Classic ruins and modern grit

Loquats

We put the hotel in Siracusa behind us and headed to the nearby Neapolis Archaeological Park, which contains several sites associated with Greek and Roman occupation.

The first section began on a path through the Latomia del Paradiso, a wild and lovely garden, with both flowers and various trees, including lemon, mandarin, and loquat, an import from China with fruit that resembles apricots (sadly, we never got to try them). Past the garden is a series of man-made caves or grottos. They were excavated for minerals by slaves, who also lived in the caves. The history our local guide related to us was grim.

Today, the caves are cool and pleasant, draped with unlikely plant growth from any and all directions, seemingly rooted in rock, not soil. Such is the tenacity of plants.

Orecchio di Spock

The most famous of the grottos is the Ear of Dionysus, created in a particular shape for an apparently cruel ruler. He must have had ears like Mr. Spock, because that's how the cave is shaped. It has some brilliant echo properties inside. Our tourguide did a massive whisling performance. (I would have shown a photo of the inside but it looks weirdly vaginal.)

After the caves, we walked back through the garden and on to the Teatro Greco, the ruin of what was once a huge Greek theatre, used for performances of comedies and tragedies. Because very little of the original theatre remains, they're rebuilding it with modern materials so as to make it a place for performances again.

Thus, the site was a bit of a construction zone, which wasn't all that much fun. We walked to a high spot above the theatre for a good view of the surroundings, including the harbour at Siracusa. On our way to our final site, the Roman Amphitheatre, we passed a long, multilevel stonework called the Ara di Ierone, the largest Greek altar ever found.

Roman sportsing

Unlike the Greek theatre, the Roman Amphitheatre was enclosed, with seats on all sides like a modern stadium, because Romans perferred gladiatorial contests to plays. Like modern sports or reality TV with wild animals and all the protections turned off.

Both ends of the amphitheatre were open at performance level to allow the entrance and exit of gladiators and animals. There is also a vomitorium on one side, which is not, in fact, a place to vomit, but rather a place that would have allowed large numbers of spectators to come and go. I could almost see and hear Ben Hur and the other movies about gladiators in my mind's eye, except on a smaller scale.

Where wine was aged

From there we drove north along the coast of the Ionian Sea, then a bit inland to a place called Tenuta del Gelso, the sign for which describes it as an "Orange Resort & Wine Experience." The building in which we had lunch was what had actually been the winery at one time. The interior of the place was gorgeous, with so many things to look it.

Lunch was a plentiful sampling of all kinds of tasty farm products, including the best sun-dried tomatoes I have ever had, plus a sample of each of the wines they made, all quite lovely. I left with a 500 ml bottle of their own olive oil made from two local olive varietes and grown on only just over two hectares of land. [Note: the EVOO is delicious. Fruity rather than peppery, which is what we like for raw use.]

Lovely, lively, a bit tattered

We spent the rest of the afternoon in Catania, the second largest city in Sicily and the commercial and industrial capital. I've heard Palermo described as gritty, but Catania really is. More tagged than anywhere else we'd seen so far. Lotta dirt. A bit of a New York in the 1970s vibe.

And yet, I realized afterward that I'd taken several photos of interesting things. We had yet another very good local guide who pointed out things we might not have noticed it we had wandered on our own. More Sicilian syncretism: a Catholic church with an Orthodox cross on top; a Norman castle with both a cross and the menorah marked into the wall. Catania showed the signs of a city that has been inhabited since the 8th century BCE and invaded again and again.

There has been a University of Catania since the 15th century, and we went into one of the two former main buildings across from each other on a piazza. The mosaics inside one are not of the calibre of the ones in the Roman villa but are still pretty cool. All those young 15th (and later) century lads studying the law or science or literature.

Opened once a year for S. Agatha's feast

We visited the Cattedrale di Sant'Agata, dedicated to the patron saint of Catania, Saint Agatha of Sicily. According to her hagiography, she was only 15 when she was told to renounce her Christian faith and refused. She was then tortured in particularly gruesome ways, including having her breasts ripped off. She was to have been burned at the stake but was saved by an earthquake. She died in prison.

Saint Agatha is the patron saint of all kinds of things, including rape vicitims, breast cancer patients, wet nurses, and bellfounders. Her removed breasts (always neatly excised, not torn) get featured in many a depiction of the saint. There is even a dessert called a Minne di Sant'Agata that looks like a breast, with maraschino cherry on top.

A few of us persuaded our guru that we weren't exhausted yet and had a serious gelato need. So we took our free time and hit a gelato shop right off the main piazza. Not as good as Palermo, but quite good, and hey, it was gelato!

Our place of rest for two nights was called Caesar Palace [sic], a large, fancy place in Giardini-Naxos with a lovely garden and a rather nice dinner buffet, although the first evening we had dinner down the road at Spizzicannu, a very good seafood place. Caesar Palace would be our launching pad for adventures in Taormina.

Pancho dug the tiny balcony at Caesar Palace