Blogs from Sicily, Italy, Europe - page 18

Guess some of you were wondering about the xxxxxx's in yesterday's blog. Could not remember the name of the huge, ornately decorated silver vessel that supposedly held some of the bones of St. George. The word I tried was not recognized by this program, so asked Luca and we finally just decided on a really big, heavy silver thing holding bones. Now the strange thing is, there is no proof that these bone fragments actually belonged to St. George. Seems the Catholic Church sometimes played pretty fast and free with the bone pieces they were selling as belonging to whatever Saint they claimed it was. Seems to be more than enough bones among all the churches to make several men. Today we went to Castelluccio to witness a day in the life of a Sicilian dairy ... read more

We took a train across the island of Sicily from Palermo to Agrigento, and the Valley of the Temples on Friday. "This splendid archaeological park consists of eight temples (and various other remains) built between about 510 BC and 430 BC: the Temple of Hera, the Temple of Concordia, the Temple of Heracles, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the Temple of Castor and Pollux, the Temple of Hephaestos, the Temple of Demeter, and the Temple of Asclepius (the God of Medicine). Apart from this latter, which is to be found on the banks of the Akragas river, all are situated in the same area on rocky crests south of modern day Agrigento (not really in a Valley at all!). The archaeological park and landscape of the Valley of the Temples is the largest archaeological site in ... read more

Today may be shorter, we learned so much it is mixed up in my little bitty brain. Today we started out by heading south along the coast until we reached Agrigento, originally the Greek city of Agrakas, one of the most culturally advanced cities of the ancient world. Ours stop here was in the Valley of the Temples, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1997 and one of seven in Sicily. The landscape, city organization and city size have changed dramatically since we left the influence of the Normans from our first few days. The city was founded in 581 BC on one of the most benign sites on the Mediterranean coast and lies on a hillside sloping down to the sea only three miles away. e took a tour of the remainder of the temples ... read more

This morning we headed out to Marsala. On the west coast of Sicily, between Trapani and Marsala, sea salt is still harvested according to ancient tradition of the Phoenicians. A series of “pans” or flats are arranged so that the sea water slowly evaporates by the heat of the sun. The first pan was called the cold pool because water flows directly from the lagoon into the pan. A sluice opens and water flows into the next pan. This pan is shallower and the salt content is doubled. Windmills then pull the water into the next several pans, each one getting shallower and shallower and the salt content increasing. When the water reaches about the fifth pan the water is very shallow. On days without wind or humidity a thin crust forms on the top and ... read more

Started this morning off with a walking tour of Mazara del Vallo where we visited two churches.From the outside the churches look very plain, but what a difference inside. The churches in Sicly outclass the churches that impressed me in other places, not by just one mile, but many. I used to think St Patrick's Cathedral in New York, St Peter's Basilica in Rome and a small church in Ixtapa, Mexico were magnificent in their gold and statuaries, but even the size and grandeur of those churches is diminished by the churches here. The craftsmanship in the friezes, statues, paintings and mosaics far outstrip othe places. The Duomos today were no exception. Ceilings reminiscent of the Sistene chapel soaring high above the pews and Carved Cherubs and Angels covering the roof supports from the bottom of ... read more