Shall I try again . . .
You may remember our acronym for touring in the UK. ABC - another blood church, another bloody cathedral, another bloody castle. We have amended it to reflect travels in Italy and Spain . . . ABCM. Definitely not ICBM which is what my head keeps saying, but ABCM. Another bloody church, another bloody cathedral, another bloody castle, another bloody convent, another bloody coliseum and last but not least, another bloody Madonna. Individually they are enlightening, informative, beautiful and often awe inspiring. Collectively, I never really recognized that we, as human beings, were so intent on recreating the same structures, institutions and art. Of course, it's not just the number of Madonna(s). Spain and Italy are replete with temples dedicated to various Greek and Roman gods not to mention Jewish synagogues/temples, and Moslem/Muslim mosques, palaces and forts.
More of a history lesson than you may wish but as an excuse to include some pretty amazing pictures our next stop in exploring coliseums and temples was in Siracusa (Syracuse) with a visit to the Neopolis Archeological Park. This complex is home to the Teatro Greco, originally constructed, or more accurately excavated by the Greeks in the 5th century BCE. It was subsequently rebuilt/remodeled by the Romans somewhere in the 3rd century CE. This is an ongoing story in Sicily, first the Greeks established cities, but they were a long way from home and didn't seem intent on creating colonies. They did a little battling with the Phoenicians but mostly became “Sicilians”. A couple of centuries later along come the Romans, very much intent on establishing colonies and conquering the world. They establish themselves in the Greek cities and reuse existing Greek construction.
The Latomia de Paradiso, in the park, is a limestone quarry which was the source of the building material for the emerging Greek (I think) city of Syracuse. We’re talking BCE here and there were apparently as many as 5 different neighborhoods within this “archelogical” park. The area, a giant quarry or hole in the ground, is peppered with multiple caves, large and small making their way up the cliffs. It is a lovely area shaded by magnolia and citrus
In the spirit of ABCM, another coliseum is within this site. In this case the Romans didn’t repurpose an existing Greek coliseum but created an entirely new arena. It is the Anfiteatro Romano, originally meant to host gladiator battles and horse racing. The center of the amphitheater is a flat, elliptical area covered in sand, remember arena=sand. There were steps, covered with marble slabs and divided into tiers so the spectators of different social standing did not have to mix. You can still see what was an underground corridor that had eight entrances to the main arena. This is how the gladiators, wild animals and assorted other entertainments entered the arena. I don’t know if it happened here but history tells us that the Romans did enjoy their entertainments. Not only did they have horse/chariot racing and gladiator battles a la Ben Hur, but they were known to flood the arena and have mock ship battles . . .
We are actually staying on Ortygia, a small island (which you can access from a pedestrian bridge) off the coast of Syracuse. It is the original center of Syracuse. And as a consequence has plenty of historical structures. There is the Duomo, built in the 7th century which incorporates Doric columns that were originally part of a 5th century BCE Greek temple to
I missed out on most of the walking tour of Ortygia but not the boat ride to explore the harbor or the marionette museum and show.
