Advertisement
Archaeological Park
Getting ready for a performance of a Greek tragedy in the amphitheatre. Our trip over from Malta to Catania in eastern Sicily didn't quite go as originally planned. Our early morning flight from Malta was delayed, and delayed and further delayed......because of volcanic dust from Mt Etna. Air Malta finally conceded and cancelled the flight mid afternoon. So, an unexpected night in Malta and onto Plan B!
We managed to get a booking on a fast ferry the following morning from Malta to Pozzanno. The catamaran was huge, modern and finished the 60km trip in just over an hour. A shared taxi trip up to Syracuse meant that our travel plans were back to normal.
We had three nights in the fascinating town of Syracuse. This town figures prominently in ancient history with significant buildings going back to the 6th century BC. Much of this is to be found on the island of Ortygia which is joined to the mainland by two bridges. Our hotel was on the mainland about two kilometres away opposite an amazing archaeological park. We spent most of a day here going through some significant ruins, most important of which were the remains of the largest existing Greek ampitheatre which seated 6000 people. Adjacent to the ampitheatre
Vale of Paradise
A quiet place to wander but a sad past. are the remains of a huge quarry from which the Greeks (and later Romans) quarried their stone for the city. This is now known as the Valley of Paradise and is a beautiful grove of citrus and almond trees - very, very calming to walk through but sad to think of the miserable conditions of the slaves who worked there.
As planned, we picked up our hire car, for four days of motoring through southern and western Sicily. In spite of having driven in Europe on many occasions Rick was feeling a bit apprehensive having heard of the kamikase driving habits of the locals and the "unusual" system of signposting roads. We were sure of the direction we were heading but sometimes didn't quite go the route we had thought we were following! At some intersections the same town would be shown on an arrow going in opposite directions and in other places the signs to destinations just seemed to disappear! We managed to meet many locals as we asked the way in our fractured Italian.
As well as ancient history, anyone interested in architecture would be fascinated by Sicily. Our first day took us through the baroque
View to Ortygia
A favourite view as we went across to the island. towns of Noto, Modica and Ragusa which have some amazing baroque palaces and churches. It was also the day after a three day festival of flowers in Modica and we were fortunate to see a famous street which has its 200 metre length absolutely covered in designs made from flower petals and grasses. The high baroque in some of the churches and cathedrals, with all the gold, marble, angels and frescoes was very impressive, if a bit over-the-top. We spent a night in a B&B in the heart of the UNESCO listed town of Ragusa, perched high above the Sicilian countryside.
Next day we wound our way through wine and olive growing country with meadows covered in spring wildflowers - red poppies, yellow daisies, purple, white - the mix was amazing! A morning was spent just out of a town in central Sicily at an amazing second century Roman villa, Romana della Casala, which was a country retreat for one of the Roman emperors. This huge villa was covered by a landslide for seven centuries so remained more or less untouched. What is incredible are the mosaics which supposedly are the finest examples in the world. One floor panel
Baroque cathedral in Syracuse
Built around an original Greek temple to Zeus. is 64m x 3m and remains completely intact. It tells the story of the collection of wild animals from Africa and their passage to the various colliseums in the Roman world. However the highlight for us, and most others, was to be seen in the gymnasium and these were depictions of Roman women in bikinis using weights for their exercise - very contemporary.
That afternoon we went to Agrigento, another UNESCO world heritage area. We made the most of the late afternoon light to look at the ruins of what had been a significant Greek city. Of most interest are the three partially and fully restored Greek temples. These must have looked very impressive perched up on the high cliffs of the coast. We revisited this amazing site the following day in the early morning light.
The town of Selinunte, further up the coast, was so vast we had to cover the site in electric carts! The original inhabitants of this city were on the losing side and enslaved by the Greeks whose first act was to get them to pull down every building in their own city. We followed some beautiful coastline along to the town of
Modica
Street of flowers after annual festival. Marsala (home to the wine of the same name) where we spent the night. Next morning we drove along the Salt Road, a flat area which produced salt for much of the ancient world. Nowadays it is just a cottage craft but the old windmills out on the sea are interesting and picturesque.
This flat landscape was dominated by a 750m mountain, the top of which has the remains of a vast Norman castle, and cute hilltown of Erice. Here we visited a cake shop that is unanimously voted the best in Sicily - a big claim in this country of sweet-tooths!
By this stage Rick had experienced almost four days of adrenalin-filled driving but the best was to come as we made our final run into Palermo, the biggest city in Sicily, where we were to spend the next three nights. Our hotel was in the heart of the old city in the middle of a maze of narrow, twisting one-way lanes. With the help of a number of locals we finally found our hotel, dropped off our gear and Rick proceeded to find the Avis dealer to drop off the car. In the Palermo peak hour
Agrigento
Completely restored Concordia temple. this was quite a memorable experience and the Avis manager commented that "If you can drive in Palermo, you can drive anywhere"!
Our hotel was near the university and in a very multicultural area with lots of interesting markets, restaurants and bars.
What can you say about Palermo? At its peak it must have been one of the premier cities in the world with its palace-lined piazzas, huge fountains, grand churches and the third biggest opera house (after Paris and Vienna) in Europe. Sadly much of the city is quite neglected and in need of a facelift.
The highlight for us, and most people who visit Palermo, are the magnificent 12th century Byzantine mosaics which are to be found in various cathedrals built by the Normans, such as at Monreale.
Today we travelled by train for the hour long journey to the pretty (and historic) resort town of Cefalu. This is our first day when we haven't had beautiful blue sunny skies and it's given us a good opportunity to sit down and reflect on our time so far in Sicily.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.138s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 11; qc: 64; dbt: 0.0821s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
the wyatts
Sue and Dennis Wyatt
wow
Hi Jan and Rick. What an awesome time you are having. I feel like I am there with you as you write. I also wish I was!!!!! Well done on surviving the driving in Sicily. I am so relieved. We await the next update. Travel safe and have fun. X sue and Dennis