Monday, 10 June 2019
We are up early …. interesting that we are about 50 feet from the ocean and we have heard very few seagulls and none fighting like the ones in Rome. We do see lots of swifts which swoop around in broad arcs, here for a few weeks and then they go off to North Africa. Packed up, we head out in the minibus with the group. It is already warm here, and we heard that it was 90 degrees in San Francisco, so probably at least that in Oakland, hope that Madeleine is doing OK.
Douglas tells us more about King Dionysius, who dominated Sicily and much of Italy, pushing against the Etruscans. A powerful man, who was afraid of being assassinated, he only allowed his daughters to shave him, with scorched seashells, instead of a sharp blade. He also surrounded his palace with a moat. One of his ministers noted how fortunate he was to be so powerful and rich, Dionysius said yes but at any moment it can all be over. He invited his minister to sit on this throne, and suspended a sword by a single thread, and said this is how it is, power one moment, and then you can be dead, thus the sword of Damocles. Dionysius had one son, he brought Plato to Sicily to tutor his son. At this time, Plato was formulating his ideas for government, already he felt that direct democracy did not work, because demagogues were elected. Plato did not like tyranny either. Tyranny at the time meant someone who rose to power of the shoulders of the middle class. Plato saw tutoring Dionysius’ son as an opportunity. He felt that good education starting young was e best was to a good government, starting with music that teaches the harmony of the world. There would be a test, some would move out into the world, and others would continue their education, etc.boys and girls were educated separately. By age 35 their education would be complete, off they would go, then at age 50 they would become the philosopher king. During all school years they were supposed to live an austere life. Those in power did. It like this system, and they tried to turn Dionysius against Plato. Plato spent a lot of energy trying to convince the king how to have a better government., which annoyed the king. Tthe king sent him off on a boat, telling the captain to sell him into slavery which he did, but Plato’s rich friends bought him out of slavery. The king died, his son DIonysius II wanted his old tutor back, and Plato came back, but the son was not interested in good government just discussions, and Plato was kept a very comfortable prisoner, he finally left back to Athens again, and lived to age 80. It is through Plato that all of Socrates’ ideas have come to us, as more of his writings survived.
Our first stop is Noto, and one he way we go by an encampment of North Africans waiting for their asylum to beprocessed, they were walking along the road carrying groceries back to the camp. All along the road were olive trees. We passed the small town where the Italians surrendered to the Allies at an American airfield. Now we begin to see almond trees as well, which are native here. Noto was a Sicelle town, the natives, who once ahead a failed uprising against the Greeks, late it was Roman, when the Arabs came in 900 Ce, they turned it into a majo4 site, and so did the. Romans. Then the huge earthquake of 1693 came, 60,000 casualties in a sparsely populated area. ,any towns were flattened and moved, Noto was one of these. It was rebuilt closed to the shore. The whole town was built with classical city planning and in an 18th century Baroque style, called southeastern Sicilian Baroque, a UNESCO world heritage site.
Broad streets aligned with bringing the light of the enlightenment period, giving you a wider. Jew of your opportunities. Narrow winding medieval streets were aligned with a narrower, predetermined view of one’s life. In many buildings there are heavy iron gratings over the windows, indeed the streets here are twice the width of those in Ortigia, and no graffiti anywhere. Because so much of this was built at the same time, the local limestone has a lovely golden tone. We stop by a cathedral by Galliardi, one of the main architects, along with Sinatra, of most of tectown. The tall stairway makes a dramatic entrance to the cathedral, across is the city hall. Much lower. This location was thus the center of town. In the 1990s a huge amount of reditration eas done, but in the mid 90s, the whole d9e and interior collapsed, only the exterior remained. All the old frescoes are gone. Next to the cathedral was the monument to the dead of WWI. The Enlightenment brought the idea of man moving toward perfectibility, very different from the medieval era. WWI shattered the idea of positive progression, yielding the 1920s era of hw we had lost ourselves, thus Dadaism and Surealism. In the US, Americans came home the winners, still progressive, without the darkness that Europe felt.
We come to a steep ramped street - each spring the street is covered with flower petals in special designs, the outlines of this year’s festival are still visible.. Niccolacci palazzo with wiz incre$ibly elabotate balconnies, each with 5 figures of glorious detail. The largest builds in town is the Jesuit Academy, as was often the case. In the wake of the zprotestant Reformation with utterly simple and austere building, the Catholic church responded with curvy and complex buildings, decorated with swirls and faces and all sorts of natural objects like shells and animals and birds. We come to one former church now an exhibit area, which shows this. W the E lighten ENT saw the straight, symmetrical Greek temple as the ideal, witha triangular pediment straight columns in rows, nothing abu9t this building is straight. The columns turn toward each other and face all sorts of directions, the Pediment is broken and articulated, the second stage extends the curve and decoration further.
We then come to the Tina di Lorenzo Oepra House, named for a famous local sing3 who. T on to stardom and even made a feee silent films. The opera house is small, only 308 seats, very intimate, with four rows of boxes and a soaring painted dome. There is a,rage orchestra pit, although the large operas do not come here often. I sang a little of “Piangero”, there was little re er , but the farthestperson was at most 100 feet so the sound did not have to travel far.
We walk back down the street to Chiesa San Carlo with a campanile we can climb. Inside it is a festival of white and gold, and a large number of flower arrangements perfume the area near the altar. Soon we discover why … a coffin is wheeled in, followed by family dressed in black, a funeral is about to begin. We decide this is a good time to climb the stairs, so we go up the very narrow stone stairs to the overlook from where we can see the city, the vineyards, and the sea. In the sanctuary the a box and lectern are supported by griffins.
We stroll back to the park, waiting in the shade of the trees of the park, though even there it is very warm. On the bus we go up into the Hyblean Highlands, through miles of vineyards and orchards. Hyblea was an ancient King of the Sicelles. Agriculture here goes back thousands of years, olives, grapes, almonds, carob, the ancient worlds’s most famous honey, and citrus came later with the Arabs. There is also some wheat, more near the interior. The name of the island Malta comes from the Greek word for honey, as much of it was shipped from there. The writer Theocritus painted s picture of the pastoral beautiful landscape which is unique to city dwellers, while country people know the fiercest hard work of agriculture. Honey plays an important role in Greek and Italian literature and economics, and later in Shakespeare. Sugar also came with the Arabs, so honey was the sweet they had.
We come to Ornella’s farm, where we will have lunch. She has a group of Shepherd mix dogs, very friendly, and a herd of about 75 cattle, who are milked every day twice a day. We see wh3rvtye cheeses are made, the first full fat cheeses such pecorino and provolone, and then the leftovers are made into Ricotta which means recooked, it is the second round. This is then taken down to town for breakfast, as the mining takes place around 4:30am. We meet Ornella, the proprietress, who was extremely welcoming. We traipse thruogh her kitchen where she has already made various filled focaccias with ricotta, other cheeses, and meats, which will reappear for lunch.
We go into a spacious room set for lunch and the parade of anti pasta begins. Four kinds of filled focaccia, a meat-filled pastry that looked like shar bei, wild asparagus, marinated artichoke hearts, olives, grilled peppers with mint, and of course fresh ricotta, sun dried cherry tomatoes, and her homemade red wine. Whew. Then came chunks of veal and vegetables in brodo, delicious (of course the young male cattle are processed into veal). Then after the veal, grilled sausages with pork from her siste’s farm, and flat strips of veal. For dessert, e had slices of ripe melon with a spicy quince jam, and a tiny tiramisu and espresso and amaro. I ask Douglas, only half in jest, if our seats reclined so we could take a nap.
Back in the van, we drive though the countryside to Modica, seeing lots of harvested hay rolls, I like in France where they get summe rain and are wrapped in plastic, these are unwrapped. Douglass tells us about this being the place where chocolate from the New World m3 sugar from the Old World (Arabic), and sugar was granular and crunchy, so the chocolate here has a hanukated sugar t3 tire, very nice. We stop at a Denice overlook of the beautiful Modica, truly stunning a the town cascade down the hill.
Off to Ragusa where we’ll walk for a bit in the old town up to the main square with the church of St. George, their patron saint, which looked much like the large church in Noto we saw this morning, with the very Baroque columns and articulated front. It is 3:00 and very hot, around 92 degrees. We stop by a shop to buy some of the odica chocolate and the local honey for Madeleine.
We’re now driving inland toward Piazza Armerina. We pass above Gela, which w@ famous for its horses in Greek and zroman Times, and we see plastic covered greenhouses, which allows produce to be grown without pesticides and herbicides. Everywhere are handmade stone walls, enclosing small pastures. When the zgreeks ruled Sicily, agriculture was fairly diverse. When the Romans took over in the 3rd century BCE, they decided that Sicily would g8ve the. Wheat, so they direct3d all the trees to be cut down and replant with wheat. It was a type of climate change. it also meant that there were a few large landowners and large numbers of serfs, and no middle class. Later this led to the Maf8a.wheat is the number one crop in Sicily.
We go by a town which is th3 center of all Sicilian pottery, and he Arabs brought in the abolition a style pottery, Caltagirone style, named for the town. Later we see vast fields of cactus, brought here from the New World, and the fruit, the prickly pear, is harvested in the fall and often appears on menus. The yield is low so it is not a very profitable crop, but is easy to grow in some areas.
We arrive in Piazza Armerina, named for the armories William II established here during the Medieval period around 900CE. It is not an ancient town. A large cathedral dominates the town, which is built on steep hills.there are Medieval festivals here in the summer.
Tonight we are staying in Place that was one efhe Bishop’s summer estate.
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