Caltagirone to Ragusa (23/9)

Caltagirone's stairs - all tiled.

We headed back into Caltagirone this morning to explore the town before heading south east to Noto. Jill had found a small flyer with a map at last night's hotel, so with that and the guidebook in hand we set off. The town is renown for its Majolica-ware ceramics, and there was evidence of this everywhere. Unfortunately, there is little of it we would buy. It is highly coloured and most of it is just over the top. One thing Caltagirone does do well is the making of ceramic tiles, and there is a monumental staircase which is decorated with them. The riser of the 142 steps was tiled, and each with a different pattern so it was every impressive.

Majolica ware was everywhere

The town itself was largely rebuilt after a very destructive earthquake in 1693. It wasn't rebuilt to a plan, so it is full of narrow alleyways, some of which are only staircases. We are churched out, so we didn't look at any. Instead we walked along to the gardens and then went to the Ceramics Museum. This is housed in what was once the Bonaiuto Natale Theatre, built in the 18th century. It was very well set out, sgiving the history of Sicily's 5000 years of pottery, starting with pottery from prehistoric Sicily right through to the present day. Majolica ware is the ceramic Sicily, and in particular Caltagirone, is famous for. It is a terracotta-based ceramic, so it is not a fine ceramic. The colours are mostly your primary colours and seen en masse it is overwhelming. The painting tends to be in broad brush strokes as well, so everything is bold and in your face. Obviously it has its admirers.

Funerary urn in the ceramics museum

As we left the museum we came upon a New Zealand family we had spoken to briefly yesterday in Aidone. They had wanted to visit the museum but thought it was shut. We assured them it wasn't, and that if they liked ceramics, to go in. We had a chat (nice to speak a bit of English) and then headed back to the car.

We reached Ragusa early in the afternoon, parked the car close to our hotel and went looking for it. It was all locked up, so we decided to go for a wander and come back. Ragusa is really two towns, the old town, Regusa Ibla, is on a promontory with ravines on three sides, and the "newer" Baroque town is up on a plateau. The two towns are connected by a narrow spit of land.
The town has its origins deep in Sicilian history when the original Sicels moved inland to escape from Greek colonists landing on the coast in 728 BC. The newer Baroque city rose out of the destruction of the old town by an earthquake in 1693. The newer town has a rectangular street grid because it was a planned town drawn up to replace that which was destroyed. The churches are the tallest buildings in the Baroque town, with most apartment buildings being three to four storeys. We headed down the hill but decided that we would leave the old town until tomorrow. The cathedral was open so we stuck our heads inside and were pleasantly surprised. Although obviously Baroque on the outside, it was very lightly decorated inside. From there we headed through the retail district and found the museum. It is tucked away underneath the shopping mall and there was absolutely no signage to indicate its existence. They aren't doing themselves any favours, because it was really good and FREE! They had some wonderful finds from all over Sicily, and the only two bronze helmets, one Greek, the other Roman, that we have seen. They also had reconstructed a pottery kiln.

Bronze helmet in Ragusa museum

By the time we had finished wandering the museum we felt it was late enough to try the hotel again. We went back and the landlord appeared from across the street. He came out of "H24 Hotel", and we were staying at "Night and Day". There seemed to be a bit of a theme here. He asked to see our booking confirmation, the first one to do so, and then let us in. Again, a small but clean and neat room. He had reasonable English, but warned us that the lady organising our breakfast had none. We said that we felt that we would be able to make ourselves understood, and he left us.  

After settling in, we set off again to find dinner. Jill opted for a seafood pizza which was very generously topped with octopus, mussels, clams etc. while Allan had a seafood Penne. We were persuaded to have a cassata for dessert, another great meal.

Caltagirone via Morgantina (22/9)

We left the eyrie of Enna and headed south to Morgantina, an ancient city founded around 1000 BC by people from Latium in Italy. It was then occupied by Greek colonists and fought with, and was fought over, by all the usual protagonists over the period of about 450 to 200 BC, when the Romans finally defeated it and virtually destroyed it. What was left of the once thriving trading centre was handed over by the Romans to Spanish mercenaries who stayed until the first century BC. The last act of defiance in its turbulent history was a rebellion by slaves. It then sank into oblivion and wasn't mentioned again in Roman literature. It wasn't rediscovered until the 1950's, when extensive archeological excavations were started. 

Portion of the agora at Morgantina.  The streets stretched both up
and down the ridge on either side.

 The city covered an area of approximately 78 hectares and was bounded by 7 kilometres of walls. The centre of the city is in a valley between two hills on a ridge and is essentially divided into two by this arrangement. The city is laid out on a rectangular grid, and there were fifteen roads leading away from the city centre to the east and the west.

The theatre at Morgantina

It had a theatre which could seat about one thousand people. This was carved out of the hillside and was almost part of the agora, or town square. The agora was unusual in that it was on two levels, with a set of fourteen steps dividing it into an upper and a lower level. These doubled up as seating for people attending public meetings which was part of the function of this space. There was a colonnade of shops on three sides, with those on one side never having been completed. A smaller, older market took up most of one corner of the upper level of the agora, and a sanctuary to Demeter and Persephone filled much of the lower level. 
The ruins of some of the shops are up to the second storey, and some of the houses which looked down on the agora from the eastern side had walls still standing which were almost two metres high. Several of these houses had mosaic floors which were very simple, and fore-runners of what came later. The alters in the sanctuary are still in place, one which you made offerings on, and the other which you threw votive offerings into. At one end of the agora was a gymnasium for the population to use. There was a small bath house associated with this. 

The steps which divide the agora
and were obviously used for meetings

Away from the actual agora there doesn't seem to have been much excavation done, unless a lot of what they found has been buried again to preserve it. On the western hill there were more houses with mosaic floors, but more refined than those in the east. Quite some distance west of the agora was an excavation underway on a much larger bath house complex. It was thought that there would have been another one to the east to service the population over on that hill. We spent some time here exploring the ruins, but once again, the information provided was in a bad state of repair. A number of the boards were missing, and many were unreadable, having literally baked brown in the sun. The site of Morgantina doesn't have the cudos that the nearby villa that we saw yesterday has, although the two sites are less than ten kilometres apart. There were very few people strolling about and we suspect this is why the information boards are so awful. Very few visitors to justify the expense.
From here we drove to Aidone to visit the museum there, as a host of the finds on display came from Morgantina. We stopped at a café opposite for a gelati first as we were thirsty, but the owners were preparing for a group of tourists and we didn't get our order until they had been fixed up. When we did get our order, the owners were most apologetic.

The baths at Morgantina are still being excavated

The display was excellent, covering all eras from Neolithic prehistory to the time of its demise. There were a couple of interesting items on display, as much for what they were as for their recent history. One was a hoard of beautiful silver tableware which had been stolen from the site and sold to collectors and institutions in the US. It was an American archeologist who had been working on the site who recognised them in the Metropolitan Museum New York and worked to have them repatriated. The other was a larger than life marble statue, the " Venus of Morgantina", which was also stolen and sold to the J. Paul Getty Foundation Museum. The tragedy was that it was actually sawn into three pieces so it was easier to smuggle out, and it was a twenty year haggle before it was returned. That is all we know of the story, so it all sounds very intriguing. The museum paid 40 billion old lire for it (€20 million) but either didn't check or wasn't interested in the provenance of what they were buying. Hoped they learnt from the experience.

We have learnt a little about how sculptors created their works. In the case of the Venus, the head, arms and hands were sculpted from marble, and the drapery from limestone. This may be a cost cutting exercise, or it may be to save the marble for more aesthetic works, because the limestone was painted anyway. Why waste superior marble under a coat of paint? The artefacts in the museum were very well displayed, and some of the interpretive material was in English, which we appreciated.

Some of the silver goods originally
stolen from Morgantina

We went back to café after our visit to the museum and had a chat with the owner who advised us on what we should have. He made a special sweet and a thirst-quencher for us and we left on better terms than we had when we were delayed by the tour group.

We arrived in Caltagirone in good time so decided we would inspect a few B&Bs in the old part of town before committing ourselves. This was easier said then done, and for the first time let our sat
nav lead us up a dead end, so to speak. The road became so narrow we had to back down the one way street we had been led up because it became too narrow. Fortunately it was only a few car lengths, and we had a piazza to back onto, but we scraped the car in the process. We suddenly felt vindicated for taking out total insurance ie. we drive in to the car rental return park, get out and walk away, and not have to haggle over every little scratch that might have appeared between Palermo and Catania. 

We decided to retreat with our tails between our legs, and looked for a place that we were sure we would be able to get to and ended up on a farm-stay just out of the newer end of town. The room was comfortable, even though the hotel was right on the road. Double glazing is wonderful how it blocks out noise. Although it was still reasonably early, we decided to stay put for the evening. There was a restaurant attached to the hotel, so we didn't have to go looking for one. It was a very pleasant evening, so we found a table in the outdoor eating area and spent an hour or so catching up with ourselves. When it came to dinner we ate indoors because it looked like the outdoor area was being set up for a large party of diners. We asked the waiter for advice on menu choice and he advised on an antipasto, and then pasta, all cooked by his mother using their own produce. It was sensational. The antipasto must have had eight different selections of goodies, and the pasta was fresh and home-made. The pitcher of wine, also from the farm, was excellent and cost €4. There were several other people in the restaurant who must have been informed that we were Australian, because they were eager to tell us about their friends who either visited to lived in Oz. We have thought about this, and all our Italian friends actually come from Sicily.

Piazza Armerina to Enna (21/9)

Cactus are grown fro the fruit in the drier areas.

We said goodbye to our lovely hostess and headed along the coast towards Gela. We didn't stop along the way as nothing enticed us to. There were many abandoned, derelict buildings, and we suddenly realised that we were witnessing the aftermath of WWII. Reading the guide book made sense of this because the Allies landed here between Licata and Syracuse in the first stage of the fight to drive the Germans out of Italy. No wonder so many Sicilians emigrated to Australia and other countries after the war. As farmers, they probably had little left to call their own after firstly living with the German occupation, and then the Allies sweeping through, probably destroying anything that looked as if it might house German troops. You probably would walk away from the heartbreak of losing everything that had probably been in the family for generations.

These signs didn't match our experience!

We bypassed Gela (the guidebooks were not complimentary) and headed inland, and therefore climbed up, to for Piazza Armerina. The countryside really started to look more productive and prosperous. The snow signs along the road seemed incongruous as we sweltered in 32C heat and high humidity. As we moved inland, the haze increased. Farmers here have yet to revise their farming practice of burning off stubble. Fires are left to smoulder unattended, and as in some places, to spread into olive groves and vineyards. There would often be four or five plumes of smoke rising skywards at any one time. One thing the Sicilians have progressed with is solar and wind power. We have passed some huge arrays of solar panels, and there are wind farms everywhere. Sicily is very different to France in that there aren't small villages dotted about the countryside. Instead, there are individual farms within close proximity to each other, and then the larger towns. You rarely see a church outside of a large town, whereas in France every village had its church, and it's size was not dependent on the size of the village in which it stood. We have twice passed goat and sheep herders along the way. There are large areas with little fencing so it would make sense.

The hot room with the furnace behind

The Villa Romana del Casale at Piazza Armerina, is thought to have been built in the early 4^th century, is believed to have been damaged and and abandoned a century later when the Vandals dominated. What is known is that it was covered by a landslide or mudslide in the 12^th century AD, although some of the walls and columns remained above ground. It contains the richest, largest and most complex collection of Roman mosaics in the world and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. If you see photos of Roman mosaics, they are likely to have been taken at this site.
There is quite a lot of structure left in some areas as well as the floors, and most of it has now been covered by extensive roofing to protect it. We arrived at the site of the Villa about mid-morning and it was well over 30C, but at least we would be inside. Once again, there was no map available at the ticket office, so we decided to buy a guide book. The audio guide would have cost as much, and we would have come away with information overload and nothing to refer back to, so the book was the better option, and it proved to be worth it.
The villa is built on a sloping site and the areas of building increase in importance as you move up the slope. 

Some of the animal medallions
around the courtyard

The tour starts with the furnaces of the bath house, and you move past the communal latrines (yep, no hiding here!!!) and then through the entrance, which had three gates, into a semi-circular column-lined courtyard. All the walls were painted with frescoes so that the overall effect is to leave you in no doubt that here lived someone of importance. There is still some dispute as to whether the villa was built for a senator or an emperor. From this courtyard you enter the vestibule, where people met the Dominus (villa owner) each morning to ask favours, discuss grievances etc. At the end of business, each person received a gift from the Dominus. This was effectively buying the allegiance of that person. That's how it worked then, and it hasn't changed much since. 

Detail of an animal medallion

For the more privileged visitors, you progressed into the peristilium or the central courtyard. This was essentially the living room of the house. It provided fresh air and light to the thirteen rooms which bordered it, and the large fountain and gardens helped cool them. The floor of the walkway around this courtyard was covered with a mosaic composed of 160 medallions of animal heads framed with laurel wreaths, each approximately a metre wide and all very well done! Within the peristilium was a small votive temple where the people of the house worshiped their personal gods and ancestors. Off to one side was a small private loo – only four seats in this one. The rooms off the peristilium are thought to be rooms for guests, kitchens, and servants' quarters. All these rooms, irrespective of use, also contain beautiful mosaics. 

Panorama photo of the corridor (it is actually straight)

Detail from the corridor

Opposite the peristilium is the basilica across a large corridor, the width of the villa, to get to it. This corridor is just short of sixty metres long, and is three metres wide, and is covered with a mosaic of staggering dimensions. The mosaic tells the story of hunting and transporting of wild animals to Rome for the circuses, and runs for the entire length of the corridor. It is not only a beautiful work of art, but it provides a lot of detail about the techniques, equipment, clothing, etc of the era.

The basilica with the roof imitating
what the original was probably like.

The basilica itself is the only room which doesn't have a mosaic floor. Instead, it's floor is made of marble which was a much more expensive, (read prestigious), than any mosaic floor no matter how intricate. The marble for the floor was sourced from as far away as the near east, Africa, northern Italy, etc. The basilica was huge and was used for business and legal matters, and it was at the same time a measure of your wealth and importance. There were suites of rooms on both sides of the basilica. The smaller of the two is thought to be offices where business was conducted, and the larger suite was where the family lived and went for privacy, as much of the rest of the villa was essentially open to the public. Opposite the family suite were two bedrooms thought to be for domestic servants. There was another living room off the triclinium, probably for guests to use.

Off to one side, but still part of the villa is another huge courtyard with three small rooms on each side, and this leads into the most enormous dining room or perhaps banqueting room would be a better title. This was the true reflection of the wealth of the owner, because dining your guests with fabulous meals was not a cheap undertaking. What you could afford to place on your table was an indication of your affluence. The usual was seven courses with two servants to serve each guest. No mean undertaking. Obviously to achieve this you also needed a large kitchen, but this was placed a distance away from the dining room, no doubt to keep the cooking smells and general din away from the guests.

This villa houses the famous Roman bikini girls mosaic

Last, but not least, is the bath house. This was actually the first building we went in to, and this is where you realised that this place was special. This is where you see the first of the stunning mosaics that decorate virtually every room of the villa. The bath house was very important to the Roman citizen, and so the larger the bath house included in a villa complex, the more prestige afforded to the owner. It is speculated that up to thirty people could have used this bath house at any one time, so this meant that there would have been sixty slaves attending to the users. Mixed, nude bathing was the norm. One progressed through a bath house as follows: change room, exercise room, sauna, hot water bath, acclimatisation room, massage room, cold room, cold bath, then out. All the hot rooms were on the south side to take advantage of the warmth of the sun during the day. There was also a gymnasium attached to the bath house.

Portion of the banqueting hall floor

Although the use of the villa declined, and was perhaps even abandoned during Roman times, it was used during the Byzantine era because a kiln of that era was discovered in one of the rooms. Although walls of it remained above the surface, the discovery of the mosaics and the villa's completeness only occurred in the twentieth century which was fortuitous. It appears that some of the mosaics have been removed, but many are intact. There were 21 different stones and 16 different types of vitreous paste and glass used to make the tesserae for the mosaic. It is estimated that it would take a worker six days to lay one square metre of mosaic. Although the villa replaced an earlier one, the present complex was built all at once, so there must have been an army of workers constructing it. Those currently responsible for the villa have done a fabulous job constructing the protective building over the site. For instance, they have actually constructed a ceiling and apse over the basilica completely in keeping with what would have been there when it was lived in. It was all most impressive. There were information boards for all rooms, in both Italian and English which we really appreciated. We came away from the villa absolutely gob-smacked. Words are inadequate, but we know that any other villa or mosaic we see will pale into insignificance. In fact, if you ever see any pictures of Roman mosaics, it is likely that they will be of those found at this site.

View from the castle at Enna
Many towns are perched on the top of hills in Sicily

Before leaving the site we booked a hotel for the night in Enna, pretty well in the middle of the town. Enna is another hill town, 931m above sea level and the highest in Sicily, with a very long history - Greek, Carthaginian, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Norman, then repeatedly fortified during the Middle Ages by the Angevins (Plantagenets) and Aragonese (Spanish). It is essentially in the centre of the island, and it is said that you can see all coasts from here although with the smoke haze we had not chance. Its central position is probably also why it was strategically important to all those wanting to control the island. Our hotel was actually Art Deco, so very modern by comparison with some of the buildings around it. We arrived in plenty of time so went out to explore the town before dinner. There is still a very fine castle at one end of the promontory on which Enna sits. The three courtyards cover a very large area, and are still being excavated. The tower, thought to have been built in the 13th century, has a splendid view over the surrounding countryside, provided the visibility is good. There is still uncertainty over which bits were built by whom, and by the fact that over the centuries several small churches were built within the walls after the castle fell into disuse. The archeology is not clear. From the castle we climbed another small hill which gave you an even better view. We wondered why the castle wasn't built here and could only conclude that there was no water available. The Greeks had built a temple on this site, but of course it had no defensive purpose.
In Enna we found the first war memorial we have seen in Sicily, and it was more a peace memorial than a commemorative one. It is interesting, because the population must have suffered under the Germans, and then when the Allies invaded. Perhaps those most affected emigrated to places like Australia to get away from the memories.

Agrigento (20/9)

We only had time for dinner last night, and no time to explore the town, let alone another temple complex almost within walking distance of our B&B, so we asked our landlady if we could stay another night. Allan went for a run this morning and saw that there was plenty that would interest us which prompted our decision. As we left to explore the temple site, I asked if our landlady knew where the nearest laundromat was. She didn't have a clue, but offered to do it for us. Her helper would hang it out for us, so I went and quickly collected up what we had and handed it over. It was placed outside our door not long after we arrived back, all folded.

The Temple of Concordia - the most complete

We drove down to the temple complex, Valle dei Templi (Valley fo the Temples), because it was forecast to be 35ºC today, and we didn't really feel like the long walk back up the hill in the heat. Although called "Valle", the temple complex (there were seven temples in all) actually runs along a ridge, and can be seen for miles in three directions. The Greeks certainly knew how to pick a site to impress. There was a small Classical Greek colony here in the 7th century BC, but with an influx of Greeks from Gela the population grew quickly and the city prospered. Due to this increased prosperity, it was able to afford to build temples. The 6th and 5th centuries BC was the height of the Greek period on Sicily. These temples and those at Selinunte were built in the same era. 

Only the outline of other buildings can be seen on the ridge
between the temples.

Not all the temples were built for religious purposes - some were dedicated to particular deities, one was built to celebration a victory over the Carthaginians, and others for specific purposes like weddings (the Temple of Juno) or for those citizens seeking a cures for ill-health (the Temple of Ascletius). The Temple of Concordia is the most complete temple in the Agrigento complex, perhaps due to its later conversion into a Christian basilica in the 6th century AD. Several of the temples had a number of their columns still standing, but others have all but disappeared, not helped by the fact that they were used as quarries in the late 1700's to build the new Porto Empedocle on the coast not far from Agrigento. It seems that all Greek cities in Sicily had turbulent and inter-related histories, fighting between themselves as often as fighting the Romans and Carthaginians. All three ancient Greek cities we have so far visited had fought each other. Some cities tried to forge alliances with the overseas powers in an effort to gain an edge over their Greek rivals, but at great cost to themselves. By the end of the Roman republic in 27 BC, Agrigento benefited by being the only market town left in southern Sicily. 

Coffins were dug into the bedrock
either side of the walkway

During the early Christian Era, a part of the fortified walls along the “valley” were turned into a necropolis. Tombs were dug into the bed rock the walls were built on which have created problems over time because these have eroded and the cliff edge is now crumbling down into the valley below. There is a also a small catacomb dug into the bedrock near the Temple of Concordia. 

There were many pots such as this in the
museum.  Most of the work was very skilled.

Despite the heat, we walked the length of the site, and then up to the museum which displayed many of the finds from archeological work carried out around Agigento. This was extensive, and well-laid out, but most of the labelling was in Italian, again. We know we are in Sicily, but this is a World Heritage Site and is a top tourist attraction, so we think a little more could be done to encourage people to learn more about what they are looking at. 

In Agrigento - he biggest cactus we've ever seen

From the museum we had a hot walk back to the car. We drove back to our B&B and decided to rest for a bit, and re-hydrate before exploring the town. We spent a little time walking the steep streets of Agigento, poking our heads into a couple of churches before settling on somewhere to eat. Jill decided to have seafood as it is a Sicilian specialty, and we were on the coast. Guided by the waitress, she ordered swordfish, and claimed it was delicious. It was only two thin slices of fish wrapping up a stuffing of breadcrumbs and herbs and probably some more ground up fish. Whatever it contained, she was impressed. We walked back down to our B&B. Even though it is often after 10.30pm when we are returning to our hotels we have never felt uncomfortable walking about at night, probably because Sicilians are still out and about. They will walk into a restaurant at 9.30pm for dinner, and almost laugh at the tourists who want to eat earlier.

Erice to Agrigento (19/9)

That's Erice on top of the mountain.
We drove up this side (towards the left) to get there.

We had a much easier drive down from Erice than up to it, but it wasn't as interesting. We didn't count the hairpin bends on the way up, but decided that the road should be included in the Giro d'Italia one day if it hasn't been already. We were fortunate not to meet too much traffic on the way up, because a couple of the bends were very tight. The region along the road from Erice to Marsala, via Trapani, has nothing to recommend it being across coastal plains. It has to be the scruffiest length of road we have travelled to date.  We couldn't work out where the grapes come from to make the wine Marsala is famous for, as we saw very few vines near the town. After Marsala, things did improve but not until we were past Sciacca, where farmland began to look more productive.

One of the temples outside the city.
Partially reconstructed.  There is rubble from another
five on this hill.

Our Sicilian culture and history lesson today revolved around the ancient site of Selinunte with its two groups of temples, one on an acropolis within the ancient city walls, and the other on a hill outside. Selinunte was on a very impressive site on a ridge between two rivers.  One of the rivers acted as a sea port for the city.  It was founded by Greek colonists in the 7th century BC and became one of the most important Greek colonies on Sicily until sacked by the Carthaginians in 409. Although the few survivors who fled the slaughter were allowed to return, the city never recovered and was eventually abandoned after a second sacking by the Carthaginians around 250 BC. This time though, the Carthaginians forced everyone to leave before they destroyed the city. The next building phase for the site dates from the Byzantine era around 700 AD, and these were stone huts found between two of the temples, and other huts constructed out of recycled stone with Christians crosses incised into them. 

Main street of Selinunte

The oldest of the eight temples was started in 580 BC and the youngest, and also the smallest, in around 250 BC. Temple G (they are all known by letters because the deities they were dedicated to are unknown) was started in 540 BC and is one of the largest ever built - 113.34 metres long, 54.05 metres wide and about 30 metres high. Because it took so long to build, methods and styles changed, moving from un-fluted columns constructed from several massive drums, to fluted columns made up of many smaller drums. It was the third temple to be started but for whatever reason never finished. Some of the drums destined for the temple are still in-situ in the quarry 20km from the city, and others were actually on their way to the building site when they were abandoned. It is thought that this occurred at the time of the first Carthaginian attack in 409 BC. At its peak, it is estimated that the city had a population of about 30,000 people, excluding slaves, and covered more than 100 hectares. There was also another small sanctuary built some distance from the main walled city which we explored. We spent a couple of hours wandering over the site, looking for the information boards which were not in any real order. At least they had an English translation, but unfortunately there was no map of the site to be had. A little frustrating that. There was a team of archeologists working in the area, but we were not able to get very close to see what they were doing. There must be centuries of work which could be done at this site. There was other life amongst the fallen masonry - we saw lots of skinks and a snake, but little bird life.

Archeologists are continuing to work
on different parts of Selinunte

From Selinunte we headed for Agrigento, another town built on a mountain, but just a little inland from the sea. We had booked a B&B off the web which looked quite good, until we eventually found it. It was down a back road in a scruffy-looking area but miles from anywhere. There was no sign outside so we had to ask where it was, took one look and said no way. We had another look on the web and found a B&B within walking distance of town so headed for that instead. We booked it, but when we arrived it was all shut up. Fortunately, there was a local lurking nearby who assured us that the B&B was in operation, but we would have to ring the telephone number on the door. This Allan did, and the lady, who fortunately spoke a little English assured us that she was ten minutes away, although it took her twice that to get to us. It turned out that she had been to some do associated with a wedding and hadn't picked up our booking, for which she was most apologetic. We were almost ready to walk away when she arrived, but the apartment was very comfortable so we were happy to stay. After settling in, we set off to look for somewhere to eat.

Exploration of the town could wait until tomorrow. We found a restaurant set out on a flight of stairs linking one street to another. There was a set of about six steps then a landing, before the steps started again, and on each of the landings were set two or three tables. The waiter must keep very fit bounding up and down the stairs waiting on the tables. Dinner was delicious, fresh pasta. There can't be any rats or mice in Sicilian cities because there are cats everywhere. We had three cats constantly patrolling the our tables, hoping for titbits. They are certainly not anyone's pet, because if you made a move towards them, they were off. They looked in good condition, but we have seen some in pretty miserable health. Whilst we were waiting for our landlady arrive, a lady pulled up in a car and fed five cats which we had seen lurking nearby. They were obviously expecting her, because they all came bounding out from their various hiding places as she arrived. She fed them and then left. Don't know if she is a "cat lady" or is looking after them for someone who isn't able to at the moment. 

Erice (18/9)

Off to explore Sicily. I don't think either of us was disappointed to be leaving Palermo behind. It's scruffiness and decay is depressing, especially after France. It is a difficult call. The cost of maintaining and restoring the rich heritage of its old architecture must be out of the reach of most people, but to pull it down and replace it with new would destroy its heart. But equally, to see the buildings literally decaying away cries out for something to be done.

The Sicilians can do bridges!

We had organised to pick the car up from the airport which is 40 km out of town. By doing this, we avoided driving in Palermo, which was not a bad thing. It would have been bad enough trying to navigate the narrow streets without having to contend with the driving habits of its inhabitants. We were hoping for a Golf, but finished up with a Renault Magane, unfortunately a little larger than a Golf, not what we really wanted for Sicily. Fortunately it was straight onto a freeway, so it gave Allan a chance to settle in to a new car without the added hassle of coping with traffic. We just sat in the outer lane and let everything else fly past. As suspected, the Sicilians pay even less lip service to speed limits than the French, and the type of line on the road means nothing. Despite double white lines, if you can, you pass. We soon discovered that bridges are important to Sicily – it is so mountainous that they are needed to span the steep sided valleys.

The temple at Segesta (partly restored)

It didn't take long to realise that we are not seeing Sicily at its best. It is the end of summer and in many ways it is similar to home, dry, brown and olive green, in part due to many eucalypts! The vineyards and the occasional citrus orchard break up the olive green. There seemed to be many abandoned or unfinished buildings and un-worked land between Palermo and Erice. Not sure if it still hasn't recovered from WWII, the Mafia, or if some of it may be the GFC, or perhaps all three.

Stunning backdrop for a theatre!

We have moved on from churches to Greek ruins. We stopped at Segesta, on our way to Erice. Originally a city of an indigenous Sicilian people, it quickly became Hellenised after Greeks colonised the area. The city has a tumultuous history, having been sacked by rival Greeks, surrendered to the Romans who left them alone, suffered from a slave rebellion, sacked by the Vandals, declined over time and then the Arabs and Normans appeared as per usual. As a city it eventually disappeared except for an almost intact theatre and a beautiful Doric temple. The theatre can seat 4000 people and has the most stunning backdrop of mountains and sea. The temple is some distance from the theatre, and is thought to have never been finished. The columns remained un-fluted, it appears to have never been roofed, and the stone tabs used to lift blocks into place have not been removed. It sits on a hill in splendid isolation. Over the centuries of occupation it's defensive walls were realigned and strengthened. There has been some archeological work done on the site, but much remains to be done. Aerial surveys have revealed the outline of the town, and on Mount Barbaro where the theatre is situated, the agora has been uncovered. The terrain is quite hilly, so it is not an easy site to survey.

Looking down on Trapani from half-way up to Erice

From Segesta we continued on to the hilltop town of Erice. As we drove along there were huge mountains around us, and Jill suddenly pointed out a village on top of one of them. That's where we were headed for and it was an interesting drive up to the top around all the switchbacks in low gear.  Erice is at about 2,500 ft or 750 metres and the mountain essentially goes straight up from the sea.

Erice's history as a settlement goes back to the Phoenicians. It was then Hellenised by the Greeks, was destroyed by the Carthaginians in the first Punic War (264-241BCE) and was of little consequence until firstly the Arabs, then the Normans, occupied it. There is still evidence from all cultures in the town. Some of the remaining city walls are Phoenician and the Norman castle was built on the foundations of a Greek temple which was dedicated to Venus. Most of the town dates from the medieval period, and most of its streets are still cobbled. It was a pleasure to walk around a town which exudes civic pride. The only litter was cigarette buts (there seem to be even more smokers here than in France) and the buildings were looked after.

Rooftops in Erice

Silk embroidery in Erice

We decided to explore the town by buying a ticket which covered the cost of entry fees to all significant buildings. Money from this fee goes into a restoration fund, and there is much evidence that this is being put to good use. Our first stop was at the remains of a monastery, the buildings of which had originally been the palace of a nobleman, and supposedly the cisterns within the site were associated with the temple to Venus. Although called a monastery in the literature, it was actually a Benedictine nunnery which was founded in the late 13th century, and continued to produce embroidered silk tapestries and sweets, for which it was famous, until 1866 when the anticlerical laws suppressing religious orders disbanded it. 

The intricate calcite ceiling

Churches have a habit of collapsing, and the Royal cathedral was no exception. It was built in 1314 using materials from the Greek temple, but had undergone many changes before the interior of the church collapsed in 1853. It was rebuilt and has a very intricately carved calcite ceiling which explains why it looks so clean and bright. Quite beautiful. Its bell tower, which we climbed, is separate from the church. On a clear day you really would see forever, but we had no such luck. It was incredibly hazy, partly from the which smoke comes from numerous fires that you can see as you travel through the countryside. No-one seems to look after these, and we have seen olive groves and vineyard singed by these unattended fires. They also have the time-worn belief that stubble needs to be burned. Erice has lots of churches, but a number of them have be de-consecrated and are now museums. We visited several more of these, all different, and all containing some remarkable relics and works of art, mostly of Sicilian origin.

The tower from which we could
Look over Erice

As usual, wandering through the village took longer than anticipated, so we decided to find accommodation on the mountain for the night instead of heading off to wherever. Seeing signs to a hotel, we followed the trail to a small B&B-style hotel which looked very comfortable. They actually had off-road parking (very tight) so we took it. The name certainly didn't have a Sicilian ring to it - the "Hotel Edelweiss"??!!, but the hostess was definitely Sicilian, with a smattering of English, which was a help. With the help of our host, we fetched the car from where we had parked it, and followed him back to the hotel. The car was actually outside the town walls, so we had some tight turns to make as we drove up through the old town to where our hotel was. After settling in we went looking for a restaurant for dinner, with gelati for dessert. The day had started off warm, but because of the altitude and its proximity to the sea, Erice cooled off very nicely, although our room didn't benefit as much as we would have liked.

More Palermo (17/9)

Compared to yesterday, today was a slack day for a change, but not all of our own making. After breakfast, we headed off into the old town again to see a few more "points of interest". The first of these was the cathedral, and when we walked in we realised that it wasn't what we had been expecting. The cathedral was fairly ordinary compared to some of the churches we had visited. As usual, it had been modified a number of times since the first stone was laid in 1179, and this was on the site of an earlier Christian basilica. It has also been a mosque. The external fabric of the cathedral can be read as the story of the many phases of rebuilding which have occurred - Norman, Catalan Gothic, Baroque, Neo- classical. 

Detail - Capella Palatina

Mozaics in Capella Palatina

What we were really looking for was the Capella Palatina in the Palazzo dei Normanni. We crossed the large Piazza del Vittoria to get to it, and skirted around a protest which was underway at the far end of the Piazza. This area has, since Roman, Norman, and Arab times, and to the present day, been the military, political and administrative heart of Sicily. The Palazzo dei Normanni has always been the palace of the city's rulers, and it was here that we found the Capella Palatina, on the opposite side of the Palazzo to the square. Fortunately this small jewel of a church has managed to survive unaltered since it was ordered to be built in 1132 by Roger II as a private chapel, and this may be the reason for its present state. Almost all of the interior is either covered in mosaics or marble inlay work, floor included. On first entering the chapel, one tends to stop and gape, stunned at what is before you. The workmanship is exquisite, and the overall effect breathtaking. When we arrived there was a conservator lying prostrate on the floor, carrying out some work on a section of the floor. Unfortunately it was lunchtime, so she disappeared before we could really see what she was doing. We eventually moved on from the chapel and had to be satisfied with that. Parts of the Palazzo are opened to the public but not on the days we were in Palermo.

Wedding photos in the gardens
using a quadrocopter for those aerial shots!!

Dazzled by what we had just seen at the Palantina, we decided to head back to the hotel, and wait for the Museum of Archeology to open. Allan needed to put his camera battery on to charge, and there seemed no reason to visit another church after the experience of the Palantina. Our route took us through the English gardens, although these too were looking exhausted. There were actually a few patches of green lawn, but not much. We were unlucky with the museum, because the building is undergoing major conservation work, so most of it was closed. At least admittance was free. You even pay for entry into most of the churches. Hopefully the money goes into the maintenance fund, and not into general revenue. 

We had seen all the key sites we had planned on, so we went for a stroll and wandered through the old quarter again, but this time down back streets finding out where the real people shop. There were small shops and stalls in many of these streets and alleyways, and often several selling the same items were together. If you wanted curtaining fabric (not an inch of patchwork fabric to be seen!) you would go to a particular street and be able to see what was on offer, instead of having to cross-cross the city looking for it. Tired from our exertions, we found a restaurant/cafe for an early dinner. Dining at 8.30pm makes it very late getting back to the hotel.

Something else observed in the heart of town - if you have driven in, you can pay a minder to look after your illegally-parked car. It seems that these guys have a territory staked out, and within this area they play a kind of musical chairs with the vehicles they are looking after, so that none get booked, and that a car can be retrieved when the owner arrives back to claim it. Simple!!

Satellite dish anyone?

Palermo (16/9)

Another first impression - that Sicily is mountainous.
This hill is the backdrop to the harbour.

Last night we had an inkling of the state of the streets of Palermo, but daylight confirmed it - litter everywhere, and like the French, don't clean up after their dogs. Interestingly enough, there is no smell and no flies, and few pigeons. Our hotel is on the waterfront, and there are few seagulls either considering the amount of garbage lying around. We are not sure how often the garbos get around to emptying the bins. There seems to be little civic pride in Palermo, most of their buildings also suffering from neglect and decay. It would seem that once something is built, don't bother with maintenance. Perhaps living in an earthquake prone country like Sicily they are a little fatalistic about how long a building might stay upright. Fix it today, and it might fall down tomorrow. Perhaps we are a little hasty to judge, because apparently some areas are still recovering from the heavy bombing the city suffered during the war.

Palermo has a long and rich history. It's roots as a city started with the Phoenicians, the Greeks arrived, it prospered under the Romans, it's golden age was under the Arabs, and was then successively conquered and/or ruled by the Normans, the Aragonese, the Bourbons, more recently the Mafia, but things are now supposed to be on the up. (I'm sure that I have left out a few dynasties.) Unfortunately little remains of the Arab quarter other than its street plan, or lack of it with its tiny alleyways and winding streets still remaining, but their influence is reflected in some of the architecture. Much of the domestic architecture is Renaissance, but many of the churches are of the Baroque style with Arab influence. After the war, there was much illegal and unplanned building, and there is the occasional severe modern edifice.

The Politeama Garibaldi - Sicily's biggest theatre
Impressive by night, scruffy by day.

We set out to explore the sites in old Palermo with map in hand. Street signage is a little better than in France, until the name is carved into the stone work and then it is difficult to read. The first significant building we came across was the church of San Domenico with finest baroque facade in Palermo. Ignorant of this fact, we continued on to the Piazza Bellini with Fontana Pretoria, one of the largest fountains in Palermo, in its centre. It's claim to fame is that it was once known as the fountain of shame because of all its nude statues. The faces of some of the statues would seem to indicate that they were carved from live models, because their features were not of the beautiful, classical lines you normally see in this sort of work. The hands on a number of the statues seemed a little too large, almost as if they should have been viewed from above rather than below.

Fontana Pretorio in front of the
Palazzo Pretoria

The Palazzo Pretorio faced onto this square, and it is now a municipal building, one which has been restored. Unfortunately many of the buildings seem to decay to the extent where the only way of saving them is to stucco over the original stonework, leaving hints of the original where possible. Often this is the portico over a door, or some of the original decoration higher up which has escaped the ravages of time. To be fair, much of the stone used was limestone which does not wear well. This original palace had a very grand staircase which lead to high ceilinged rooms with stuccoed decoration.

Just around the corner was the church of Santa dell'Ammiraglio, or more popularly known as La Martorana after the lady who founded a Benedictine convent nearby. The church was built in 1143 and combines the original Norman features and decor with later architectural styles. The original decoration is all spectacular mosaics - stunning - and the later Baroque extension is all frescoes. The church is now entered via the bell tower, instead of the original portal which is actually on the side of the church.

La Martorana - stunning mosaics

Just a stone's throw from this church is another which couldn't be more different in style. San Cataldo was built as a private chapel for a palazzo in the 12th century, and hasn't been altered in any way. Unfortunately it was closed for lunch so we didn't get to go in, but it is apparently very plain because of Arab influences at the time of construction. Interestingly there are inscriptions with quotations of the Koran inside. From churches to piazzas, gardens and palazzos.

Moreton Bay figs are big -
that's Allan on the right

Piazza Marina is one of the largest in Palermo and has the biggest Moreton Bay Fig trees we have ever seen. They were huge, and looking carefully, many of the upper branches had been trimmed, so they could have been even larger. Unfortunately we are not seeing Sicily at its best. It is the end of summer, and by the look of the gardens, nothing gets watered. Even the cacti look as if they are suffering. Just around the corner from the piazza was the Palzzo Abatellis. It was designed and constructed in 1490-95 for the then city harbour master and mayor, who felt that he needed a mansion that befitted his social status. (Nothing changes!) It was taken over by the Benedictine order when he died without an heir. It was restored after suffering damage during the war and is now an art gallery. Much of its collection is religious art, mostly by Sicilian artists, but the most exquisite work was by a Flemish artist Mabuse. It is called the Malvagna Triptych and portrays Mary and Child surrounded by angels. It wasn't very big, but the detail was staggering. It had the fineness of detail you see in a miniature, but the central panel was about 20cm by 35cm, and the two smaller flanking panels about 12cm by 35cm. He must have painted it with a brush containing two hairs! We spent quite a bit of time just admiring it, to the point where the attendant came to see what we were doing, and was really pleased that someone had spent some time actually appreciating the work. I suspect that it was her favourite piece in the gallery. There were two other works we really admired, and they were very different. One was of Moses, and the other was another religious work, but the artist who was responsible for both paintings (his name started with V - that's all I can remember) was superb at painting old men.

Entrance to Palazzo Mirto
The craftwork in the furnishings was incredible

From one palazzo to another, but Palazzo Mirto is essentially unchanged since it was built in the 18th century on 14th and 15th century foundations. The last line of the family left it to the Region of Sicily, and essentially walked out, leaving furniture, art collection, and the most amazing dinner set, in situ. The dinner set, distributed in display cases over three floors, illustrated every known bird of the region for the period it was made. I don't know if it was used or just for show, although a couple of the handles on soup ladles and large spoons (all ceramic) were broken. No photography was allowed, so we just have to remember how sumptuous the furnishings were. There was a silk- embroidered bed canopy which was just beautiful. The canopy itself must have been at least four metres high (taller than any we have seen in France or the UK), so there must have been months and months of work in it to complete it. Because of the layout of the building, a grand entrance through to a courtyard around which the rooms are arranged, and typical of Italian palazzos, the rooms also act as corridors. The only truly private rooms are small vestibules which are built between rooms, with one door off one of the main rooms they are between. Imagine several letter H's side by side with the vertical strokes combined and really thick. These are the major rooms. The joining horizontal bar is the corridor between these rooms, and the spaces above and below the horizontal bar are the small private rooms, dressing rooms, or servants' rooms. All floors have the same layout. There appear to be very few stately mansions open to the public and preserved for posterity in their function as a house. This was the only one we knew of in Palermo, all the others being converted into museums etc.

Cats waiting for the fisherman
There are cats everywhere in Palermo

Churched and museumed out, we headed for the gardens by the waterfront to sit and rest the legs. It was a balmy evening and we just sat and people-watched for an hour or so before going back to our hotel, then finding somewhere for dinner. The menus are interesting. For a set sum you can have a four-course dinner, but there is no way I could even contemplate eating that much, so we usually order one course, and if we feel like it, dessert as well. More often, dessert is usually a gelati on our way back to the hotel.