Noto

In 1693, a devastating earthquake in this area killed ~ 60,000 people and completely destroyed numerous towns and villages.  The towns were re-planned and re-built in the Baroque style.  The town of Noto was actually moved to a new site 14 km away.  The old town, which sits atop Monte Alveria, is now known as Noto Antica.  The town had been inhabited since the 5th century BC, it was in a very good defensive position with cliffs plunging down into a gorge.

Today the site was deserted as we wandered around the old rubble, which is overgrown with trees and other plants.  Then we walked about half way down the gorge, on the ascent, some sheep came along with their bells jingle jangling.

Castello Reale, the only structure to survive the earthquake.

Palazzo Landolina di Bellaudia, once a grand palace built in the early 17th century.

We don’t know what this tree is, but the berries looked great on the bare wood.

Baroque Architecture

The Baroque began when the Renaissance began to fade, it has been argued that Palladio and Michelangelo paved the way for the Baroque by their originality, but we see the very early signs of the Baroque in ancient Roman architecture.  The Baroque has come under some heavy criticism; referred to as a debased form of art, disfigured, as bizarre as it is tasteless.  We have to remember that Baroque buildings are recognized by their design rather than by their abundance of ornamentation.

The Baroque conserves the edge, the building is designed to stand out but it will flow into adjacent buildings.  Sometimes, it is not clear where the building starts or ends.  There is an increase in density of elements and decoration toward the centre.  The rhythm of the facade will vary; concave and convex, light and shade, the layering implies volume.  Multiple themes are going on, it is all very theatrical, artificial looking and exaggerated.

We tend to park at the first free and legal parking place that we encounter.  In Noto, we parked in a huge lot that only had a few other cars, I guess that was our clue that we were parking a million miles from the centre of town.  Nevertheless, it is the thing to do, as walking up steps, down steps and through allies without really knowing where we are does seem to work out.  I think that Noto is a walker’s paradise and a driver’s nightmare.  Walkers can head down stairs and up and down narrow lanes while things look more complicated for the drivers of cars.

We saw a church dome and just headed in that general direction, knowing we would never be able to retrace our route on the return.  Luckily, I had a map of the centre which listed some of the names of the 50 churches that exist in town.  We got our bearings as the churches had signage.

We had a great time walking around Noto looking at the Baroque architecture.  The stone used is local and the sun has baked it to a lovely golden hue.  Supposedly, it is best viewed at sunset as it looks like the town is lit up.  There is so much detail, it is easy to miss all the little faces and the just plain weirdness that is sitting high up on the buildings.  It really was a joy to see and we were quite delighted with it all.

We made it back to the landmark church but lost our route after that.  We just headed in the general direction that we thought we needed to go and made it back to the parking lot.

Light fixture with attitude.

A long line of the Baroque.

Note the architectural elements get more densely packed toward the centre of the building.

This is a civic building.

Some detail on the pillaster.

So much going on here, Doric columns on bottom, then Ionic, then Corinthian.

Lucky dog.

The theatre, a wonderful building.

You really get a sense of motion with this one.

This hovers right over you as you stand on the street.

This style of balcony is common.

Quite a cast of characters, the detail is astounding.

We took our road to Noto and back again to Modica.  Yes, we are now calling it our road.  It winds through farm land and trees and is just the best, as there is never much traffic and we always encounter a big front wheel assist tractor or two pulling really small covered carts that must be hauling vegetables or some other produce.  There are dairy farms along the way as well, they are indistinguishable from other farms except for the cows, of course.

We got back near 5:00, which worked out well as that is when the shops open up for the evening.  We wandered into the very best cheese and deli shop ever.  The shopkeeper asked if we wanted strong or mild cheese, we said strong, so he gave us a sample of a local cow’s milk cheese which was so good.  Then he gave us a sample of a sheep’s milk cheese from Agrigento with peppercorns in it, oh my, fantastic.  We got some deli meat as well, some wine and finally, some local almonds.  We knew that there had to be local almonds as there are flowering almond trees all over the place.

Then we went next door to a tiny vegetable shop and got our vegetables for the day.  Lastly, we dropped into the next butcher shop and got our meat for the next few days.  What a way to shop, we just love it, and the people in Modica are very friendly and give great service.

Well, that is a wrap for another exceptional day in Sicily.

Siracusa

The Greek name was Surakousai, it was founded in 733 BC by settlers from Corinth.  There are two main areas, the island of Ortigia and the mainland, they are now linked by bridges.  The archaeological park is on the mainland while the temple ruins are on the island of Ortigia.  This is a beautiful place, Ortigia is great to explore on foot as there are narrow lanes and a wonderful piazza.

Our GPS is having connectivity issues, we think the car’s plug-in is at fault.  It will not work and then suddenly, it comes on.  Today, we just had to wing it with my gigantic and unwieldy map, which I fight with every day as it is huge.  The map will likely be destroyed by the time I am through with it.  So, we just drove straight ahead from our parking spot on the road in Modica and ended up on a really interesting road through the country heading to Siracusa.

If I were to live here, I would live in a casa in the country among the olive groves, it is beautiful.  Our secondary road kept trying to lead us to the autostrada, the big highway that goes to Siracusa.  But we stayed on the secondary road and it was a great route.  When we got to Siracusa, I relied on the google map I printed to get us to a parking area.  Then we took off on foot to the archaeological park.

The Archaeological Park

Roman Amphitheatre

Likely dates to the 1st century AD.  It was partially hollowed out of the hillside, the plan is the usual Roman oval, there was a corridor running around the outside which afforded access to the gladiators and wild animals.

Greek Theatre

Early Greek theatres were simply a hillside which provided seating and a tent served as the backdrop.  All theatres that exist today were built after the time of Alexander the Great.  The seating area was in a horseshoe shape around the orchestra which is a raised platform.  The seating was cut into the rock of the hillside.  At the back of the orchestra is the scene building.

The theatre in Siracusa is the largest in Sicily.  Have a look at the siting of this theatre, the ancients would have had views from the theatre to the sea.  Archaeological evidence suggests the first theatre was constructed of wood and dates to the 6th century BC.  The theatre was subsequently enlarged and could seat more than 15,000.  The Greeks staged theatre productions but the Romans altered the theatre to hold gladiator games.  In the summer months the locals hold Greek productions in the ancient theatre.

Ear of Dionysius

Legend tells us that the tyrant Dionysius used the cavern as a prison and could listen to his prisoners because the acoustics were so clear.  This is near to an ancient quarry where the slaves worked.  It is really fascinating, the cavern is deep and it amplifies every sound.  On the walls are the chisel marks from the tools of the slaves that worked the quarry.

The Island of Ortigia

There was a market underway when we reached Ortigia.  They sell absolutely huge cauliflower and broccoli and all types of fruit and vegetables that are in season.  The fish sellers had an enormous table of fish on crushed ice.  It was a pretty interesting market with lots of great food for sale.

The Temple of Apollo - 600 BC

You will have to go back to the post on Paestum to read about the Temple of Apollo, the first peripteral (surrounded by a colonnade) Greek temple built in the west.  Recall that the columns were massive and closely spaced to support the superstructure.  Well, Greek gods, are they ever squat and close together.  All that is left of the poor old Temple of Apollo are two intact columns, part of the cella walls and the stylobate.

The Temple of Athena - 480 BC

The Temple of Athena was built by the tyrant Gelon after the defeat of the Carthaginians at the Battle of Himera.  Gelon brought back thousands of slaves and put them to work building the temple.  It was magnificent, the statue of Athena was made of marble but her hands, feet, face and weapons were made of gold.  The temple doors were inlaid with ivory and gold and the cella walls were richly painted.

So what are we doing inside the Duomo or Cathedral?  The Byzantines built a church right into the temple and cut arches into the cella walls.  The once freestanding Doric columns are trapped in the church walls, looking as though they would like to break free.  During the Arab rule of Sicily, it became a Great Mosque, the Normans raised the height of the roof while adding clerestory windows and side chapels.  The Spanish added the ceiling of chestnut.

The horrendous baroque facade was added in the 1700's, but the baroque interior was stripped out between 1909 and 1927.  We will talk more about baroque architecture tomorrow.  Anyway, the most interesting architectural elements of the Duomo are the Doric columns, simple and grand and really showing up the more modern elements.  Okay, Greek temple freak bias declared, but you must admit, that ostentatious rabble of a facade is stunningly gross.

Piazza Duomo

The Fountain of Artemis

 Narrow Lane on Ortigia

Vendicari Nature Reserve

Our drive from Sciacca to Modica yesterday was interesting, in an outlandish Sicilian driving habit, sort of way.  We laugh and laugh at the driving antics.  Sicilians don’t seem to want to veer off their driving path, so when they overtake our car, they miss our side mirror by mere inches while flying by at high speed.  Patience is non-existent, cars pass everywhere and the oncoming cars just have to get over.  Driving in town is even more bizarre, I don’t know why turn signals are even installed on cars as they are never used.  Road rules are not really adhered to, cars just converge and muddle through, somehow it works.  Then some rouge driver will just cut right in front out of nowhere logical, and just carry on, anybody running a brake shop will do a brisk business here.

Cars stop everywhere in town and everybody just seems to manoeuver by.  So, when we got to Modica, we just stopped right on the street, next to parked cars and waited for a guy to come on his little moped unit so we could follow him to our apartment.  We just sat there for about 15 minutes and it was no issue at all because cars could just go around us, which is totally normal.

Then there will be some stylish woman in big sunglasses driving a BMW, who owns the road, no doubt.  If you are not driving through town at break-neck speed, she lays on the horn, and then motors on by, we shriek and shake our heads, it is so hysterical it is unbelievable.

We are in a total state of navigation confusion over here in eastern Sicily.  There are about a thousand roads leading into Modica, our apartment is up some narrow lanes which people do drive cars on but we don’t.  Our GPS is bamboozled by the Sicilian roads, it will tell us to turn down some donkey trail, so we have to ignore it and watch for signs at the roundabouts and know which major town we should be heading for.

Driving in western Sicily is much easier as it seems less populated, the highways are bigger and they bypass the cites for the most part.  Over here we drive right through every town and have to watch for signs all the time.

There are crates of oranges for sale along the highway near Sciacca, then suddenly the landscape is one mass of greenhouses, low ones with the plants growing on the ground.  There are also fields of artichokes, some are being harvested right now.  Which brings me to the food in Sicily, which is really good and cheap.  I am talking about groceries, as we never eat out, which is insane I suppose, but whatever.

The Sicilians must be sugar addicts judging by the sweets that we see everywhere.   They are also not a part of the anti-fat brigade, thankfully.  We get serious high fat in the meat we buy at the butcher shops and the deli meat, well, oh my, it is fantastic.  The butchers make the best sausage, they are not afraid to lay on the spice, which is great, we buy sausage in every place we stay and the best so far is here in Modica at the butcher shop we dropped into last night.  Fat is our fuel for all the walking and climbing we do so it is food bliss for us.  We also get the vegetables we love the most, which must be in season.  We get cauliflower, zucchini, fennel, peppers, broccoli and mushrooms.  Vegetables are really cheap and really good.  They are sold all over the place, off the back of trucks, from vegetable stands on the street, in vegetable shops and in grocery stores.  We spend a lot of time food shopping as we have to shop every second day, which we are not accustomed to.

After sitting in the car yesterday, we really wanted a good walk, so we set out for the Vendicari Nature Reserve.  It is a really important Mediterranean bird migration route, the ponds dry out in summer but fill again in winter, which is right now.  We walked for four hours and covered about 15km and saw nobody except for two people at the beginning and two at the end.

Fish had been processed in the area for thousands of years.  The Romans made some fermented fish gut concoction called garum, which flavoured many Roman dishes.  A tuna canning facility operated here until the 1940's.

We got to an old Byzantine settlement just before a rain came through.  Luckily the old dome roof of the church was still intact so we waited out the downpour.  We wanted to get back to Modica before dark as we need to read the billion road signs necessary to navigate so we took off around 4:00 p.m. and were glad to get back to our well stocked apartment.  We normally like to rent from locals, but made an exception as we like the location of this apartment.  This place is owned by two Canadians and they have the best outfitted kitchen ever, so we are enjoying real knives and great cookware.  In our last apartment we were sawing through everything with a miniature steak knife with a plastic handle, I wouldn't even call it a knife.  Normally we bring our own knife but since we did not check any luggage, our knife could not make the trip.

On the drive yesterday we stopped at Cala dei Turchi (Turk's Staircase).

Vendicari Nature Reserve

Calamosche

Old fish processing plant.

These are everywhere.

Old church with domed roof, from Byzantine settlement.

Great beach in the Vendicari Nature Reserve.

Monti Di Palazzo Adriano

There is a whole other Sicily that a lot of visitors don’t see.  It is off the monumental, archaeological route and is not near the cities, the coast or the beaches.  It is the interior of Sicily, where hilltop towns are reached by long, bendy roads.  The interior is incredibly beautiful and wonderfully green at this time of year, well before the sun bakes it to a crisp brown.

Once you depart the coastal area, you leave the orange groves behind.  While gaining elevation, the olive groves and grape vines give way to cereal crops and grazing land for cattle, sheep and goats.  I have been intent on getting into this landscape, and today was the day, as we were greeted with blue sky and sunshine this morning.

Sunday is a great day for a drive as the roads are quiet.  The sensible Sicilians must have been heading out for Sunday lunch or a family get together in town.  And that was a good thing for us, as it gave us some time to get used to the bends and the hairpin turns.

It was only about 70 km to the beginning of our hike but it took some time to get there.  Then we had to find our way out of Palazzo Adriano, we ended up in the main piazza and then proceeded down a very narrow street that dead-ended.  John had to do some serious car manoeuvring to get us backed around a corner and turned around so we could get out.  The town of Palazzo Adriano was the setting for the movie 'Cinema Paradiso,' the piazza is really pretty and it was full of Sicilians near midday.

We got out of town and headed up the road, suddenly, a wayward black chicken came blasting out of the side of the road and crossed in front of the car.  John and I just howled with laughter, it was totally bizarre. Why did the chicken cross the road!?  I am certain that it was the chicken goddess Artemis.  We found the car park and started our hike.  Luckily, John put the hiking way points on our handheld GPS, otherwise we would never have found the trail.  The cattle chopped it up and it was very faint.  Since it has rained a lot, the trail was a muddy mess but we gained quite a bit of elevation right away.  Then things calmed down and we made our way down the mountain which was troubling, as we figured we would have to go back up again.

Then we had one of those travel moments that you have sometimes.  Way down the mountain a shepard was driving his flock.  Since sound travels so well up the mountain, we could hear with incredible clarity.  He was using different calls, the bells on the sheep were tinkling and we stopped and stood and watched.  I was thinking, this is why we travel, to witness these simple things which have this serenity about them, a shepard calling and moving his flock.  I thought that he must be calling to a dog to move the sheep.

After a while, we carried on and ended up meeting him and the flock on the track we were following.  We greeted him and were signaling with our normal gesture method of communication, if we should go around through the trees, he motioned that we should go right through the sheep.  I thought, oh brother, we are going to mess up his day, sheep are going to freak and scatter all over the place.  We walked through, some sheep ran ahead and some stayed behind, some went for the trees.  Then, he made a call and the sheep totally, and I mean totally, responded to his call, they stopped, turned and went to him.  The sheep down the road turned around and ran back past us to re-join the flock, it was extraordinary.  There was no dog, he did it all with his voice.  There is skill in everything that people do to make a living in this world.

Shortly after, we had to climb back up the bloody mountain.  It was relentlessly steep, straight up through the trees.  If we had not climbed the billion stairs in Amalfi we would have been doomed.  After slogging for what seemed like forever, we gained the ridge and walked and walked back to the car.  The hike took us 3.5 hours.  We ate a bit of lunch in the car and then took off as dark clouds were gathering and we wanted to get back to Sciacca prior to dark.

Tomorrow is a travel day, we move to southeastern Sicily, to the baroque town of Modica.

As usual, click on the pics to enlarge

Prizzi, I think!

Yeah, we leave Saskatchewan in winter and have to find snow in Sicily.

Piazza in Palazzo Adriano

Palazzo Adriano