Thursday, March 10, 2011

Valley of Temples, Agrigento

The Greek diaspora/colonization continued on around the south of Sicily to Akragas (a bay of crabs; founded, according to legend, by Daedalus) and there the great Valley of Temples, another Greek city rivalling Athens. "Valley" is a misnomer, since it's all on a low ridge beneath the modern city.

We parked for the night in the parking lot of the Valley of
Temples, in the the olive and almond groves beneath the
Temple of Juno

















Next morning, the hill-side town of Agrigento















The Valley is adorned--tastefully, we thought--in more-than-
life-size sculpture of classical subjects
















The Temple of Juno; all these temples are 5th or 6th century
BCE
















In the grove, new almond buds















Still hanging in there, last year's almond















More of the sculpture--"Ikarea"--with wings;
"Ikaro" did not have wings...




















Temple of Concord















Temple of Concord; if you want to see the glory that was
Greece, as the archaeologists told us, go to Turkey; or to
Sicily, we say

















Temple of Heracles, oldest of the lot, late 6th century















Vicki by a base, for scale















Looking back at the Temple of Concord















And the Temple of Juno...all of it an incredible place...yet
another UNESCO World Heritage Site

















Villa Romana del Casale--Not

So from Siracusa we backtracked a bit--Vicki's phobia of squiggly roads on the map--getting eventually to Piazza Amerina and finally to the Villa Romana del Casale, said to be home of the finest Roman mosaics ever. (How many times have we heard that?) Anyhow, arriving at the Villa, a little man in a little Fiat informed us the Villa was closed until March 19. This being March 7 or so, we decided to head on, through more of the beautiful Sicilian countryside of groves of olives, lemons, oranges, cacti, even artichokes, and more, to Agrigento. Pity. I really wanted to see those mosaics of Roman girls in bikinis.





























Oh well...

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Best Doric/Baroque Temple/Duomo So Far

Although Ortigia is nice enough in itself, our real goal was to see its Duomo, a Baroque cathedral built right on top of and unabashedly incorporating the foundations and columns of a 5th century BCE Doric Temple of Athena. It was pretty incredible.
North side of the building, note the inset Doric column, then
note the 10 or 12 more capitals along the top of the stone
















Entrance and facade; pretty Baroque















Column hugger; inside, the massive 2500
year old columns are pretty conspicuous and
are still holding the thing up; one sees
religious buildings built over others all over
the more contested parts of Europe--the few
Roman temples that have survived in Rome
have done so because, like this Duomo, they
were "converted" to Christian use; but there
is nothing else of this age, intactness, and
continuing function



























E.g.




















Back to the Baroque




















Doric columns at the head of what was the
cella




















More columns




















Looking off into one of the Baroque side
chapels




















Ceiling of another















Play of light on the porch


















Bonus: right down the Duomo Square, which
is significant for other architectural reasons,
is the Church of Santa Lucia (patron saint of
Sircusa), in which resides a moderately
famous Caravaggio, namely, his Santa Lucia,
which he painted while on the lam between
his flight from Malta and return to Italy 
























The Church has a no pix policy, and while the
guard was enforcing this with a group of
college-age tourists, I snapped what is truly a
Parthian Shot as I was walking out the door;
evidently, this is not one of the paintings on
which Caravaggio's reputation stands, being
largely a butt-shot of one of the grave
diggers...

Monday, March 7, 2011

Ortigia

The island Ortigia was the original site of the Greek colony; now it is a beautifully-preserved little Medieval/Baroque city, part residential, part up-scale shops and restaurants. From the archaeological park we decided to walk to Ortigia--alas, it ended up being an 11 mile day of walking all-told--but it was rewarding enough. Bus tickets were sold out by evening, but the nice bus driver gave us a lift back to the campground anyway.

You have to love a place where a whole
pizza is just 75 cents, even frozen




















Pinocchio store (Stromboli is not far away)















One of the bridges connecting Ortigia















More kids in costumes















Remains of Temple of Apollo















Street scene




















Ablution area of synagogue; Jews were exiled in 1492















Balcony scene




















Looking southwest over the bay















32 flavors--Hercules would have been proud




















Peeking into someone's garage















Another alley

Siracusa's Archaeological Park

Siracusa has an interesting lay-out. The original colony was the island of Ortigia. A couple miles inland is another part of the ancient city, now the archaeological park, which houses the quarries, the amphitheater, the Greek theater, and more. The Park is about 700 meters beyond the the Orsi Museum.

Temple and altar remains















Another Greek theatre; is anyone keeping count?















Yes, but, you see, this one is different; whereas all the others
were built-up, this one was dug-out of the huge limestone
shelf that makes up the area

















Waterfall in a little grotto near the theatre















The Ear of Dionysius, so named by Caravaggio (it's a long
story), a huge artificial grotto in the quarries
















In the Ear, Vicki poses for scale




















Roman amphitheatre















Alas, the photo can do little justice, but, 30 or
40 feet below rises one of the largest and
most interesting banyan trees I have seen





















Eureka! Well, close, maybe; according to the map, the tomb
of Archimedes was supposed to be around here somewhere,
but we never found it, exactly; he was a Siracusan

Paolo Orsi Archaeological Museum in Siracusa

Sunday we drove on to the ancient Greek city of Siracusa, for a big day at the museum, the archaeological park, the medieval city, and the best Doric/Baroque temple/cathedral so far. Siracusa was settled by Greeks from Corinth in the mid-8th century BCE. And was said by some to rival Athens in its splendor. The museum's collection seemed to emphasize the everyday rather than the monumental, which was fine with us.
Entrance to the Paolo Orsi; Orsi was a regional archaeologist responsible for 
many of the area's important finds; it is a beautiful, new, capacious complex, 
already getting filled up...


















The Orsi's particular strength, we thought, was in its paleo- and neolithic 
collections; the Greeks were not the first to settle here; above is a beautifully-
perfect 4th millennium BCE cup


















Other neolithic pottery of unknown use--but interesting to speculate about
















Just a smidge of the neolithic collection















Bone totem sticks, 2nd-3rd millenium BCE















Other devices of unknown use




















And still more neolithic stuff















Gorgon image from one of the Greek temples in Siracusa; wait a second...
didn't we see this guy in a museum in Auckland?!

















Votive City; hundreds of votive figures from the Temple of Ceres (or was it 
Demeter?), all carrying bundles of grain or even baked breads

Etna

I got up early Sunday morning for some pix of Etna, on whose northeastern slopes we are parked. It had clouded up by mid-morning every other day we have been here, so I figured this was my big chance.

So there it is, from our campground more or less















Closer-up, you can see a plume from one of its four summit
craters
















Closer-up still















On down the road to Siracusa; I was getting concerned
about the black river of lava on the left there
















But the barista at the service area assured me there was no
cause for alarm; Sicilian coffee is every bit as good as
Naples'...the best