"pasta is life"

"Have you been to the Greek theater yet?" Giuseppe asked at breakfast. I sighed. Another amphitheater. I had been to the Colosseum and the one at Pompeii where Pink Floyd played and the one at Siracusa....

"No, this one is better," he insisted. Because of the sea.…

It was raining when I woke up. Cold rain that turned to hail during breakfast. We watched it on the rooftop in disbelief. But it cleared up. I bundled up and trudged off.

The settlement of Naxos dates to 734 BC. After its destruction in 403 BC by Dionysus of Syracuse, Tauromenion was erected in its place in 358 BC.

The city became a Roman military colony in the 1st century BC and ultimately was razed by Arabs in the 9th century AD. It's a lot closer to the mainland than the rest of Sicily, so a lot easier to get to, and invade.

But in the mean time, this glorious theater on the hill hosted first plays and later brutal Roman spectacles, with ostriches and elephants.

(I learned some of this from eavesdropping on a tour group. Although the acoustics are excellent, so I was seated a ways up. One man stood at center stage and sang, and then the woman with him kissed in a passionate embrace.)

Etna got a fresh coat of snow last night. Giuseppe said he went up there, and it was freezing and miserable. He also said that eating pasta is why Sicilians live to be 100. Maybe it has something to do with this view.

On my way to lunch, I passed these ruins of the terme—historic thermal baths. It was just me and a couple of wary cats.

I decided it was time to try eggplant parmigiana.  Here it was baked, with a sweet tomato sauce. The waiter caught me sopping up the sauce with a roll and nodded approvingly.

But I couldn't bring myself to order a cassatine, now that I know they are meant to be the breasts of poor St. Agata.

When the sun went down, the temperature plunged again and the wind picked up. Ultimately I abandoned my plan to hear a New Year's concert (of local boy Bellini!) at a church on the other side of town, in favor of huddling in my warm room, celebrating the return of Nancy Pelosi. 

Rome will seem warm after this. Right? 

I will miss Sicily, from the lively resort towns to the temporarily deserted cities. The info signs around town say Taormina Cult, documenting the rich heritage of writers and composers and painters who've lived here. They missed their chance at a good slogan for souvenirs. If there's a cult, count me in. 

in the valley of the gods

Today I hopped a train from Palermo to Agrigento, on the south shore of Sicily. The Greek ruins at Agrigento (formerly Akragas) date to the 5th century BC. As you'll see, many of them are are in splendid condition. Walking around the park gives you a lot of access (and 6 miles later, aching feet). A whole new amphitheater has recently been rediscovered. 

Only in Italy would a visit to an archaeological site be an excuse for a slow foods display. The orange marmalade was fantastic, but I bought the foglia allegra and a local chocolate bar. Note that Sicilia has made chocolate for centuries; it was brought here from Mexico by the Spanish.

To quote my guide from that first Colosseum tour 9 days ago, use your imagination.

Do you see the figure lying down?

This tumble of rocks was the statue of Apollo.

These pillars are all that remains from the Temple of Hercules.

They made me think of the moai on Easter Island.

The centerpiece of Agrigento is the so called Temple of Concordia. And it is magnificent.

One reason the Temple of Concordia was so well preserved is that it was consecrated in the 5th or 6th century AD as a Christian church. That included creating these cathedral-like arches along the sides.

Continuing east, the remains of the city wall can be seen as arcosolari. It was so bright facing south toward the Mediterranean, it was hard to take a photo.

The stone is all local. Amazing what a little irrigation can do.

Later, in the Christian era, niches were carved out and some were used for burial. I like the plants growing out of the top. Everything grows in Sicily.

The last of the ruins in the main park is the Temple of Hera. First here's the view looking backward. It's a bit of a climb.

No one really knows if the temple was to Hera. Ritual sacrifices were performed here, with supplicants eating the killed creatures.

The Greeks believed a man's foot was a footlong, and liked the ratio of 6 to 1, for his height relative to its foot. So the columns are 1 meter in diameter and 6 meters high.

Look what we have here.

An enormous fallen angel.

The porta aurea or Golden Gate. It does remind me of home.

I'm staying at a charming small hotel up the hill in the central historic district. Francesco's family has owned this building for generations; one sister sold the ground floor, so that's another apartment.

Up above the rooftops, the suites are filled with historic family photos and many stories, which I heard over panettone and Twining's premium black tea.

Sweet dreams.

Neopolitan

A visit to the land of the giants, aka Napoli's world famous Archaeology Museum.

When people write about Napoli, they say it is gritty and chaotic but has an undeniable energy. After Rome, I thought I understood what that meant, But Naples takes it to another level. Steep, dark, narrow, not very clean streets, with honking cars and scooters that obey no laws. I nearly got run over by a couple of asshole 6th graders. I called them names as they rode away laughing. Rome is money. Napoli, you take what you can get.

Fortunately I'm staying at a B&B tucked away behind a garden, through 3 gates. For breakfast, you can have orange juice squeezed from Dora's tree.

The windows on the boulevard are filled with sausages and marzipan and whole slaughtered lambs, including heads. I couldn't bear to take a photo.

I'd been warned about pickpockets on the subway and not wearing ostentatious jewelry. So I put on a pin with an angel, my faux Catholic garb, and set off for the anthropology museum.

Looking through a gate I saw this closed galleria. This is an old city with a lot of spunky history. It reminds me of New York in the late 70s and 80s.

Campania is famous for its precepes, elaborate holiday creches.  This one shows all the different classes, and shows people through different periods of history, including those on the right, restoring a villa in Pompeii (the artwork is upstairs in the museum).

On the ground floor, you can also visit the land of the giants. Magnificent marble from the 1st century BC to 2nd century AD.

 Love this guy's kilt. The barefoot Barbarian.

 The sarcophagus of a spouse

The museum's collection dates back to Bourbon king Charles II who brought many treasures from Rome and who began the excavations at Herculaneum and then Pompeii. The marble and mosaics are in exceptionally good condition. 

While some were painstakingly reassembled, like puzzle pieces, others appear to have been moved intact.

Remind me again why I didn't go sculpt marble in Pietra Santa with Great-Aunt Sylvia?

Curiously these mythical and in some cases historical giants are surrounded by an exhibit called Hercules alla Guerra (Hercules at war), which provides history of the location 75 years ago.

Naples and Salerno were bombarded by the allies in 1943. Naples was not ever considered truly conquered by the Nazis. In these appeals to the Italian popolo, British forces ask "why die for Hitler?" They were fascinating, although I wasn't sure I understood their relationship to the marbles.

This is an enormous piece of several men fighting a bull. The restoration was a complicated 3D puzzle. It stands at least 12 feet high.

The collection also includes rooms full of "gems" like miniature cameos with painstaking detail from the 2nd century AD.

 A larger bowl

But the real reason to come to this museum is it includes treasures from Pompei. The Bourbon King Charles moved whole walls to the city and this practice continued through the 19th century. The museum includes details on the natural dyes available for painting the brightly colored walls to paintings and mosaics that had to be thoughtfully put back together, without any guides.

They're remarkably joyful.

In yet another exhibition trying to make the past relevant, Dario Assisi and Riccardo M. Cipolla photoshopped images from the Pompeii collection onto contemporary pictures of Pompeii. And it works! 

 More on Fantasmi a Pompeii (Ghosts of Pompeii). And my post yesterday from Pompeii. 

Winsome maidens

The red panels from a villa

 Bacchus in a grape costume!

These vessels are in an "Egyptian" style, which was all the rage. Egypt isn't that far from Napoli by boat.

This woman with the notebook and fashionable hairdo is known as Sappho. She's a popular archetype—not the Greek poet—and is on the cover of next year's pocket Pompeii calendar, which I picked up as a souvenir.

 A giant flute

A third juxtaposition, of sculpture visiting from Sichuan in a gorgeous 17th century palace. Truly misguided.

My last stop was the mosaics from Pompeii.

I knew about these because I overheard a guide on the site at Pompeii point out that floors we were taking pictures of were copies.

Four brick pillars, covered in mosaic patterns.

This full wall, depicting a painting of an historic battle, is estimated to have included one million tiles.

 Here's a fragment so you can get a better sense of the detail.

At first glance, some of the mosaics look like needlepoint.

Last but not least, sea creatures mosaic, including another octopus for Susan.

The last section had a warning on the door that you might be shocked by the sexual content. Predictably, it was full of enormous penises. I was more interested in these women.

I rushed off for a very late lunch to Gino e Toto's famed pizzeria. Everywhere in Naples is famous for pizza. But this is the pizza of pizzas. Everyone was there. They close between lunch and dinner, and I got my name in by 2:30, then waited nearly an hour in the street.

Service was appalling. They gave me the worst table by the door. A waiter stuffed a menu in my face then said I had one-minute to order before the kitchen closed. Asshole. Napoli is that kind of city.

A margherita runs 4 euros plus a cover charge for non-existent service. A glass of awful wine had cork in it. The verdict? Sweet sauce, generously applied. Sliced mozzarella balls with a splash of olive oil. But the crust was too soft and could have used salt. Slightly undercooked and served on a plastic plate that further moistens the bottom.

Pizza heaven? Not by a long shot. Grimaldi's and Lombardi's are both better, and nicer. Delfina too.

But we have a lot more pizza to eat before I leave town. I'll leave you with a view of the dessert case.