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.

A visit to Mount Etna!

A new Italian friend

Much of this past weekend was pretty quiet, except for Sunday. Sunday we spent the whole day with a group of Italians sledding down Mount Etna and then we headed off to Naxos, a beautiful ancient harbor, for a stroll along the water and dinner.

Here are some pictures from the trip!

The volcano!

Above the clouds!

Mount Etna was clear though still covered in snow. Catania was cloudy and gray, but up top it was bright, sunny, and warm! It reminded me of skiing in the alps - before long we were cooking!

See the volcanic landform? We sledded down that!

Etna's top is covered by volcanic rocks sticking out of the snow

 

We seven girls from MCAS got up at 6 Sunday morning and rolled onto the bus with about 40 other people - all Italians! Thankfully we found one guy who spoke a decent amount of English and some others who had a bit more English than we did Italian. Despite the language barrier, we all got along just fine!

A crater (rather large, too)

The volcanic rock where we were was porous and crumbly. In places it was quite red but over all it was grayish brown. My coat was quite heavy when I left - full of volcanic pebbles for Dad.

Doesn't this look fun!

Here and there on the road side going down the mountain I saw a house that had been taken over by lava.






The cheapest sleds available looked like squat shovels. Molded from one piece of plastic, they had a place to sit in the back and a handle in front. I plan to take the sled back home and test it out if I am there when we get some snow. The nice thing about its design was how easy it was to carry! However, many times we found out that you could slide down the volcano just fine with no sled at all.

The hill was so steep that it was almost impossible to climb once you got higher up - especially in my case because I was walking with borrowed boots a bit too large for me. The snow was icy and slick - great for sledding if you managed to get far enough up!

:Lots of people out and about!

Sledding Italian style is a bit dangerous - it is easy to get going and quite hard to stop. The preferred method seems to be to have a buddy brace himself below who physically stands in your way and stops you if you are out of control or in danger of hitting rocks or other people.We saw several collisions and many more near misses. Regardless, overall sledding was great fun.

All the girls from MCAS who went sledding, and one Italian guy!

And these two are Naxos. A few of us explored and kept to the beach while others danced the evening away at the disco.

\

A closing remark: For all you skeptics out there, I successfully rode, climbed, slid, and fell all over the top of a very active volcano yet somehow made it back safely to my apartment in Ortigia to tell everyone about. 

So there - I managed not to fall into the volcano! One more Etna trip to go!

Catania and Continuing Education

All the girls!

Dwarf Elephants

Last weekend was pretty busy! Thursday we explored the Paolo Orsi Archaeological Museum here in Syracuse and on Friday took a day trip to the city of Catania after which we had the option of spending the night there to see the city and festivities a bit longer.

I found the Archaeological Museum to be amazing. The selection of the collection we toured (prehistoric through Greek and Roman mainly) was quite extensive and we really rushed through most of the place. I plan to go back there this weekend to explore at a leisurely pace!

The Duomo in Catania

From Ortigia it is about an hour by bus to get to Catania. Not bad considering this is where the nearest major airport is located - we fly out of Catania every time we want to go anywhere else! Unfortunately, my camera batteries died just a few minutes after boarding the bus, so every picture here is from one of my friends on the trip. The trip did not go quite as I would have liked - I was sick much of the weekend. I feel better now but did not get to see much of Catania at night!

Books!!

Roman Amphitheater

While we were at Catania we toured some of the most important city structures - namely the Roman Amphitheater, the Duomo (their cathedral), and what was once the Benedictine Monastery (now part of the University of Catania). We happened to be in town just in time for the festivities of St. Agatha (Catania's patron saint) and saw bits and pieces of the procession but not the main part. Thronging with people, the streets were full of candy stalls, balloons, and lights.

We found a bar that was showing the Super bowl and I watched it for a while along with one of my apartment-mates and some missionaries who were journeying around on a boat and stopped by Syracuse. By three in the morning Italian time I felt very sleepy and went home, leaving the more hardy individuals to continue watching the rest of the game.

Tuesday I actually received my first (though rather short) experience flintknapping with a real knapper! My flintknapping experience continues - thank you Material Cultures course for getting me started. Flintknapping is the process of shaping stones (like flint) or glass type materials (like obsidian) with other stones and various tools. We had an experimental archaeology lecture and watched a demonstration of fire starting (with real live sticks and stones!) and flintknapping. I mimed percussion flaking (chipping away at a stone by pressing on it rather than striking it) and got a quick demonstration after the lecture from the expert. A few of my buddies at MCAS got to try their hands flintknapping or fire starting - with varying degrees of success.

In other news, we had a pasta making night last night (watch out world, Becky can now cook home-made pasta! It was pretty easy and very good.) and, starting Monday, I will volunteer at the Institute for the Study and Performance of Ancient Drama digitizing their collection of sheet music. I was assigned my first real homework assignment (Latin) and my first paper (Art and Archaeology) and part of a museum wall panel to translate for the Paolo Orsi Archaeological Museum. Things are really getting busy here!

 

And Happy Birthday to Dad!! 

Week 2

Picture this with lots of wind and rain

Ahh Sicily - the land of the Sun. Wait, sun?! What sun? It has been storming all this past week, which has not been great for pictures, drying laundry, or leaving dry buildings in general. But though this week was not the best for beautiful Mediterranean panoramas, we still were pretty active!

(Some of these pictures are from my friends at MCAS)

Dark and Stormy

But first, some highlights of the previous week. I spent much of the first week here settling in and getting used to things, figuring out where everything is, sorting out the apartment, apartment keys, and internet, and attending life abroad seminars.

The food is still excellent! I have been living off of fresh bread and cheese supplemented with the occasional pasta dish or slice of pizza. And, of course, gelato (no pictures of that, sorry!). Balsamic vinegar and lemon juice add a bit of pizazz to each meal, and I am very surprised that I am not bleeding blood orange juice on account of how much of it I am consuming.

Fresh fruit at the open air market

A very large lemon!

Sweets!

The Duomo

The highlights of Ortigia (all within 10 minutes of me) include: the Duomo (cathedral) which was originally a Greek temple - you can still see the columns along the side, the fountain of Arethusa, and the temple of Apollo. Ortigia is like a small town though at the same time part of a larger city so I am starting to recognize some of the local people. I have made friends with a stall owner, a bus driver whom I met in an Arabic restaurant for lunch, and a German lady who married an Italian and has lived in Italy ever since.

The spring

Temple of Apollo

I also saw a belly dancer who danced during one of our first dinners in Italy. A few of us also had a chance to play cards with some old Sicilian men and other people from MCAS during another Syracuse tour.

One of the first activities we participated in was the procession for St. Sebastian. They carried his statue and relic container on a great litter throughout the streets of Ortigia following a marching band. Afterward they auctioned special bread and shot off fireworks. We also attended a free concert on the steps of the Duomo for the celebration of the founding of Syracuse. It was very chilly! I was also very surprised to hear Hans Zimmer's theme from Gladiator played among a collection of classical songs.

Today was the end of my second week of classes, and… field trip day! We went to the Orsi Museum instead of touring the Neopolis because the weather was still not great as far as touring outdoor monuments go. One thing I learned from this tour - I must go back to this museum! It was the most amazing thing I have seen yet. However, Maniace Castle, the castle I stumbled upon Sunday looking for an internet cafe was pretty impressive as well - I had almost the whole place to myself to explore!

Classes here so far are not quite what I expected, for the teaching styles are pretty different and there is a totally different philosophy on homework. However, the hands-on aspect in almost every course and opportunities to tie course material to the field trips makes for a spectacular learning experience. My volcanology class is particularly interesting and I am really enjoying my archaeology class - the professor keeps hinting at more hands-on experiences to come!

This weekend we are staying overnight in Catania and will be there for the festivities of St. Agatha. They should be spectacular.

Hello from MCAS!