Sicilia Spring 2020-3

Looking Easterly along the pier closest to the shore. The breakwater extends to the right and the other pier is at the “horizon”. Sciacca is one of the largest port for fishing in the Mediterranean.

Well, I’m starting with some photos from our trip to downtown. We stopped at the marina and drove out onto the pier on a beautiful day. These photos are taken at the base of a statue of the city’s patron, the Madonna del Soccorso, who is revered for supposedly saving the city from the bubonic plague. We heard from Pascale that yesterday the bishop of Sciacca had called upon her again. This time to protect them from the Chinese Disease. Oh well, old habits die hard I suppose. I also got a couple photos of the fishing fleet from the end of the pier.

Since we are trapped here I’ve decided to add some photos of where we are staying. Our friend is a landscape architect and his property abounds in plants that are not native to Sicily. He figured that there are plenty of native plants around here so he’s put in trees and flowers from different countries with similar climates and soils. He has a couple different ficus trees from India, palm trees, etc. Of course he does have olive trees and last year he got about 500 Kg of olives that he had pressed for his own oils. His organic garden has onions, leeks and the starts of lettuce and strawberries. We pick what we need for our dinner. Later in the year the lettuce will be ready but it’s too early now. He has just planted tomatoes. The week we arrived the nursery refused to sell him the tomato plants but a week later they did. Must have felt that there wouldn’t be a killing frost! HA! At home we couldn’t put out tomatoes till after mid-May.

Organ pipe cactus

Palm flower

Bird of Paradise

The geraniums grow into bushes here.

Local lizard looking for a safe place in the sun.

It found one over the door.

The afternoon we arrived Karen took us for a walking tour of the city. We went to the main piazza at the church of San Sebastian, one of the town’s patron saints. They have two. The other is San Michele and the town’s citizens have a strong competition during carnivale and on feast days with typical Sicilian umbrage between them, just as if they were opposing soccer teams

Through this gate to the center

No room for cars on many of the “streets”

A unique exterior treatment. The only one I saw.

The piazza in front of San Sebastian

San Sebastian

San Sebastian’s ceiling decoration

The main altar

San Sebastian’s statue. This is the one they parade through the town on feast days.

Luckily for us a custodian was there and took us on an impromptu tour. This is the sacristy where the priest dresses for mass. The wardrobe is walnut and is 800 years old.

The altar is solid marble. Most of the side walls of the church are painted to look like marble, a common application to save money.

Our guide turned on the lights for us. The chandeliers are Murano glass from Venice.

He was especially proud of their organ, which is in working order, unlike many.

San Michele, we were too late to get in, besides the custodian of San Sebastian would be unhappy if we did.

I had written in the last post that we had gone to Palazzolo Acreide and visited the ancient site of Akrai while there. It’s time to share that visit.

The teatro is one of the only semi-circular teatros from the Grecian world. The sound of the spoken word is audible from the top row to the stage and from the stage to the top row is amazing. I posted a video on my Facebook account of Cathy and our friend, Karen speaking to each other and, once the wind dies down you can clearly hear them talking in normal conversation from over a 100 feet away. The teatro is really the only thing left mainly intact. The residential area is just foundations. There is a pretty well retained Bouleuterion, where the officials of the town met for official business, and the quarry where the stones for the city were cut, and carved out areas for storage are easily accessed.

The town of Buscemi. Yep, as in Steve Buscemi. From Akrai, telephoto shot.

Mt, Etna in the distance.

The residential area.

The only partial column on the site.

The “city hall” of Akrai

The city council chambers, or at least where they sat.

The scena or proscenium of the teatro.

The teatro seating

The bleachers of the teatro. Note how the seats are higher than the part that you walk on to get to your seat. It’s obvious even centuries later.

View of the stage from the top row.

Mt. Etna behind the stage. Without the trees it would have stood out far more than this photo shows.

This tunnel led to the seating area from behind the teatro for high class guests to enter without having to pass the lower classes.

Series of photos of the quarry below the teatro where the stones for the city were cut from the hillside.

The amazing relief carving in the quarry. It’s still beautiful despite the heavy weathering over the centuries.

You need to walk down into the quarry to gain full knowledge of the extent of the work expended.

Not too sure if these niches were necropolises or storage for grain and other items.

They extend deep into the limestone quarries.

It’s obvious there was a lot of rock removed for the city. They didn’t have to carry it far, unlike at Seleuntie.

Remains of the temples.

Buscemi

Lydia, our host at Kaltura B&B in Palazzolo Acreide.

Mt. Etna

Photos on the way down to Gela and the coast back to Sciacca

Ancient terraces no longer used for agriculture. Established during Greek, Roman and Arab cultures.

This was in a display case at Falconeria between Ragusa and Agrigento on the coastal highway.

Well this is probably going to be it for a while. The government has shut down all travel outside of the commune (city) boundaries that people live in due to the Chinese Disease. Not sure what else I can blog about while here, but I will if we can get away from Verdecnica.

We’re doing OK here. Grocery stores, gas stations, meat and bread stores, pharmacies and some limited daily needs stores are allowed to be open till April 3, just in time for people to travel for Easter. That’s a BIG DEAL here in Italy. We fully expect that restrictions will be re-imposed after Easter. Hopefully we’ll be abe to return as scheduled, but if not our friends here have assured us that there will be an apartment available for us and that we can get additional medications through their doctors. All we have to arrange will be changed flights and extended car rental. Since we have our Italian passports with us we can stay indefinitely. We just want to avoid having to spend a 21 day quarantine upon return through NYC and Seattle. So, good luck back there in the US. Health care here is free, even for tourists, unlike the 2nd world system in the US.

So, as usual,

Ciao for now.