Month: September 2018

(Hello.  Still having blog issues.  I think you may not have received email notices of new posts for the past couple of days.  I continue to post every day, or nearly so, so in case you don’t receive an email about a new post, you can always go to www.adventuresctlb.com and find all the posts.  I think the email notification has been fixed, but if not, check out the website for new posts.  Thanks again for reading this blog.)

Today we visited the Uffizi Gallery. It is one of the most important Italian museums, and the most visited; it is also one of the largest and best known in the world, and holds a collection of priceless works, particularly from the period of the Italian Renaissance.  Christine decided to purchase a small group tour, for which now I am very grateful, although initially I thought the ticket price was very high.  We had an excellent guide, Ricardo, who in 2 hours led us through the gallery, gave us quite a history lesson on the Medicis, and educated us on the development of painting styles from the 12^th century through the late Renaissance.

We weren’t quite sure of the drill for meeting our guide, but once at the Uffizi building and at Gate 1, which was where we were to meet our guide, everything fell into place.  There are thousands of people entering the Uffizi and it is quite chaotic.  Ricardo, however, helped us through security and got us into the gallery with ease.  I chose to walk up the 124 steps to the second floor where our tour began.  Christine chose to use the elevator; she was the smarter of us.

The Uffizi building was one of the Medici palaces.  It is U-Shaped with long arms and a shorter end.  It was built to house administrative offices on the ground level (uffizi is “office” in Italian) and the living quarters of the family were on the second floor.  One interesting fact about the palace is that to get to the Pitti Palace across the river, the Medicis built a covered walkway to keep themselves private out of the view of the public.  Part of the walkway is an arched portico, then the Ponte Vecchio across the river, then other covered walks to the Pitti Palace.

Covered portico along river

Private hallway on 3rd level

Most of the gallery’s important work is on the second floor, with lesser known art work on the first floor.  Along the hallways on the second floor are all kinds of statues; they have no protection around them and just stand along the walls.  Ricardo didn’t talk about any of the statues because he said the gallery is more about the paintings.

The second floor was the living space for the Medici family.  The hallways are very ornate with unbelievably wonderful painted ceilings.  Ricardo pointed out all the small portraits along the top of the walls.  The Medicis had portraits done of all the famous people in Europe and hung them down the hallway.  Ricardo related this as the Facebook of the day.  When visitors came to the Uffizi Palace, a Medici would walk them down the hall to the place where their portrait was hung.  This was symbolic to all, indicating that the Medicis had powerful influence over all since they had everyone’s portrait.  Their power trumped everyone elses.

Hallway with beautiful ceilings

Painting in one ceiling panel

Detail in a ceiling painting

Renaisannce Facebook

We started with 12-14th^th century works and learned that paintings were basically flat, had no perspective, not much color and all the figures were similar in that there were no feminine features on the women, especially the Madonnas (we must have seen 100 Madonna and child paintings).  Very quickly, however, within a matter of 25 years there was a big change in painting.  These 2 Madonnas show the difference.

Cimbue’s Madonna – flat

Giotto’s Madonna – more depth and realism

Santa Trinita Madonna, was painted by Cimabue which shows the main traits of the Byzantine style, a profusion of gold and an almost total absence of volume and perspective.  Madonna di Ognissanti by Giotto is revolutionary with its use of volume through which he succeeded in painting a religious subject no more cast in a distant and perfect dimension, but moving slowly and respectfully towards a certain kind of realism.

We then saw the portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino by Piero della Francesca, one of the most significant painters of the 15th century. There is something new here – a private subject, a noble, refined couple with a painting that is full of tiny little details composing the landscape and also his extraordinary skill in the use of perspective.  This is the first photographic-type painting.

Then we came to the Botticelli room, probably the most visited room in the gallery.  The Botticellis are fantastic, very realistic, very colorful and full of a sense of animation.  The Primavera – Spring was painted by Botticelli round 1482.  It is full of allegory, although no one really knows the meaning of the painting.  Also in this room of the gallery is Botticelli’s Birth of Venus in which Botticelli wanted to paint the sense of perfect beauty represented by one of the most delicate and charming icons of female beauty.  Ricardo told a story that Botticelli fell in love with this beautiful woman with long blonde curly hair, although two Medici brothers also wanted to date this woman.  Botticelli used this woman’s face in many of his other paintings.

Venus

Same likeness used

Same likeness used

Same likeness used

Next, the octagonal room called Tribuna (Tribune) was commissioned by Francesco I, son of Cosimo I de’ Medici and completed round 1584. Francesco wanted this special room inside the Uffizi in order to display his most precious belongings, paintings, jewels, coins etc. In a sense, the Tribuna was already a “museum” many years before the Uffizi building was officially transformed into a gallery.

Apart from the paintings, furniture and statues still visible inside the Tribuna, the room itself can be considered a work of art with its incredible dome encrusted with thousands of precious shells, its walls in red velvet and its marble floor.

4,000 perfectly shaped shells imported for ceiling

Beautiful shell designs

Next, we visited the Leonardo di Vinci room where were saw an unfinished painting, Adoration of the Magi, painted in 1481.  It is full of the anatomical detail that Leonardo was so good at drawing.  Another Leonardo painting that Ricardo talked about is The Annunciation, painted 1475-1480.  A really interesting thing about this painting is that if you look at it straight on, there appears to be some distortion in the anatomy of the figures.  Ricardo said that Leonardo intentionally used a technique involving perspective because the painting was to hang on the side wall of a church so viewers would see it at an angle, thus he painted it in a manner to be correctly proportioned when viewing from the side.  The other interesting thing about this painting is the wings on the Archangel Gabriel.  Leonardo studied birds and flight and so his angels have wings like falcons, which he thought were more correct for flight.

Unfinished Adoration of the Magi

Detail of Madonna and child

The Annunciation

There is only one Michelangelo painting in Florence.  The Holy Family dates back to the time when Michelangelo returned to Florence after his first stay in Rome, the same period when the great artist sculpted the famous David.  The painting is considered one of the masterpieces of 16^th century Italian art.

We then learned about Madonna of the Goldfinch painted in 1505 by Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael).  This is a lovely painting of the Madonna and Child with a baby John the Baptist.  In John’s hands is a goldfinch having a red spot, which signifies the blood of Christ.

Raphael’s Madonna of the Goldfinch

Closeup of goldfinch

Our final stop on the tour was in the Caravaggio room.  We knew a little about Caravaggio from his very famous painting, The Beheading of St. John the Baptist, in Valletta, Malta at St. John’s Co-Cathedral, so it was interesting to see some other paintings.  Ricardo told us about Caravaggio and why many of his paintings depict beheadings.  Apparently, as a teenager, Caravaggio killed someone and incurred a death sentence.  He fled, but for the remainder of his life lived with the fear that he would be captured and beheaded, which was how his death sentence would be carried out.  In many of his paintings, he essentially acted out his own beheading death through his subjects.  Ricardo discussed 3 of Caravaggio’s paintings.

Sacrifice of Issac

Medusa Shield

Bacchus

That ended our tour.  It was well worth the price.  We learned a lot.  After the tour, we returned to the gallery and spent another hour wandering around.  At one point, Christine and I got separated in the throngs of people and it seemed like forever before we found each other.  We were both relieved.

I hope I haven’t bored you to tears with all the art stuff.  Maybe you had to be there to find it interesting.  I certainly did, and would love to take other tours through the gallery with a knowledgeable guide to learn more about art.

During our tour we did have a couple of good views from the second floor of the Uffizi.

View from Uffizi

Ponte Vecchio from Uffizi

After the gallery, we wandered around the Piazza della Signoria, which historically was, and still is, the main square near the seat of power in Florence.  There is a commanding town hall, the Palazzo Vecchio.  There is a lot of statuary around the square and a fountain.  It is ringed with cafes.

Palazzo Vecchio

Palazzo Vecchio

Lots of colorful tile around the palazzo

Christine in front of copy of David statue

Piazza del Signoria

Piazza del Signoria

After that, we decided to walk over to the Piazza del Duomo and find a café in the shade and have lunch.  We had a nice lunch and had a great view of the Duomo and Campanile, a perfect spot.

Our visit to the Uffizi was great, but it tuckered us out.  I think we’ve both said to one another more than once during this trip that we’re getting old.  We don’t have the stamina to go, go, go as we once did.  But I like how we are taking it easy and not jamming too much in.  I think that allows us to enjoy things more.  Besides, as I said, we really are enjoying sitting in front of our window watching the day end and having a relaxing light dinner.

This morning I learned how to use a Mako, that funny-looking Italian coffee pot.  Espresso is what all Italians drink and the Mako is an espresso maker.  I don’t care for espresso, so I used the flat’s larger Mako to make a less strong version of espresso.  There is only one tea cup in the flat and 4 espresso cups.  Christine gets the tea cup for a larger cup of coffee and I make do with an espresso cup.  I had a rude awakening, though.  I accidentally put salt in my first cup, rather than sugar.  That was a shocker!  But, with Google’s help, I had the Mako down pat and was producing Café Americano in short order.

The first little excursion this morning was to find the train station.  Next week we’ll be taking the train from Florence to Venice.  The map indicates that we’re a 15-minute walk away, so we wanted to check that out.  Florence has lots and lots of little, narrow cobblestone streets.  I’m sure there is a pattern in the street layout, but we haven’t figured that out yet.  Just a couple of blocks from our flat what we did figure out is to get to the train station, just follow the crowd clacking their luggage wheels over the rough cobblestone.  It appears that train travel is the preferred method for tourists and everyone else.  Hordes of people were heading to the train station, and you’d better have good, strong wheels on your luggage or else you’re never going to make it to the station.

Inside the station, there is just a cacophony and lots and lots of people.  We stood under the large arrivals and departure board trying to figure out the information.  There are many train platforms outside the main terminal and after studying the board and looking out to the platforms, I’m pretty sure we figured things out.  Although the walk is only 15 minutes to the train station, I don’t think we’ll be clattering our luggage over the cobblestone; we’ll take a taxi right to the front entrance of the station.

After visiting the train station, we set off into the maze of little streets.  I wanted to get to the Basilica, di Duomo.  We walked without knowing where we were headed.  Eventually, we stopped in a bodega and bought a map, but that didn’t help much.  Some of the street names look similar, but you have to know the first name in addition to the last name.  We found Strozzi on the map and then headed in a direction we thought was correct.  Unfortunately, we were on Via Fillipo Strozzi and not Via Degli Strozzi as we thought.  The only reason we figured that out was in looking at some of the side street names.  The map indicated a different grid on the map for the side streets.  And then we realized we were on Via Fillip Strozzi.  Once properly oriented, we found our way to the Basilica.

The Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower, is the cathedral of Florence, Duomo di Firenze. It is mostly just referred to as the Duomo. It was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style and was structurally completed by 1436, with the dome designed by Filippo Brunelleschi. The exterior of the basilica is faced with polychrome marble panels in various shades of green and pink, bordered by white, and has an elaborate 19th-century Gothic Revival façade.  The brick dome remains the largest brick dome ever constructed and the first ever octagonal shaped dome. Construction of the dome was one of the most impressive projects of the Renaissance because there is no supporting structure holding the dome up.  The cathedral complex, in Piazza del Duomo, includes the Baptistery, a smaller basilica, and the Campanile (bell tower). These three buildings are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site covering the historic center of Florence.

Your eyes can’t really believe what they are seeing when you look at the Duomo.  The beauty of the marble panels is amazing.  There is constant renovation and cleaning occurring on the exterior and comparing a cleaned portion with a portion not cleaned really shows just how remarkable the pink, green and white marble panels are.  There is detail everywhere in the windows, niches, porticos, eaves, etc.

Main face

Details

Sculpture

Section needing cleaning

The right side has been cleaned recently

Beautiful mosaic over door

Details around window

Shell niche

Top piece

Brick dome

The Baptistery is an octagonal building that some say is probably the oldest building in the city.  On the location of the building are ruins of Roman defense walls.  The Baptistery has 3 sets of massive bronze doors that are very ornate and the panels are masterworks of art.

Baptistery door

Door panels

However, my favorite building is the gorgeous Campanile.  The Duomo is exceptional, but the Campanile is exquisite.  It is probably the most beautiful structure I have ever seen.

The Campanile

A lot of pink marble

Corner detail

Campanile really sparkles

We sat in the Piazza di Duomo for a long time just gazing at the Duomo and the Campanile.  We didn’t go in the Duomo because the line for tickets was long and the line to enter was very, very, very long.  Waiting in the hot sun was not something we wanted to do.  On our next visit to Florence (you never know) we’ll buy “skip the line” tickets and take a look inside.

After our long walk in the morning and our Duomo/Campanile amazement, we were tired and headed back to the flat for lunch and a rest.  It is so nice having the flat so close to the major attractions.

In the mid-afternoon, we decided to go to the Boboli Gardens.  As many of you know, gardens are one of our things so the Boboli Gardens was definitely on our list of things to do.  The Boboli Gardens are behind the Pitti Palace, one of the palaces of the Medicis.   I will say, however, that we were disappointed by the Boboli Gardens.  Maybe because it was so hot, and maybe because a lot of the walking in the gardens is all uphill, and maybe because our expectations were high, but the Bobali was very underwhelming.  Yes, the sights from up the hill are nice, and yes there is lots of statuary, but we didn’t see much in the way of gardens.  At the top of the hill was a bit of a formal garden that needed tending.  This was probably the rose garden, but of course it is long past rose season.  We went in search of the botanical garden section, but never were able to locate it.  We did stroll through some nice shaded areas and we found an area where there were some horticultural experiments with about 50 types of lemon trees all in pots around a large patio.  I never knew there were so many different kinds of lemons.  After that, we were happy to be heading downhill and towards the exit.

Pitti Palace

Courtyard of Pitti Palace

Scupture garden

Neptune

Lots of steps

Interesting sculpture

Nearly hidden in the bushes

Nice sculpture in a grotto

Ceiling of grotto made of shells and stones

Did get a nice view from the gardens

We wandered our way to our little market and picked up some things and headed back to the flat for dinner.  We’ve become fond of sitting in front of our window overlooking the Arno River watching dusk and then evening arrive.  It really is magical being in Florence and having such a wonderful view up and down the river.

Reflections in the water

Love this view with planet between steeples

Our final full day in Catania was supposed to be another sea and sun day, basking in the wonderful rays of the sun and swimming in the Ionian Sea.  That was not to be because it was cold, very windy, and quite rainy.  Where we had lounged a few days ago was getting battered by the waves.  The hotel staff had removed the loungers so they didn’t get swept away.  We did sit outside for a bit in the wind listening to the waves crash on the lava rocks.  It was pretty intense.

We then spent some time sitting in a lovely lounge area in the piano bar.  There was again some conference going on at the hotel and at the bar, many of the conference attendees were having their morning espresso and networking.  I had my laptop with me and I was trying to deal with my dying blog site.  I was so frustrated with it.

We took a walk to an ATM.  It was near a big Sheraton Hotel up the street.  I like our hotel because it is right on the water.  At the Sheraton, one has to cross a busy street and go to a lido for access to swimming.  We stopped in at a little market alongside the road and picked up a couple of things.  We spent the rest of the day resting and then packing.  We had a light dinner in our room.  We are going to miss having that big breakfast buffet; no pilfered food for our dinners after today.

Our flight to Florence departed at 9:05A.  We got picked up by a taxi at 5:45A, always better safe than sorry, arriving with lots of spare time.  Allessio had told us that with construction into the airport, traffic often backs up for miles.  But we had no traffic that early in the morning.  We stood around the ticket counter for over an hour, finally got checked in and our bags dropped and headed to the departure gate.  Security is pretty much the same everywhere.  Our issue is with the carry-on bag containing two laptops.  These both have to come out of the suitcase, then out of their cases and placed in the x-ray bins.  So that’s 2 laptops and 2 iPads that have to get unpacked and repacked.  It’s a pain, for sure.  At the departure gate, I staked a place at the front of the line.  On many regional airlines in Europe, only the first 75 carry-on bags are allowed on board due to limited overhead bin space.  With our carry-on being laptops, we couldn’t afford not to be able to carry on; can’t put our laptops in the hold of the plane.  All went well and we were off to Florence.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had yet to see Mt. Etna, other that a brief glimpse from our taxi from the airport.  I still didn’t see much of the volcano, but as the place was taxiing to our takeoff, I did see Etna from the plane window.  The photos don’t do justice to the enormous size of this mountain.

Mt. Etna

Mt. Etna

The plane ride is about an hour and 20 minutes.  We flew over Messina, Sicily where the tip of Sicily nearly touches the toe of Italy.  We also had some great views of the Italian coastline, mountains, and farmland.  I always have my nose stuck to the window when I fly.  I’m fascinated by the topography.

We landed in Florence, found our way to the taxi queue, and then were whisked into the city center.  Although we couldn’t check in to our Airbnb until 2:00P, we wanted to at least locate it and then have lunch somewhere where we could also have our luggage with us.  We found a restaurant just up the street and ate and relaxed until 2:00P.

The host’s friend Alesandro met us at the flat.  We then were totally challenged by 4 flights of steep stairs with narrow steps.  We have two 47-pound suitcases, an 18-pound carry-on bag and each of us has personal items over our shoulders.  Wow!  Alesandro carried one of the suitcases, I carried the other, and Christine had the laptop bag.  What a struggle!  I told Christine that when we leave we’ll just throw the suitcases out the window to the street.  No one will be around to help us carry our luggage down when we leave.  That should be a fun ordeal.

Alesandro gave us a quick tour of the flat.  He obviously doesn’t speak much English and so he just pointed at things and within 3 minutes he was out the door.  The flat is about the same size as the Sliema flat with living area, dining area, very small kitchen, fairly large bedroom with adjoining small bathroom.  But the real plus of the place is its location.  We are steps from the Ponte Vecchio and within a 5-minute walk to most of the major sights around the main square, di Duomo.  It is an absolute thrill to just look out the window at the Arno River and the Ponte Vecchio.  It’s so exciting being in Florence.

Looking from our window

What we see directly across the river

Ponte Vecchio

Looking away from Ponte Vecchio

After resting and unpacking, we walked across the Ponte Vecchio in search of a market.  I took us a little far afield, but it was nice just strolling.  We did find the market which was very crowded and laid out in a very confusing pattern.  We picked up a few things to tied us over for a couple of days.  We then walked back across the Ponte Vecchio to our flat, climbed the stairs and collapsed after a day of travel.  But how exciting to go to sleep in Florence (Firenze in Italian)!

Views from our window

Lovely evening in Firenze

Hi, everyone.  I just wanted to tell you that over the past 24-48 hours my blog site crashed.  I was heartbroken, thinking that I had probably lost all the posts of this trip.  I was smart enough to backup everything just before leaving on the trip, so not all would have been lost from the past couple of years.  I know that you have probably been having trouble seeing the thumbnail pictures in each post and that probably most didn’t open to a larger size when you clicked on a photo.  That apparently was a precursor to a crash.  I have been frantic about this, but the good tech support at Green Geeks, my hosting company, found that a plugin I was using on my site to help with controlling spam comments and attacks on the website had crashed bringing down my blog.  Tech support disabled the plugin, and voila, I’m back in business.  My apologies to you who tried to log in and couldn’t and to those of you who wanted to see photos, but couldn’t.  I hope all is well now and that things are working properly.  If you still are having trouble accessing the blog or can’t see photos, please email me so that I know there is still a problem.  I’m now a couple of days behind, but fortunately Wednesday and Thursday weren’t touring days so I won’t have much to tell you.  I hope you are enjoying the posts.

When Christine was swimming in the sea in Malta, she struck up a conversation with a woman.  When the woman heard we were going to Sicily she told Christine about Villa del Romana Casale, a very large excavated Roman villa that has fantastic mosaics.  The woman said it was a must visit.  That peaked Christine’s interest and so from Catania we booked a tour to the villa along with a stop at the Valley of the Temples, another archaeological site in Agrigento.  We had seen a Roman villa, Domus Romana, in Mdina, Malta in 2016.  It was a very small villa but had a few beautiful mosaics, so we definitely were interested in going to Casale to see more mosaics.

Our tour was through Get Your Guide which is a contracting organization that uses local guides.  Our guide, Allessio, is a Sicilian who spoke excellent English.  There were 5 other people on the tour, Irina and Igor, Russians who now live in Washington, D.C., and 3 women originally from Brooklyn, Diana, Palma and Cynthia.  Again, a small world.  We had a good time getting to know them and the 3 were very fun.  Allessio was very knowledgeable and gave us quite the history lesson on our 2+ hour drive to Agrigento.

We didn’t mind the drive at all because it afforded us the opportunity to see the Sicilian countryside.  Outside of Catania, we drove through the Catania plains, the largest agricultural area on the island.  The main crops in this area are oranges and olives.  It was interesting to see some of the old irrigation systems still in use, long, raised stone troughs running down the hills.  We then drove out of the province of Catania into the province of Enna.  The terrain changes from plains to rolling hills and some mountains.  Enna is a wheat producing area and the wheat fields are all up and down the hills.  There is a special kind of wheat grown here in Sicily.  During Roman occupation Sicily was the granary for the entire Roman empire where all the wheat was grown and from where it was shipped throughout the empire.

Sicilian wheat region

Beautiful countryside

We finally arrived at the Valley of Temples located near the ancient Greek city of Agrigento founded around 580 B.C.  The Valley of the Temples is probably the most important testimony of the ancient, classical culture of Sicily. It brings together the temples of gods and goddesses as well as the area of the necropolis and sanctuaries.  Agrigento, the Greek city called Akragas, in its glory days, was one of the most important and most culturally-advanced Greek cities in the Mediterranean.

The archaeological park consists of eight temples (and various other remains) built between about 510 BC and 430 BC: the Temple of Hera, the Temple of Concordia, the Temple of Heracles, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the Temple of Castor and Pollux, the Temple of Hephaestos, the Temple of Demeter, and the Temple of Asclepius (the God of Medicine). Only 4 of the temples have standing columns.  All are situated in the same area on rocky crests south of modern day Agrigento (not really in a valley at all!).  The juxtaposition of the temples in relation to modern day Agrigento was really quite interesting to see, just as it was in Taormina when viewing the ancient amphitheater while also seeing the modern housing of Taormina.

We first visited the Temple of Juno.  It is an amazing sight and can be seen from afar when driving to the part.  It is situated on the eastern-most crest of a hill and is quite thrilling to see.  It is very visible from nearly everywhere around Agrigento.  Of the 34 original columns, 25 are still standing, all of the ones on its north side.

First view of Temple of Juno

Must have been a marvelous structure

A really awesome sight

Fluted columns

I was certainly very excited by this temple, but then we walked about a quarter-mile down the main pathway,my eyes saw the Temple of  Concordia, and wow!  It is the largest and best-preserved Doric temple in Sicily and one of the best-preserved Greek temples in general.  Only the Parthenon in Athens is better preserved. The temple was converted into a Christian basilica in the 6th century dedicated to the apostles Peter and Paul by the bishop of Agrigento and thus survived the destruction of pagan places of worship.

Temple of Concordia

Very well preserved

Icarus laying in front of the temple

A truly massive structure

Along the walk between temples Juno and Concordia were large outcroppings of sandstone.  These were at the edge of the hill and so there was quite a drop off, and a fantastic view of the countryside out to the sea, which is about 3 kilometers away.  The sandstone had been sculpted into a necropolis and there were several catacomb-like structures that were used to bury the dead.

View to the sea

Necropolis area

Necropolis

Weird structure that looks like an animal

A little further down the main path we came to the Temple of Hercules.  It  is the oldest temple in the park.  Inside it kept a bronze statue of Hercules himself, which  the Akragantines loved very much.  The temple, destroyed by war and natural disasters, today has only eight columns left, but nonetheless, it is still wonderful because one can get the closest to the structure and a lot of the broken columns lying on the ground.

Temple of Hercules

Temple of Hercules

You could walk very close to the columns

Fluted columns

There are other areas where temples once stood, but they are rubble and broken columns.  One can see some of the foundations and can get an idea of how large some of these structures were.  And even the broken bits and pieces of columns are interesting to look at with their fluting or designs.

Bits and pieces

Water irrigation trough

More bits and pieces

Outline of another temples

The last temple we saw was the Temple of Castor and Pollux.  It now only has 4 columns remaining of its original 34.  There is a beautiful rosetta carved in one of the blocks at the top in the corner which is indicative of how ornate this temple once was.

Temple of Castor and Pollux

4 remaining pillars

I thought going through the Valley of the Temples was amazing and I’m really glad that this was part of our trip to the Villa del Romana Casale.  After the temples, Allessio took us to a restaurant for lunch.  Thankfully, it wasn’t as expensive or extensive as the lunch in Castelmola.  Christine and I both ordered a seafood salad, which was wonderful.  All kinds of seafood, including more octopus, were in the salad.  It was refreshing after our hot walk through the Valley of the Temples.

Our lunch stop

Seafood salad

Across the street, an archeological excavation

Uncovering an amphitheater

Then back in the van for an hour drive to the Villa.  This drive was quite interesting because much of it was on back roads bumping along the countryside.  We got to see farmhouses up close and we passed through several small villages.  It was nice to be able to see a little of rural life in Sicily.  We also whizzed through the ancient village of Piazza Amerina, also built at the top of a mountain.  I wish we had had some time to wander around a little.

Villa Romana del Casale is a large and elaborate Roman villa or palace located about 3 km from the town of Piazza Armerina. Excavations at this site revealed one of the richest, largest, and varied collections of Roman mosaics in the world, for which the site has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The villa and artwork contained within date to the early 4th century AD.

Some of the villa walls

These were outdoor tubs

Some of the outer courtyard

The mosaic artwork cut into walls and walkways, are unique in their excellent state of preservation due to the landslide and floods that covered the remains. The villa began being excavated only in 1954, which in itself is truly amazing.  Although less well-known, an extraordinary collection of frescoes covered not only the interior rooms, but also the exterior walls.

The villa had about 50 rooms, each used for a different purpose.  The mosaics contained mostly in the floors give some clue as to what the rooms were used for.  It is unbelievable how well preserved the mosaics are.  They are incredibly detailed and depict all kinds of activities and scenes, telling wonderful stories.  Really an amazing place.

Exquisit detail

Long hallway of animal heads

Bear

Chariot races

Looks like a patchwork quilt

Frescoes on walls

Fish

So artistic being able to capture facial expressions

Bringing crops in by oxen

Unloading exotic animals for a circus

Girls engaged in sporting events

Depicts the struggle between Eros and Pan

Closeup of faces

I loved this figure with what looks like eyes in a box

Unbelieveably complex

A #MeToo moment in Roman times

Story of Ulysses and Polyphemus

Closeup of the cyclops

It was then another 90 minutes in the van back to the hotel.  We were all tired, but very satisfied with our touring today.  We learned so much and saw things we’ll probably never see the likes of again, except for maybe some things in Athens in a couple of weeks.  That conversation Christine had with the woman while swimming really produced a wonderful experience for us.

After taking 2 days to decide whether or not to book our day tour to Taormina, we finally boarded our van which would transport us to various locations.  Franco, our driver, didn’t speak much English, which we knew beforehand.  We were a little concerned about that because we needed to know how much time we had to ramble around some of the stops and where to meet him for pick-up.  Franco stopped to pick up 2 other passengers.  The first was a French lady, Gisella, who spoke no English at all, and the second was a woman from Colombia, Julia, but she spoke 4 or 5 languages, including Italian and a little English.  She was our interpreter, and she was a hoot.  She talked nearly the whole tour and was very entertaining.

We drove for about an hour northward fairly close to the coast.  Our first stop was in the seaside village of Giardini Naxos.  It’s a beautiful bay, Gaia di Villagonia, with a very long beach.  This was basically a photo stop, and photos we took.  While the beach and the main street along the beach were lovely, the amazing views up the mountain were awe-inspiring.  It was hard to believe that we would be driving up those mountains to Taormina.  The really awesome reality was that we would be driving even higher up to Castelmola, a small village hugging the very top peak.  Both villages are big tourist destinations and both are steeped in history; both have been in existence since about 600 BC with Greek and Roman influences.  It was really cool seeing our destinations from Giardini Naxos.

Giardini Naxos

Taormina below the peak

Castelmola on top of the peak

Rare photo of both of us together

Along the main street

Lots of outdoor cafes

We then drove along the coast for a bit.  These smaller Italian roads are quite scary.  The road doesn’t seem wide enough for two cars to pass, let alone huge tourist buses, but Franco navigated expertly along the coast roads.  Our next stop was to see a charming small island called Isola Bella.  Isola Bella is known as the Pearl of the Ionian Sea.  In 1890 Florence Treyvalen, a member of British aristocracy, bought the island, built the house on top and spent her remaining years importing exotic plants to her little island.  Eventually, Sicily turned the island into a nature preserve.

Isola Bella

At low tide, one can walk to the island

Surrounding views

Really beautiful area

Then it was up the mountain.  And if I thought the coast road was a little scary the mountain road was a lot scarier.  The road is one switchback after another, narrow and often hanging over a deep crevasse.  But the higher we climbed, the more beautiful the views.  Unfortunately, it was a very humid day causing it to be a little murky so the views were not totally clear and sharp, but nonetheless, everywhere we looked was breathtaking.

Castelmola is a small village of about 1,000 people, but there were probably 2,000 tourists there.  Julia got directions from Franco on where a couple of places were, like the all-important bathroom, and off the 4 of us went.  The streets are narrow and the locals do drive up and down the streets.  Tour buses and other vans drop people off at the city gate so you know that the cars inside the city gates are locals.  The locals are clearly dependent on tourism as there were many, many shops selling souvenirs.  We walked around several little streets taking in the views.  It is amazing that villages are built at the very tip top of mountains.  There has been a fortified town here since the Bronze Age, with Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and Normans inhabiting, among others.

Village gate and castle

Beautiful paved streets

Into the smaller streets we went

Beautiful restaurant

View from Castelmola

Street scene

Trinacria, the symbol of Sicily

Who knew??!! (Yes, these are what you think they are)

Narrow streets, two-way with parked cars

Another view from Castelmola

The road from Taormina to Castelmola

Glad we didn’t take this road

After wandering around Castelmola, it was time for our lunch stop.  I knew there was something about lunch on this tour, but I didn’t pay much attention to the details.  From Castelmola Franco drove off the main road and even further out into the mountains to a little restaurant perched on the hillside.  The name of the restaurant was Chicchirichi Trattoria, and is billed as Cucina Tipica Siciliana, meaning it specializes in “real” Sicilian cuisine.  I had written in the post about our day in Catania that it was hard to believe people ate such big meals mid-day on hot and humid days.  Well, we were now sitting down to a 5-course Sicilian meal, at a significant added expense, but I must say it was phenomenal.  We were seated out on a covered patio, hanging off the side of the mountain, looking down the valley to the sea.  It was a wonderful setting.  The meal started with a tasty aperitif.  Our starter was marinated swordfish and tuna.  I haven’t eaten much raw fish but this was scrumptious.  We had another dish that was a shrimp salad.  Then came octopus, shrimp and bonefish dumplings.  I have not eaten octopus, and I must say I loved it.  Next were pasta dishes, gnocchi with shrimp sauce and hand-rolled pasta made on the premises in marinara sauce.  By now, we were stuffed because of course there was fantastic bread with each course.  But we weren’t done yet.  Next was the fish course, orata, swordfish and more shrimp.  The orata was excellent, and I’m not a big fish eater.  We then cleansed our palate with lemon granita and then ended with a fantastic cannoli and a shot of Vino alla Mandorla, a homemade vino aromatizzato.  Wow! What a fantastic meal.

Chicchirichi Trattoria

Gisella, Christine and Julia

The octopus course

Rolling the pasta

The special pasta

Making bonefish dumplings

Then it was in the van again and down the mountain halfway to Taormina.  Although Taormina is a shopper’s paradise, it is also the home of the largest Greek/Roman theater excavated in Sicily and Italy. The first theater was probably constructed in the 3rd century BC.  Its setting is breathtaking with a wonderful view of the sea, and if it had been a clear day, we also would have seen Mt. Etna.  Except for a brief view of Etna coming out of the airport, Etna has been covered in clouds and we haven’t seen the volcano at all.  So, we had to settle for just seeing the sea view.  The amphitheater is enormous.  The stage area has some remaining pillars, but is doesn’t really give you the sense of what it originally was.  We saw an animated video of how the stage would have looked.  It would have been at least 3 levels of columned floors tall.  Again, the setting is simply breathtaking.

Remaining columns of the scene

Taormina in the background

Looking at the stage from the back of the theater

View from the cheap seats

After visiting the theater, we wandered around Taormina a bit.  It was very hot and humid and so we were uncomfortable and tired.  We did walk down the main street, Umberto Street, and passed through 2 lovely piazzas, both with wonderful views.  On our way back to our pickup location, we found a shady bench and rested until it was time for pickup.

Taormin main street

Mosaic in the wall of one of the gates

St. Giuseppe Church

Fruit market on side street

View of Castelmola from Taormina

Hotel Timeo, where the rich and famous stay

Interesting shop sign

One of the churches

That ended our day touring and Franco returned us to our hotel.  We were tired, but very happy that we had done the tour.  Seeing Castelmola and Taormina was very interesting and worth doing.

We didn’t need to find the train station this morning because there is very limited train service on Sundays; no train into Catania until late afternoon today.  I’m glad we knew that before hiking to the train station.  We thought maybe we were going to have to pay 25+ euros to take a taxi into the old part of Catania.  However, upon talking with the front desk folks at the hotel, we did learn that there was some bus service on Sunday with bus stops right outside the hotel.  To get tickets, though, we needed to walk about 700 meters down the main road outside the hotel to a tobacconist shop, where bus tickets are sold.  After a 10-minute walk, we found the shop, purchased our bus tickets, 1 euro for each ticket.  That’s certainly a lot more affordable than taxi fare.  Our wait for the bus was going to be about 25 minutes, so we found a little shade around the corner from the bus stop.  We boarded the bus and some locals helped us to understand that our tickets needed to be inserted into a machine on the bus.  Tickets are good for 90 minutes, and the machine time stamps the ticket.  We find that locals are always more than willing to help and with hand gestures and smiles, we can get the gist of what they are telling us.  Riding the local transportation is always fun and the bus route took us through lots of the outskirts of Catania and then through much of the downtown area.  It’s a great way to see the city and what the neighborhoods are like.

Catania is the second largest city in Sicily and the 7^th largest Italian city, having about 1.1 million in the metropolitan area.  The city is at the base of Mt. Etna and as I learned, this is both a blessing and a curse.  The volcano has wiped out the city several times, but the volcanic ash creates good soil and so there are lots of vineyards around.  In addition to volcanoes, the area has been wiped out by earthquakes, most recently in 1693.  After that, during the 18^th century, the city was rebuilt in the Baroque architectural style, what has become known as Sicilian Baroque.  At that time, Catania was under Spanish rule.  The city is also known as the “black city” because of the lava rock that is so present everywhere.

We got off the bus at the bus terminus and just started walking.  Although we had a map, it wasn’t very helpful.  At one point, we were looking at the map on some little side street and a guy walked by and said, “forget the map, just get lost in the city.”  That was probably very good advice.

The Baroque architecture is quite something.  Many buildings have very ornate decorations with figures and faces.  This was the first ornate building we saw right across from the bus terminus.  What fun to look for all the weird figures and faces.  This is the Palazzo Biscari, the biggest Baroque palace in the city, whose beauty was celebrated by Goethe.

Palazzo Biscari

Very ornately decorated

Every window was adorned

Some of the interesting figures

Faces

Faces

We then passed by a very interesting church that didn’t look much like a church.  Again, a very ornately adorned Baroque exterior.

We then came to the church of the nuns’ convent of St. Agatha.  This was a lovely little church across from the main cathedral.

The main cathedral is the Duomo di Catania dedicated to St. Agatha.  It is a glorious Baroque church rebuilt in 1711 after the earthquake of 1693 that wiped out the city.  It has a lovely bell tower and clock.  The statuary on the outside is really beautiful, with St. Agatha in prime location.  Just as we were looking inside, a mass began, this being Sunday.  The organ was beautiful and the choir sounded wonderful.

Catania Cathedral

Cathedral Apse

Organ and choir loft

Statues and bell tower

St. Agatha

Cathedral and Nun’s Church dome

While we were out in the Piazza di Duomo, some people asked us to take their photo in front of the cathedral.  Lo and behold, one of the men in the group was from Buffalo, NY.  It truly is a small world.

In the Piazza di Duomo is the u Liotru, the elephant statue and fountain.  An elephant is the symbol of Catania and there are many stories as to how this symbol came about.  There is much folklore and no one really knows the truth.  The fountain marks the city center midway between the market and the main street, the huge monastery, now converted into a university and the port.

Elephant Fountain

Piazza di Duomo

Elephant Fountain

Catania symbol

After visiting St. Agatha, we found the Tourist Service shop.  We have been talking with a tourist agent in our hotel about a tour to Taormina and other locales.  That agent, Tanya, was going to be working in the  office Sunday.  We had talked with her twice at the hotel and still hadn’t finalized our tour, so we wanted to see her and finally book our tour.  We transacted our business with Tanya, who was quite happy to see us and take our booking.

After that, we stopped in the tourist information office for an additional map, and then just wandered around a little.  One of the things that struck me is the graffiti on all the buildings along many of the side streets.  It’s everywhere. We then ventured into Piazza Vincenzo Bellini and found the Teatro Bellini, a magnificent opera house constructed in honor of local son and famous composer Vincenzo Bellini.  The opera house was inaugurated on 31 May 1890 with a performance of the composer’s masterwork, Norma. The theater seats 1,200.  I wish we had been able to take a tour, but alas, we couldn’t as their scheduled had changed.  What a fantastic building, though.

Teatro Bellini

Very nice adornments

Fountain in Piazza Bellini

A very grand opera house

Teatro Bellini

Some of the glass etchings

We then found the Piazza Universit where some of Catania University is housed.  It was ringed by wonderful buildings, the Palazzo degli Studi and the Siculorum Gymnasium.   Inside the gymnasium is a wonderful inner courtyard.  The floor was laid out in a beautiful pattern made all from lava.

Palazzo degli Studi

Top of the palazzo

Walking across the Piazza Universita

Outdoor cafes in all the shady spots

Siculorum Gymnasium

Courtyard in Siculorum Gymnasium

Fantastic arches around the courtyard

Floor made from lava

After that, we were running out of steam.  Again, it was a hot/humid day and the sun was scorching.  Truth be told, we made our way around by picking streets with the most shade.  And in all the piazzas, wherever there was any shade, that’s where everyone was standing taking pictures and just keeping out of the sun.

We found an outdoor cafe down a shady side street and under a tree.  Fortunately, we were able to be seated fairly quickly.  It was a busy place.  What amazed me was that in the early afternoon on a very hot day, people were eating mountains of pasta and very large meals.  That wasn’t for us so we ordered something a little more refreshing, insalata caprese and insalata Sicilian, both tomato-based salads.  The Sicilian salad had one kind of tomato and was dressed in salted ricotta sprinkled with Parmesan.  The caprese had cherry tomatoes and wonderful hunks of mozzarella bufala.  We shared the salads; both were very yummy.

Here are a few other photos of sights around Catania.

St. Agatha’s clock and bell tower

Looks like something’s missing on top

Lovely balconies with vegetation

Balconies adorn most of the buildings

Main shopping street

Side street

Fountain near Piazza di Duomo

St. Michael’s Church

After lunch we decided that we had seen many of the major sights and should find our way back to the bus station.  I was sure we wouldn’t reach the station in time for a bus at around 2:30, so we didn’t rush back to the terminus.  We got to the terminus and saw that the bus 524 was listed, but there weren’t any times posted.  Christine went to the office and asked.  Just as she was talking to a guy, I realized that we didn’t want the 524 bus, we needed to get on the 534 bus, which was sitting right in front of me.  At the same time I was rushing over to Christine to tell her of my error in bus numbers, the helpful bus guy was also telling her about 534.  He helped us get our tickets from the machine.  We were on the bus just a minute before it pulled out.  If that hadn’t worked out, we would have had to wait for about 2 hours for the next bus, so we were quite relieved.

After getting back to our hotel, we took a dip in the sea.  I’ve been thinking that we see the Mediterranean Sea, but what we see and swim in here in Catania is the Ionian Sea.  After a few hours out in the hot day, it was a relief to get into the sea.

We enjoyed another light dinner in our room.  At breakfast, we pilfered some sliced meat and cheese from the breakfast bar to use for our dinner.  Christine has been able to use some other things we have purchased and carried around with us, or taken from the breakfast room, to make sufficient meals for us.  Sitting by our window watching dusk turn to night over the Ionian Sea has been quite lovely.  The trees around our courtyard attract birds settling in for the night so there is a lot of bird chatter going on.

So our adventure in to Catania was successful and we had a great day.  Tomorrow we’re off to Taormina and a couple of other villages.  Should be fun.

We had a wonderful day basking in the sun and sea.  We started with a grand breakfast, which is included in the room charge.  The location for the breakfast is this lovely windowed room overlooking the sea.  It’s quite a sun room.

The breakfast room

The breakfast room

Just about anything you could imagine having for breakfast was available, all smartly laid out on tables around the room.  And let me just say the pastries were out of this world.

Looking out from our room

This is our view

After breakfast we suited up and headed down to the lounge area near the sea pool.  There are several tiers of lounge areas, all with umbrellas and loungers.  We staked out our space, but later moved when people vacated a better spot, closer to the edge where we had a great sea view.  The sea was wonderful, so clear and clean.  It was a bit more wavy today, but only with rolling swells, nothing that really knocked one around.

Sun

Sea

We really did very little today other than swim and lounge around.  It was just perfect.

Enjoying being lazy

This place is great

A happy woman

Enjoying being here

I thought many times today how lucky we are and how blessed we are to be able to take a trip like this.

Vegetation grows right out of the lava

Lava bridge

Crevice in the lava

Lava rocks

Later in the afternoon we returned to our room and did research on tours to the places we are most interested in.  For the next 3 days we’re going to be on the go, so a lazy day was good.

For dinner we walked a short distance to a restaurant.  We forget that Italians eat late and so we were seated but told dinner service didn’t begin until 7:30 but we could get pizza starting at 7:00.  We sat there for about 30 minutes, from 6:50 until 7:20 and no server came over to our table, not even to take a drink order.  So, we got up and left and walked down the street to another place we saw.  At first, we were practically the only people in the place, but over the next hour, the place became a beehive of activity.  It was a happening place, and full of locals, so we knew it was good.  We had a great salad and a porcina pizza.  It was very good.

So now we’re back in our room doing our nightly things, me blogging and Christine working on her spreadsheet of expenses.  As I said, the next 3 days will be touring; tomorrow we’ll be attempting to get ourselves to Catania, the old city, by train.  They don’t speak much English here in Sicily so we’ll see how well be do at the ticket kiosk buying our train tickets.  The train station is about a 20 minutes walk from our hotel.  That will be the first test – can we find the train station?

Our day started with some very torrential downpours in Sliema.  It rained really hard, causing some minor flooding in our neighborhood.

A downpour is approaching

Rain came pouring down

Can hardly see Portomaso through the rain

Our building is at the corner of College Street and Tower Road.  College St. is downhill to Tower Rd. and the water came whooshing downhill causing quite a flood across Tower Rd.

Fortunately, the rain subsided a bit just as our cab came.  We were able to get ourselves and our luggage into the cab without getting soaked.

We are sad to be leaving our little flat in Sliema, but we know that we will be back in a couple of weeks.

Upon arriving at the airport and during check in, we learned that because we booked our tickets through Expedia, the “cheap” tickets company, we did not pay for luggage.  We were shocked to learn that we owed 80 euros per bag.  Yikes!!  And apparently, we’ll possibly have to pay this again on the return leg to Malta from Athens.  These airlines get you coming and going with all the extra fees.

Our flight to Catania, Sicily took all of 30 minutes and the trip was uneventful, except for a little boy who screamed nearly the entire time from boarding until getting out of the bus from the plane to the airport in Catania.  We wondered what caused him to seem so terrified of being on the plane.  And boy, did he ever shriek.

We landed at Catania airport, retrieved of costly luggage, and made our way to the taxi stand.  Our hotel is outside of Catania up the coast a bit and it cost 40 euros to get there.  Passing by some of the buildings in Catania, we both were quite interested to be touring in the old town of Catania.  It looked really cool.  And Mt. Etna looms over the whole area.  Hopefully I’ll get some pictures of that.  Mt. Etna is an enormous mountain.

Our hotel is the Grand Hotel Baia Verde, and it is quite the “posh” place, as its advertising description says.  It sits on the edge of the rocks overlooking the sea.  After checking in and unpacking, we wandered around the facility.  There is some big conference of orthopedists and trauma physicians being held here at the moment and much of the facility is geared up for their events.  This place is very big, spread out across four or five 4 story buildings.  But what we liked the best was the swimming area down the steps to the sea.  We’ll definitely be going swimming there tomorrow.

Lovely landscaping all around

Terrace above the sea swimming area

Shorline north

Craggy rocks with caves

Sea swimming area

Our room is just to the left of the double foliage

If you don’t like the sea, there’s a pool

Nice trees all over the property

View from our room

View from our room

Sea view

Christine near the sea swimming area

After wandering around the facility, we walked up the street in search of a place to either have dinner or buy some food.  We found a tiny little market along the street and bought cold cuts, cheese and tomatoes and a bottle of wine.  We had a lovely dinner in our room enjoying the view and watching the dusk come upon us.

I think we’ll have a wonderful adventure in Sicily.