We went for a drive down to Syracuse today. After the initial chaos of getting out of the city it was an easy drive down and took about an hour. A couple of the things that we hadn’t expected in Sicily was just how brown, dry and hot it is, and we hadn’t expected the cactus that grows everywhere. It really is dry. Large expanses of dry fields, abandoned stone houses and farm buildings that are falling down. You get the impression that this is very hard land to farm, and that people have just walked away from it. And behind all of this is the amazing backdrop of snowcapped Mt Etna steaming away, and beyond that the brilliant blue of the Mediterranean Sea. We had been told that this is the land of contrasts and it is proven to us at every turn.
Once in Syracuse we went to the ancient Greek/Roman ruins that date back from the 5th Century BC. The Tourist Office at the entrance to this site is inside a small ancient church, and if you go inside there are some glass panels that look down into the catacomb like structure, revealing skeletons and earthenware. Inside the site there is an amphitheatre that was used for gladiator sports and horse races, a temple, complete with a sacrificial alter. A large amphitheatre that was used to show the last tragedies of Aeschylus and were first performed in his presence. That is in the process of being set up for an upcoming open air production (now wouldn’t that be cool), and this was surrounded by caves that had been dug into the rock walls, these held pools of water for the masses to cool themselves down with. Now I should also mention that both the amphitheatre and the large amphitheatre were created by almost entirely digging out existing rock. So this was no Lego block affair, this was all carved (including seats) out of a huge natural lump of rock. Amazing when you think of when this was done and the tools that they had available. Further along within the same site was a large natural cave that wound its way into the cliff, which had a very high cathedral like roof. The acoustics in there were great. I tried it out with a bit of kiwi flavour, by whistling pokerekereana. More harmless than one of the previous rulers who imprisoned his ‘spoils of war’ here and then used the acoustics to eavesdrop on them.
One of our impressions from here was, it is very much like how we imagine Greece to be. Very hot, very dry, almost white stone cliffs, white powdery dust underfoot.
From here we headed for the Basilica that holds the Madonna (of the weeping tears variety). One huge, and very modern church. It is circular with alcoves all the way around, each alcove with its own basis for ‘Offereta’. The ceiling is amazingly high, in fact the whole interior is pretty cool, but once you get outside again, the exterior belies this. The outside is pretty much a dump, I just hope that it is in the process of having a landscaping overhaul. We found an old church nearby which is no longer in use, but looked great. This sits on top of and is next to the entrance to one of the catacombs that are in the area. You can get a guided tour through these, but we decided not to today.
On the way out of Syracuse we stopped at the Cemetery, that we had noticed on our way in. It was one of the ones that Justine refers to as the ‘Garden sheds’. From a distance, that is what they look like, stone sheds. At this place there must have been thousands of them. Each shed has the family name and from what we saw houses the remains of up to 12 family members, depending on the size (of the shed). Typically these will be stacked up both sides and there will be an alter at the end opposite the door. Some of these are very elaborate. I have the impression that the size and elegance is a reflection of the status of the family.
Then there were walls with large plaques, that looked like the bodies were housed lengthwise, as Justine said “like drawers”. These were housed in a wall like structure with two floors, six bodies deep per floor, and these walls just went on forever. Then there were areas set aside that just had a very simple cross each. It seems that the land of contrast extends to the means, and display, of the people in the afterlife as well.
After this we went to the Commonwealth war cemetery right next door. There was one New Zealander buried here, an airman.
Before we left home we were told by many people that you can’t drink the water over here and that you need to buy bottled water to drink everywhere that you go. We were about to comment that this was all bollocks, but that was before we went to Syracuse. The water here looks fine, clear and pristine looking in the bottle … but … it is absolutely disgusting. They have water fountains located generously around the city (as they have everywhere that we have been), but the water here is indescribably horrible. Justine forced herself to drink a few mouthfuls, but I found it to be undrinkable.
After getting back to Catania we went for a walk, mainly to find a gelato (had to get rid of that water taste … actually I don’t know if it qualifies as water). ‘Finding a gelato’ makes it sound like they are hard to find. They are not. They are just about on every corner. It’s just a matter of maximizing value with the ‘Justine Formulae’. You take the number of flavours available, divide by the cost, and multiply by the size of the serving compared to the other stores in the vicinity, and then add the ‘Desire Factor’ (this factor is worked out on the basis of how hot it is, and how long since our previous one, or how much water that you drank at Syracuse). The desire factor is a numerical value placed onto the need vs want. Then you also have to factor in how popular the store is. If there aren’t many customers, then they can’t be very good, if there is a crowd, then it becomes more difficult to be served and to get what you want. Please refer back to the ‘Desire factor’. This whole process involves doing a walk through the shop to check the flavours (resisting any staff who wish to sell to you immediately), perusing the price list if there is one, and then staking out the store to see what people come out with. And then there is the matter of choosing the flavours. But that is only if all of the above criteria is met and is satisfactory. We got our gelato, and it was fantastic. The ‘Justine Formulae’ does work.
We continued our walk through to the Basilica to get some evening photos, just in time to see three consecutive weddings going on. One departed on a black open cart drawn by two white horses with white plumes on their heads, the next one departed in a Maserati, and the next one on a Harley Davison. We did see another wedding at the next church, but we didn’t get to see what they departed on. They were still in progress when we saw them, they were still kneeling before the priest.
On the way to dinner from here we found a band in full force, no more than 50 metres from where we were staying. There was a big stage set up in Piazza. We stopped for a brief listen, promising ourselves that we would come back on the way home as we couldn’t see ourselves sleeping through that anyway. The band was an interesting mix of sound. It sounded kinda Folk Irish, kinda Rock, kinda Dire Straits, kinda U2, … but in Italian. Whatever the genre, the crowd loved it and so did we. Unfortunately or fortunately the dinner conversation, both between ourselves and also with the waiter, got so carried away that by the time we got back the band was just winding up. But if you get the chance, I would recommend going and listening to … hmmmm … we don’t even know what they were called. What’s a name anyway :-)
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