Syracuse and Catania

What a weekend!

Next week is mid term exams already, and I must say - where has the time gone? I marked my first month anniversary while in Rome and this time next week I will be in Malta! Since last weekend was so exciting (quite opposite from this one), I split it up into two posts.

Thursday MCAS had a field trip to see the Archaeological Park in Syracuse.

The Roman amphitheater - gladiators fought here.

We first looked at the Roman amphitheater, tombs, and sarcophagi. This amphitheater was interesting because half of it was carved into the rock and the rest of it was built on top. Stones from almost all of Syracuse's ancient monuments were used to construct later buildings and fortifications.

Altar of Hiron (way bigger than it looks here)

The next stop was the stone quarries and the very large altar of Hiron, which was dedicated to Zeus! Quite a few bulls (100 at a time) were slaughtered here every year.

The Ear

Then we headed to the Ear of Dionysus, a large man-made cave where prisoners were kept. Supposedly, from above the cave Dionysus could listen in on all the prisoners there and hear what they were plotting. *Cue evil laugh*

The huge theater

The Greek theater was the most impressive monument here. On the right (if you are facing the orchestra), archaeologists discovered the remains of an older, even larger theater!

An action shot!

Of course, we couldn't visit the theater without a few theatrics of our own. Live on the Greek theater we performed part of Prometheus Bound, a play that we know had been preformed in this very spot in ancient times. I was Hephaestus, the smith god who, despite feeling sorry for poor Prometheus, bound him to a rock.

All the cast!

On the top of the theater stands more of the Roman necropolis, and you can see a pool which is part of the ancient system of aqueducts around Syracuse.

Etna's southeast crater was erupting.

Stromboli on the thermal cam!

Etna!

Friday we went to Catania in the pouring rain. We experienced the simulated bombing of an Italian square (I was one of few who got to hide in the bomb shelter and so survived) and then toured the rest of the museum, seeing battle diagrams, uniforms, weapons, and other artifacts. After the museum part of the group split off to go shopping while my Volcanology class headed to the Istituto Nazionale di Geosifica e Vulcanologia to check out a volcano monitoring station. Both Stromboli and Etna were erupting while we were there! This was only the second time Etna has erupted this year. Sadly, we couldn't see anything on the cameras while we were there due to the weather, but we watched instruments that were recording earthquakes and saw the eruptions with a thermal camera.

The main control center

(The pictures are from the INGV website. These are the eruptions that were happening as I was in Catania - note the date stamp!)

After I was dropped off at the Catania airport for my evening flight to Rome, the others went somewhere and learned how to bake bread - sea creature style!

In other news, I am finally starting to figure out the bus system, had my first Elvis sighting in Italy, and saw a Cincinnati Bell sign (fancy that!) in a bar. Arabic lessons are going well and I am enjoying my time volunteering at the Archives. I am starting to understand a bit more Italian, although I am very glad for my drawing skills which have been quite helpful!

Next up - Rome.

The whole gang by the waterfall! I'm second to the right.