August 21
Catania was founded in the 8th century BCE. The first university in Sicily was founded in Catania in 1434. During the renaissance, Catania was one of Italy’s cultural centers. It was destroyed by earthquakes in 1169 and 1693 and has suffered from damage from nearby Mt. Etna (the highest active volcano in Europe). 300,000+ people live in the city and over 1.1M live in the larger metro area. It is Sicily’s 2nd largest city and Italy’s 10 largest.
We took an excursion to Siracusa (Syracuse in the US). It was founded in 734 BCE and was the largest Greek colony outside of Greece).
Our first stop was ruins from Greek and Roman periods. We saw the remains for a large Greek theater (see picture on the right). It seated 5,000 people. Many of the stones were appropriated by the Spaniards for other buildings later in history. Greek plays were performed here. There are 32 surviving tragedies, but only 9 comedies. The comedies were often political commentary and perhaps didn’t survive because the politicians made sure they were not kept.
In 320 BCE Siracusa became a Roman colony. It the 2nd century CE a Roman theater was built (see picture on right). The interior could be flooded and naval battles could be simulated on the resulting lake.
There was an ancient quarry in the area which a natural cave nicknamed “the ear”. It is easy to see why. See picture on the left.
The ear. Caroline exiting the ear from the dark into the sun.
Inside the acoustics were tuned for a deep male voice. One of the travelers on our bus had a great voice and he demonstrated as this movie demonstrates. He was a Baptist pastor from Nashville.
Our next stop was the city center. Here are some pictures from our walk through the city.
Lots of boats in the harbor. Mobiles hanging over the street.
An old church in the city. A pot vending machine. Ugh
After a bus ride back to the ship, it was time to cool off and have a nap. Normally the dock is a very business like place. Tonight as we were preparing to leave we noticed a group of people holding a banner and shouting slogans across the water. We looked to see what they were looking at and it was the coast guard ship across from our ship. We was people pacing back and forth. Some of them appeared to be wearing head coverings. As the sign holders were leaving we got a picture of what it said well most of it—we never could read that last word). We speculated that there were refugees on the ship and the protest was about that in some way. As it turns out, we were right, as there was a blurb about it in the ship newspaper.
The banner. The coast guard ship
STOP THE ATTACK ON ?? From the short news summary we got on board ship.
As we were getting ready to leave two men came out by ship. One was carrying a US flag and an Italian flag. The other had a boom box. First they played the US National Anthem which got an enthusiastic reception from the folks who were on their decks. Then the Italian anthem. It was a pleasant send off, and a first for us.