2-3 December

Greeks

Yes we are in Sicily and Sicily is part of Italy, but the Greeks have had a long connection with this part of the Mediterranean. We try to avoid enormous detail about the places we visit in this blog, however, every now and then, a little detail becomes necessary.

Sicily, particularly its ancient sites, has been a real eye-opener for us. We expected something out of The Godfather, but what we have seen, while a little “untidy” around the edges, has been a 'go-ahead' region with a unique and well-preserved history. History is where the Greeks come in.

When we were young (er), another Greek invasion was in full swing in Australia, as well as other parts of the New World. In Australia, the new Greek population was extremely active in small businesses - fruit shops, corner stores and, of course, the ubiquitous Fish and Chip shop! This enterprising spirit goes way back. In the 7th and 6th centuries BC, the Greeks were spreading out across the Mediterranean, setting up trading colonies. In many areas, like Sicily, they were the first of a long line of settlers?/ colonialists?/invaders? who built towns, markets and monuments centuries before the Romans made this part of the world their own and thousands of years before the Turks, Normans, Bourbons and all the other 'come latelys'.

Sicily abounds with ruins of the civilization the Greeks established. Yesterday, in the Valley of Temples near Agrigento and again today at Selinunte, we were stunned by the extent of the Greek archaeological sites. Temples on the scale of the Parthenon were common on both sites. What was even more amazing were the extensive remains of the settlements that surrounded these temples. While Angkor Wat in Cambodia still is the winner in the ancient monument field for us, after the last couple of days, Sicily comes a close second!

Selinunte was notable because of the almost totally free access visitors have to the ruins, Unlike many other important ancient sites, one can clamber over the ruins here and walk right through the temples. Elsewhere, important people with whistles blast out every time someone strays too close to a monument – or dares to sit down!
Wandering about unrestricted amongst the remnants of houses where people lived over 2500 years ago sets the imagination racing. Not much is left on site of everyday life, but near-by museums have collections of objects excavated over the centuries. The one at Agrigento was particularly good and extremely well presented. Many bits and pieces have obviously been looted or souvenired over the millennia as many civilizations have called these sites home. Somehow though, the sense of the original cities shows through. For example, a cluster of ruins of small urban dwellings cling to the cliffs on the edge of ancient Selinunte, overlooking a small bay with a reasonable beach (by Australian standards) and with stunning views of the Mediterranean. On the other side of the bay today, similar, although probably far more luxurious, modern houses, enjoy the same natural wonders.

Over the past 2500 years, these ruins have been lived on and in by everybody from local shepherds and subsequent civilizations to allied soldiers seeking cover. WWII pill boxes still dot the landscape of coastal Sicily - a reminder of this most recent invasion.

A special touch today was that we had the total site to ourselves with the exception of a couple of Germans who disappeared after 10 minutes - and the 'temple dog' who took it upon her scruffy self to accompany us. After several wrong turns in our 5-6 km ramble, she had enough of trotting back and leading us the right way. We were abandoned!


1 December

First day of winter

From Modica to Agrigento was all we managed today, another short trip of about 150klms, with the sun truly belting down. The south-eastern coast of Sicily is a mix of rugged small mountains and fertile valleys, packed with plastic glasshouses producing everything from tomatoes to chillies. They probably have the longest growing season in Europe here, almost a full year!

Harvest is in full swing. Trucks and small motor-bike trucks, laden with produce, puttered along the highway at a pace that was even too slow for us. These broad valleys are extremely crowded and busy. As we reached the crest of each hill we 'oohed' at the clusters of, white, buildings and farm houses, scattered over the valley floor.

Seafronts of most towns are fairly deserted this time of the year, so we were able to find an alley way between beach villas to the Mediterranean for our lunch spot. Windows fully open to catch the breeze, it was hard to believe it was the first day of winter.

As we crested the last hill into Agrigento this afternoon, the reason for our visit lined the ridge in front of us. The Valley of the Temples. From what we could see from a distance, we are in for a great day tomorrow. Ruins of Greek temples glistened in the late afternoon sun, as Agrigento was a colony of Greece, established in the 6th century, B.C.

It is very warm here, even tonight. Since we picked up the van six weeks ago, we have had only a couple of nights when we needed the heater. Lucky, because when we are in a camping ground, rather than 'free camping', we can't always run the electric heater. Particularly in Italy, the circuit breakers are set to cut out at a level well below what our heater draws. Even the toaster won't work!!! We have the heater on tonight, even though it is probably 14-15C outside – it's washing day and we use the inside of the van as a giant clothes dryer. The only problem is we are in the clothes dryer with all our gear. Gets more than a bit hot! And humid!

We also have a gas heater, gas fridge and, of course, a gas stove. We have been very careful with our gas usage. We have had enormous difficulty getting gas on previous trips. This time, things are a little better. The van has a system that can be filled at LPG filling stations, just like cars at home. We have been testing the capacity of the system since we got the van, because we know that LPG is not available in Spain or Morocco, so we'll need to be able to run for 3-4 weeks on one tank when we cross into Spain. We filled up today after 20 days and needed only 10 litres. We figure we have a 20+ litre cylinder so we should be ok.


30 November

Surprising Sicily

A few days back we wrote about the “two Italys” - the wealthy and developed north and the poorer south.
Time for a rethink?

While Messina, our entry point to Sicily, was a bit run-down and definitely hectic, what we have seen of the rest of Sicily, so far, has been quite different. Smaller cities and towns seem to be doing very well – thank you – reasonable roads, ugly, but new, clean apartment blocks in the cities and the country towns seem to have done very well of late.
Today, our wedding anniversary, we took it relatively easy and chugged less than 100 klms to the beach town of Marina Di Modica. We didn't really mean to, but we saw a shopping centre outside the town of Modica, stopped in the hope of getting bread and ended up getting Paul's glasses fixed. (He had dropped them and broken an arm some weeks ago and they were driving him crazy. On the off-chance, he took them with him.) It was Sunday, and most of the mainland is closed tighter than a drum. Not here. It was all happening, well at least until 1:00pm – remember siesta.

After a complicated conversation with the optometrist who spoke no English, during which half the sales persons in the complex tried to assist her - and us – even resorting to using the Google language translator – we headed off to a Van camp we had been told about by people we met earlier on.

There was a Vietnamese clothing market (yes they are everywhere!) operating in the parking area when we arrived, so we parked on the beach for most of the afternoon, before heading back to Modica to pick up the glasses. We thought that a 5pm pick-up time on a Sunday was a little odd, but oh no. The world came to life after 5. This was outlet heaven and the whole of Sicily, or at least this part of it, shops here on Sunday evening!

Returning to the marina, we found the markets still in full swing so we parked up a side street until they packed up and left – about 6:30.

Tonight, Mediterranean pounding less than 20 metres away, in the company of Grey Nomads from most of Northern Europe, we can reflect on the difference between the stereotypical image of Sicily that we had before we came here. Images that are probably shared by many. Should we blame the “Godfather” image so closely associated with Sicily? Yes, there is probably still a high organised crime rate here and yes, there are still some pockets of poverty and, undoubtedly, areas where one shouldn't stray in the larger cities. But on the whole, what we have seen is just great. People are friendly, the countryside is beautiful and the beaches 'fair to good' (by Australian standards), but probably excellent for Europe.

29 November

Fish

Sicily is an island – obviously! So the Saturday fish markets in Siracusa, Sicily, are also, obviously, something to behold.

When we lived in North Queensland, we marvelled at the ability of the local Italian population to scrounge a a feed from the multitude of small fish and other creatures they dragged up in nets from the beach. Now we know. The variety of seafood that Sicilians eat is enormous, ranging from tiny crustaceans to giant swordfish and every other imaginable creature of the deep. We would have loved to have bought some to try, but with the heat as it is here (+20C) and our van's poor refrigeration, we couldn't take the chance.

But fish isn't all there is to Siracusa. Far from it. Siracusa has weathered more invasions than the variety of fish in the market - Etruscans, Greeks, Romans, Turks, Austrians, Spanish, French and the Allies in WWII, just to mention a few. All have left their mark in one way or another. For example, just around the corner from our vanpark, we came upon the ruins of a Spanish Mission style church that had been incorporated into a much more recent building.
Greek and Roman Amphitheatres stand side by side in the ancient part of the city, strangely named the 'Neopolis' or “New City”, a large archaeological park which includes the ruins of original Greek and Roman settlements.
The Medieval part of the city that surrounds the port is what we would call the 'old city'. Here, medieval buildings crowd in along narrow lanes that have also seen their share of invaders over the past 1500 years.

Now a sprawling suburb with apartment blocks interspersed with shops, the more modern 18th century Siracusa also has a certain easy charm. Life isn't all that hectic here – except between 12:30 and 1:30pm when everybody goes home for siesta! And between 3:30 and 4:00 when they all return to work!

People here are remarkably friendly. Walking along the street, you get at least a nod from passers-by and if you pass someone alone on a street and make eye contact, you generally get a “Bon Giorno.” - a far cry from our experiences greeting Norwegians on walking paths when they all but turned and ran when we said good day to them!
By the way – Yes. The weather did turn today as predicted and it was again sunny and warm. Who knows what will come next in a Mediterranean climate?

28 November

The Sicilian Mafia

Apparently, the Mafia still rules in Sicily. In fact, some commentators put the whole of Italy south of Rome under the sway of the Mafiosa. When you consider the history of southern Italy, its climate and geography, the notion of continued corruption is understandable. Once called the Mezzo Giorno (middle of the day) because the summer sun always seems high in the sky, southern Italy has always been the poor cousin. Such poverty and the strong family hierarchies that dominate, particularly in Sicilian culture, were bound to encourage the development of a patronage-based system like the Mafia.

How much of this is out there to be seen in Sicily? Frankly, not much. While there were more than 100 Mafia murders in Naples (not in Sicily!) alone in 2006, very little of this seems to impact on the everyday Sicilian. No doubt there is Mafia control of crime and corruption, but life seems to go on much as it does in the rest of Italy – although with a lot more noise! Horns, sirens and flashing lights fill the air, day and night.

Yesterday we took the bus from our camp in Giardini Naxos to the nearby hill town of Taormina. We had considered driving there yesterday but, after our Amalfi experience, we elected to let someone drive who knew what they were doing on narrow roads!

The weather was a bit average, with low clouds and only a few periods of sunshine. The scenery was still well worth the trip. Taormina was settled by the Greeks, who have always had a good eye for Real Estate. Their Theatre is one of the main attractions in this town that clings impossibly to cliff faces overlooking the Ionian Sea. Even higher up the mountain is the ruin of a Saracen Fort. Naturally, we had to climb to the very top of the hill to visit the fort. After probably the hardest climb we have ever done (AND we've done a few! - AND we are fairly fit after two months on the roam) we got to the top gate, only to find the Fort closed! To top the afternoon off, we missed the pre-siesta bus back down the hill and had to kill an hour so in a Pizzeria! Oh well. The trials of travel. It was GOOD Pizza!

For the initiated, Mediterranean Europe still 'closes up shop' for the siesta, every day from 1:00pm until around 3:30pm. Kids go home from school. Workers either head for the local Bar or go home for lunch and tourists roam empty streets, puzzled looks on their faces, rattling locked doors. Even small but crowded cities like Messina experience four peak traffic periods a day as streets are crammed with cars, double parked from about 12:30pm outside schools and childcare centres, while office workers jump in their cars and drive home for lunch. A repeat performance occurs at about 3:30pm every day as everybody goes back to work or school. Crazy stuff!
Tonight in Siracusa, a savage storm rumbles around us and the rain is pelting down. It rained heavily most of the morning and was blowing a gale all afternoon. The storm may be a good omen though. Last time we had this weather pattern was a week or so ago and the storm cleared to a few fantastically clear warm days. Here's hoping.