse:

Sicily: Part Five

Taormina has to be one of the most stunningly beautiful places one could find. But the views are everything the place has to offer, as the town is just a pedestrian mall with shops selling high-ticket items to tourists who can afford to spend time in the reified atmosphere of Italian high fashion. We bought nothing except food and wine, which, alas, was good, but no better than a less expensive repast enjoyed at a lower altitude.   

View from our hotel balcony. Etna is in the background:

Looking down from balcony:

Looking afar from balcony:

Looking even farther:

The ‘Birdhouse’ in the ‘English Garden’ adjacent to our hotel. The garden was built by the husband of an English lady who had married an Italian count. It is said that it gave her a feeling of home:

Close-up of Birdhouse. I never saw birds in the Birdhouse:

Sicily: Part Four

After packing up and leaving our hotel in Palermo, out of which we had ventured so far, we took the road toward Taormina, the city where we would stay for the remaining two nights before departing for Ottawa. We drove through high mountains before approaching the Roman Villa Ruman du Casali,  2 KM from the town of  Piazza Armenina. We were not far from Mount Etna, the most active volcano in Europe. As we drove through black, solidified lava fields, from time to time we were able to glimpse Etna’s snowy cap and Vulcan fire, our view was much obscured by the clouds. It was a rainy day, as we drove through a valley among high mountains. 

The high mountains:

The lesson from history is that all empires eventually fall. During the 4^th century CE (=BC), the Romans, who by then had colonized their previous masters, the Greeks [consider the Americans and the British today], had developed Sicily into many agricultural estates (= L. litifundium), and Villa Ruman du Casali was one of these. The master of the villa likely did not reside there all the time. He probably spent most of his time in nearby Taormina or Syracuse. I imagine the villa to have been sort of an overblown ‘cottage’ for the urban gentleman farmer.

The villa was discovered in the early nineteenth century. It is a one story sprawling split-level, which made me think of what might have been the Roman version of our mid twentieth century ranch house. Well, if you have the space, then use it!

The main reason why one of us would spend time at this villa is that here is to be found the most magnificent display of mosaics from the Roman world on this planet, so the experts inform me.

A whole floor of mosaics seen from above:

Detail from the ‘Little Hunt’

 Tired Hunters:

Ladies playing ball:

 Detail, Ladies playing ball:

Coronation of the victor of the Ladies Ball Game:

Sicily: Part Three

On our way to the high mountain top town of Erice, a city famous for its Phoenician heritage, we ventured into Sicily’s wine and olive region. There was a fine lunch at an olive farm and processing plant, a visit to Erice high above the sea and looking nothing like the classical world but the medieval one. On our way back to Palermo we stopped at Segesta’s Greek temple located high on a hill and said by many art historians and architectural theorists to be the best representation of extant Doric style architecture.

Olive farm and cafe:

Mountain top town, Erice:

Erice’s medieval streets:

View of the sea from Erice:

Medieval Stronghold, Erice:

Views of Segestra, Doric Temple:

Sicily: Part Two

The next big surprise was the look of Sicily’s countryside which, because of the many images of the island as depicted by Hollywood movies such as the aforementioned ‘Godfather’, but also movies like  ‘Patton’ and ‘The Devil’s Brigade’, the impression one has is of a parched land from a pallet of shades of tan, brown and gold. But this was not the Sicily we saw. The almond trees were displaying their pink-purple bloom and wild flowers were abounding in meadows and mountain sides and even on display from cracks in ancient walls. The grass was a jade green, like the hills of mythic Albion or even the actual Ireland but with high rugged mountains. After driving through this lush landscape, we reached our destination, the Agrigento Archeological Park. Well, I was looking for Greek ruins and here I did find them. We both found the experience beyond our expectations, and in fact, because there was so much to see, it was a bit overwhelming.

The Green Countryside:

Ancient Greek road in what now is Agrigento Archeological Park:

Temple of Apollo among Almond blossoms:

Winged god taking a rest:

Ruined temple along Greek road:

Temple from afar:

Sicily: Part One

My initial interest in Sicily was related to my teaching and writing about ancient Greek political philosophy. Sicily in general and especially that ancient city that modern Italians call Siracusa, had been a Greek colony, the physical proof of which are the many Greek ruins in that city and elsewhere on the island. These ruins are what I initially had wanted to see. However, I was soon to learn that there is much more to see than ruins on this, the largest of the Mediterranean islands.

Indeed, Sicily was full of surprises! Among them, that Palermo, the largest Sicilian city and its capitol, does not look anything like what we had expected. To be explicit, Kay (my wife) and I had expected Neapolitan-like disorder and squalor, but we found a relatively ordered city of around one million inhabitants, with beautiful gardens, relatively non-chaotic traffic and magnificent art and architecture. And Palermo is a good city for walking. We walked and we walked. It was early March – still winter for Sicily – and the city, though bereft of tourists – was very much alive in what, for us, looked like and felt like spring.

Here we see the Baroque Quattro Canti, a cross roads at the center of the city: 

Here you have Palermo’s medieval cathedral and Martorana Church: 

It is known for its famously beautiful Byzantine mosaics dating from the 12^th century:

It is also known for its Norman-Arab cloister: 

Down near the port, the ancient city wall is still partly intact. It is just behind the wall where one finds the palace once inhabited by the last Prince of Sicily, made famous in Giuseppe di Lampedusa’s 1958 novel ‘The Leopard’, set in pre-unification nineteenth century Sicily. The story is about the old order gradually metamorphosing into the new order, eventually marking the ascending rule of Sicilian Mafia, the Costa Nostra. 

As far as we know this is the closest we got to the Mafia. Here we see the Palermo Opera House, where, in the movie ‘the Godfather III’, Al Piceno’s character, Michael Corleone was shot dead on its great expanse of steps.