As part of our Ancient City course, we take two week-long field trips to Southern Italy. The first of these trips, to Sicily, happened two weeks ago (fall break followed, hence the late update). The second is to Campania, and is in mid-November.
Sicily is the land of coppolas, the Godfather, cannoli, and the like. We didn't see any mobsters (unfortunately) but we did see an inordinate number of Greek sites and Doric temples :)
We began the week in Velia (Elea in ancient times), on the mainland, and saw an archaelogical park, consisting of lots of buildings and old type things (stores, temples, you know :D)
Unfortunately, this is also where I dropped my camera and broke it, or so it seemed. Luckily, it mostly recovered, so while it takes longer to auto focus, and occasionally has problems shutting the lens, it works! YAY!
After spending the night in a rather nice hotel (rooming with my buddy, Sarah :D), and an evening on the beach, swimming (in our clothes) in the Mediterranean, we headed to Paestum for the day!
Peastum consisted of multiple Doric temples. I'll spare you the gory details, but Doric temples consist of baseless, fluted columns with pillowy capitals. (Pictures will be shown, don't worry :)) We then had a delicious lunch at a Michelin star restuarant, and got on the bus to head to another museum, and then to the Port of Naples for our overnight ferry to Palermo.
The overnight ferry was....interesting, to say the least. haha. At 6:30 the following morning, we arrived in Palermo, got back on Fabiobus (The single entity: Fabio, the bus driver + the bus=Fabiobus), and headed to Cefalu. We saw a gorgeous cathedral, where I got to say some prayers on my new rosary :), and also visited a cloister. We then traveled to Taormina, and got to see a super cool theater, and some other sites, in addition to wandering around the modern city.
We then headed to Syracuse, spent the night, and in the morning headed for Ortigia, some Quarries, and another archaelogical park. We saw the Arethusa Spring, rumored in myth to have been formed when Arethusa, the nymph, goes to swim in the river Altheis, a god tries to rape her, she prayers to Artemis, and is turned into water. We also saw another Cathedral, the Temple of Apollo, the Altar of Hieron II (which we didn't learn much about because of a sub-standard student presentation.....), and a few more theaters.
We then spent the night at Mosaici Hotel, where most of my classmates indulged in far too much wine, far too many cigarettes, and far too much noise, proving the "annoying American" stereotype..... The next day it was back on the bus, an archaelogical museum, and the ancient site of Morgantina. It was unfortunately rainy and misty and gross, but Drew and I trekked around like pros trying to finish our assignment of identifying all the ancient buildings and sites at Morgantina. we found some really cool ancient grain mills, but other than that it was incredibly hard to see things. After lunch we headed to the Museum of Agrigento, and saw some really awesome things, like a giant telemon from the destroyed temple of Zeus.
We then spent the night in an amazing four star hotel, before trekking to the Valle dei Templi the following day. We saw so many temples, and then the Hellenistic Quarter of Agrigento. My friend Sarah did an amazing presentation at the destroyed temple of Zeus. GO SARAH! We then headed to Selinute, and saw more temples (surprise!), and some other old structures. We also got to play and climb in one of the destroyed temples there. YES!
The following day we headed to Cave di Cusa to see ancient Roman stone quarries (they still contain unfinished giant columns, incredible!), and then another archaelogical museum (seeing a trend yet?) We then got on a boat, and headed to Motia, where we saw a really awesome statue, and a Punic child burial ground. after lunch we headed to another theater and temple. At the theater we had various performances by our classmates, including recitations of songs, poems, and speeches from movies. The performance was capped by the "Centro Trio". three of our classmates sing in a capella groups, and they had gotten together at the request of our professors and prepared a song, which they performed for us, and all the other visitors to Segesta.
We then spent the night in a beautiful four star hotel in Palermo, before getting up to see Zisa Palace, a cathedral, and many Baroque/Renaissance/Byzantine sites (it wasn't a very Classic-like day). we also got to explore Palermo on our own, and I went with my friends Drew and Joe to buy coppolas! For them, of course. haha.
So after a long, exhausting trip, and one more overnight ferry, we departed Naples for Rome, from which we all parted ways to head out for fall break. I spent my break in London, Edinburgh, and south France. But more to come in the next blog post. as for now, Ciao Regazzi!
-Lauren
P.S.-Photo credits to Maggie Kurkoski, my lovely, incredible, wonderful roommate, and Mark Nakahara. I'm far too lazy to upload my own pictures (as there are thousands at this point, haha :))
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