Met een Fiat doorkruisten we het eiland. De Lonely Planet was onze steun en toeverlaat...
The English texts below are quotes from the guidebook mentioned above.
Taormina, Teatro Greco. Taormina's most famous sight. This perfect horseshoe-shaped theatre, suspended between sea and sky, was built in the 3rd century BC and is the most dramatically situated Greek theatre in the world.
Ortygia, Piazza del Duomo, the Greek temple (overblijfselen daarvan ingekapseld in een Kathedraal, nauwelijks zichtbaar op deze gephotoshopte foto, rechts achteraan op het plein) was renowned throughout the Mediterranean, in no small part thanks to Cicero, who visited Ortygia in the 1st century BC.
Ortygia, Lungomare Alfeo met aan het einde het 13th-century Castello Maniace, built by Frederick II as part of a massive programme of construction that tunred Ortygia into an island fortress. Still used as a barracks, the castle is generally off-limits to the public, except during the Ortygia and Greek Claasical DRama Festivals when it is the atmospheric venue for musical and theatrical performances.
Syracuse, Neapolis. The highlight of the Neapolis is the lustrous white Teatro Greco, hewn out of the rocky hillside. A masterpiece of classical architecture, the ancient theatre could seat 16,000 people.
Underneath the Chiesa di Santa Lucia al Sepolcro there is an impressive network of catacombs that is the largest in Italy after the one in Rome.
Piazza Armerina. It is set amid some of the most fertile territory on the island and is an elegant town although many of its palazzi are sorely neglected. It has a lovely historic centre that is worth a day or two. Wij liepen er een namiddagje rond.
Villa Romana del Casale. The extraordinary Unesco World Heritage is easily the most important Roman sight in Sicily. Unfortunately, the villa is besieged by tourists in the summer; some 2000 per day. Get here early if you want to avoid the tour groups (they start arriving at 9.30 a.m.) another good time is the lunch hour between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. Ik kan daar vrijdag 15 februari, van 11 a.m. tot 12.30 a.m. aan toevoegen. We waren ongeveer de enigen, op een groep restaurateurs na. En er zijn meer van dat soort mannetjes nodig. En geld. De prachtige mozaiek vloeren liggen er weg te rotten.
Valle dei Templi. In varying states of ruin, the temples give a tantalising glimpse of what must truly have been one of the most luxurious cities in Magna Graecia. As you can see on this picture "The site is perpetually busy, although the earlier you get there, the better". Of kom in februari. Niemand die je foto's vervuilt. Ook niet op zaterdagmiddag. De foto hierboven is de Tempio della Concorida (430 BC). Hieronder staat een foto van de Tempio di Hera. Just behind the easern end is a long altar originally used for sacrifices; the traced of red (niet zichtbaar op deze foto) are the result of fire damage, most likely during the Carthaginian invasion of 406 BC.
Onderweg terug naar het vliegveld van Catania overnachtten we in Enna. Enna supplies a large proportion of the durum wheat used by the Italian pasta-manufacturing industry. The massive Norman fortifications in Enna are the most obvious physical manifestation of Sicily's inward-looking mountain villages, which although ostensibly accessible to tourism, remains, nontheless, just beyond your grasp.
Unlike the coast, the main staple in Enna is meat and the local specialities usually involve some cut of mutton or beef....
