Sicily - late March

• Traveling
• Syracuse Overview
• Getting Food
• Restaurants
• Culture Part 1
• Culture Part 2
• Passegiata

Emilia-Romagna - early April

Tuscany, Florence - April 8

Umbria - late April

Archeology and Culture in Syracuse, Sicily Part 2

Another day in Sicily, we went to the archeological park in the northwest corner of Syracuse proper. This park contains the remains of a massive Greek theater, the largest in Europe, and various other monuments and things of interest, such as an altar for sacrificing to Zeus, an old quarry site and a Roman amphitheater. It is unclear to me whether they moved some of these things (not the quarry, that's for darned sure) or just bought up all the land where they were and everything in between. The guide books says the park "...brought together all these monuments, which were previously located on private properties...and enhanced a priceless heritage which, located on a single, although vast area, can be presented and explained with greater historic and artistic coherence." What do you think? Either way it's impressive.

We know the Greek theater was there in the 5th century BC and "...almost certainly hosted the debut of Aeschylus' Women of Etna in 476 B.C." They still present Greek plays every Spring and were preparing the (temporary) stage and orchestra pit when we were there.

Admission to the park was free this week, we thought because many of the locations were closed (like the Roman amphitheater), but maybe it is because it was a school trip week. This was our first experience with tour groups of 30 or 40 and also school classes of about the same number. In the vastness of the park it wasn't much of a problem and indeed was quite charming when we went to the "ear of Dionysius" in the stone quarries. This is a quarried cave which has dramatic echoing and amplifying qualities. A whole group of high school students sang and then they persuaded their lead tenor to do a Requiem-style solo which was very lovely. (Note: the "ear" cave photo didn't come out very well, so here is a different part of the quarry.)

We took taxis back and forth to this park, even though Massimo had told us it wasn't safe to just get in a taxi, that we should always call his recommended taxi company Well, one guy charged us 7 euros more to get home than it had cost to get us there, but that didn't seem so bad (torqued Dawn though). But we didn't get mugged or anything.

Another day we went to the freshwater tropical aquarium, just downhill from the point where Alfeo spring is. This is quite a well-maintained facility with 40 or 50 large tanks, some of them with English descriptions of what we were seeing. Here's a sample describing the African Ciclid* from Lake Mulawi:

The characteristics of the fishes coming from this zone is the policroma of their bodies, what you/he/she made them famous among him aquareofilli of the whole World. In nature they nourish him of small alga and shellfishes...

As you can see, reflexive verbs can be a problem going both ways. There were some nice old trees there and the aquarium maintenance man had an aloof cat and a mighty fine dog, so went by and said "hi" fairly often.

And of course, we wandered into the Duomo several times. At first we weren't sure we were there, because this Duomo has no dome. So we learned early on that a dome isn't necessary even though the Italian word appears to mean dome. It really means cathedral. And that means that the church has a Bishop. However, it can still be called a Duomo even if a Bishop is no longer seated there. All clear? The most amazing thing about this Duomo is that it is built on the site of a Greek temple from about 500 B.C. The Doric columns are integrated into the design of the church and you can walk right up and stroke them! For me, this was truly a spiritually connecting experience--just to stand in a church with so much of the hopes and prayers of so many ages and cultures and faiths in the air, in the walls, in the floor.

There is another special church in Syracuse, a very modern one, which receives many modern pilgrims. Syracuse is the site of a 20th century miracle. In case you don't remember (and I didn't) a painting of the Madonna shed tears from August 29 through September 1, 1953. After the miracle was verified and acknowledged by the church, the construction of the Sanctuary of the Madonna della Lacrime (Weeping Madonna, see Italian isn't so hard) was begun. Construction continued for 30 years amid disagreements about the design, the location, the cost, etc., etc., etc. The final result is a structure that, I'm sorry to confess, looks to me like a giant, partially opened umbrella. It is about 250 feet high and has 22 ribs--an impressive and modern silhouette on the Sicilian skyline. I'm not much taken with modern architecture, I guess. That's one of the reasons I'm in Italy. (I didn't take this photo, but couldn't find a credit where I found it.)

Now it's time to leave the rest of Ortygia experiences for one last installment before heading north.

* The best thing to know about Ciclid is that the Tilapia is one--a mighty fine eating fish that is also farmed in Canada (and maybe in the U.S. for all I know.)