Sciacca

From Agrigento we drove on, further west, generally close to the coast, to the town of Sciacca. Sciacca is not on the major tourist destination lists, but it was listed as having a "camper stop," that is, a designated parking area for motorhomes, something we have seen rather little of in recent months. We had only GPS coordinates. Getting into town we found a relative hurricane of activity, police, detours, monstrous traffic, all kinds of pedestrians all over, and were hustled down little winding alleys to the port area. It's evidently a major fishing town with a big port. Anyhow, after a little pedestrian reconnaissance of our own and discussion with some other campers, we found our way to a huge parking area with 30 or more motorhomes already set up. Nice, we thought. We'll stay here. But by this time it was also apparent that all the hubbub was about Sciacca's Carnevale--one of Sicily's two largest such events--Mardi Gras, as we Americans know it. Vicki especially enjoys folk happenings, and we spent the whole evening absorbing this rather incredible event.

Happpily camped, by the great sea wall, Sciacca in the

background

Looking across the marina toward sunset

Vicki on the grand staircase from the port up

to the town center

Looking back at our camp site...and anything but a quiet

evening ahead...

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...

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...

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