Via Appia Antica

After Christmas, the school began a cycle of three excursions into Rome. This allows the opportunity to break the school into three manageably sized groups rather than trying to get all of the students simultaneously into some of the major sites. All students do the Vatican Museum and the Forum/Colosseum/Palatine Hill. Then they chose from among three, one-time offers. In January, Amy took a group to Ostia Antica. For the second trip, last Friday, neither of us was responsible for a group so we decided to break away and do something completely different with our friends the H-Ps. When Amy and I were here in 1996, we took a tour of some of the Christian catacombs along the Appian Way. I suggested that we explore the actual road this time.

We arrived at Ostiense, the terminus of the Viterbo-Rome line, and decided to walk rather than catch a bus. It was another gorgeous day, blue skies, temps near 70 and nearly no wind. Unfortunately, the walk was mostly along very heavily traveled streets and was rather unpleasant. We did manage to catch a very nice view of the city walls.

At Porta San Sebastiano we turned right and headed into the Parco Regionale dell’Appia Antica. The first kilometer or more was a really narrow, heavily traveled road with not much of a sidewalk to speak of. Along the way we passed a reproduction of the 1 mile column set into the stone wall beside the road. That is right, the entrance to this park is little more than 2 km from the Forum, provided you know which direction to walk in.

We had been told that the best way to see the park was to rent a bicycle, so we found our way to the park information center and discovered that “renting” from that particular location was actually free and that we could make a donation when we returned the bikes. So, fortified with maps, water, helmets and bikes we set out for a ride into antiquity.

The Via Appia is named after Appius Claudius Caecus who completed the first section in 312 BC. It was originally a military road intended to resupply troops stationed to the south of the city. It runs straight as an arrow with no regard to the surrounding terrain. The road was constructed in what became the traditional Roman road configuration. They dug down into the ground to build a base of rocks, mortar and stones to provide a stable foundation and drainage and then laid huge basalt blocks over the top. These blocks are roughly 1x1x2 feet and weigh hundreds of pounds. Some sections of the original road still exist. You get a sense of the road in the picture below, looking back along the road toward Rome from the intersection with Via Tor Carbone.

Along the sides of the road were majestic villas and fields. The edge of the road was lined with tombs and other funerary monuments. The relative importance of the tombs can be ascertained by their proximity to the walls and by their size. Close and/or big = important.  We began by traveling past the catacombs, but did not stop. Once we hit the main road, there was a short stretch with heavy traffic and then we were on the limited access portion of the road. One of the first noticeable monuments you encounter is the Tomb of Caecilia Metella. While it probably had a mounded roof originally, it is now topped by a crenellated crown.

Not far from the Tomb of Cecilia Metella we stopped for coffee at a bar and then bought sandwiches at a small shop. We picnicked near a temple shaped ruin, shown below.

Below is a randomly encountered octagonal tomb structure. I don't know who it was for. There are dozens of these types of things both very near the road and a few meters off the beaten path. They are not all identified in the literature I have.

We turned around at the Villa dei Quintili and headed back after a 5 mile ride. The villa must have been magnificent in its time. It was constructed by wealthy brothers who were then killed and the property seized by Emperor Commodus (depicted in the movie Gladiator), a brutal nutcase who really didn't enjoy it when somebody had nicer toys than he did.

Over time some of the road has shifted path so that there is now a completely separate Via Appia Nuova. The park itself is relatively new. The shape of the park took form in 1988-98 and in 2002 a plan was created for managing the park. This includes limiting access to the main road to only pedestrians and bicycles except for local traffic from businesses and people who live along the way. That's right, you can still live on the Appian Way. The entire section of road contained within the park is some 22 km long, enough for a very long but beautiful one-day ride. It was a marvelous day all around and we returned our bicycles leaving a 20 euro donation and did the sensible thing, catching the 118 bus back into the city. It takes you right to the Ostiense Train Station - if only we had realized how easy it was we could have taken the bus on the way there also. This has to be one of the most evocative journeys you can make and we recommend it highly.

Travel Plans

Amy and I will be doing a lot of travelling in the coming months. We head to Rome again this Friday, hit Malta for a week at the end of the month and then spend a few days at the Cinque Terre in early April. We will also undoubtedly take a few weekend trips as well.

We have one confirmed visitor lined up for May and others cuing up for the late spring and early summer. My friend, Sam Ladley, will be coming with his wife Beth and will stay with us over the last two weekends in May bracketing a trip to the Rome area and south. I haven’t seen Sam in 20+ years but reconnected with him on Facebook awhile back. Meeting Sam when I was but a little shaver is my earliest memory, so it will be exciting to spend time with him and see where life has taken him.

We are working out the details of an early June trip to Amsterdam for a bike and barge tour followed by an Arctic Circle cruise around Norway. The rest of the summer is still up in the air, but we are hoping to visit Amy’s relatives in Germany and perhaps spend some time in France again as well. All in all, it will be an interesting time.

We switched our return plane tickets so we now know that we will return to the US on August 1^st. However, many of you reading this already know the exciting news. We will be returning to Italy approximately two weeks later to spend a second year here! I have been granted an unpaid leave of absence by WSU and will be teaching a full slate of math classes. Unfortunately, it means that Amy will be returning to the US without a job. We have no idea what that means in the long run, but will need to work it out.

Arancia

Arancia (orange) is, as in English, both a color and a fruit. During February in Italy, citrus is king. The season actually starts in January and is still going strong now in March, but February is the peak. Southern Italy is the citrus region of Italy and Sicily is its epicenter. While we were there you could buy fresh, ripe fruit picked that morning from a tree for 50 euro cents per kilogram. That translates to around 30 US cents per pound.

So, what is an orange like? Italians tend to be picky and local about their produce. Oranges tend not to be around unless they are in season in Italy. They don’t ship them in semi-ripe from other parts of the world, paint them orange and sell them. What you get is fruit, tree-ripe and ready to eat, no colors added. While Italians are picky about flavor and freshness, and they care about the finished presentation of the meal on the plate, they tend not to care how the outside looks, so there is no need for a perfect fruit.

I counted this morning and my local fruit store has no fewer than 13 different orange options. Your basic fruit comes down to Clementine, mandarine, navel, tarocco and sanguinelle. In a similar fashion to the US, fruit is graded by size with different sizes costing different amounts. However, unlike the US where they are sold by the box, in Italy this also includes clementini. They are so sweet they might as well be candy. I was eating an average of 10 a day during early February before we went to Sicily. When oranges are ripe, it is difficult to pick them without creating a hole in the skin where the fruit attached to the branch. For this reason, oranges are often sold “in foglia” or with leaves, meaning there is a small amount of branch left attached to the fruit. The fruit is sometimes divided even further based on where it was grown. For instance, this morning I bought arancia tarocco di Calabria or tarocco oranges from Calabria. Two varieties of orange are essentially unavailable in the US. Those are the tarocco and sanguinelle. Tarocco usually have a reddish hint to their skin and sanguinelle can be almost red on the outside. This mirrors what you will find on the inside. Tarocco are mostly orange with a hit of red and sanguinella are blood oranges which are mostly red inside.

For the past month I have been making Amy freshly squeezed orange juice every morning before I head to work. The tarocco create a lovely pink juice and the sanguinelle are bright red. I tend to use a mixture of the two types when making her morning treat. Below is a picture of the two types of orange, shown cut in half and lined up on a cutting board. Two are tarocco and one is sanguinelle. 

Next is the juice in the juice machine.

 Finally we have the finished glass of juice, presented in a  ring of fresh oranges.

An interesting side note. What we refer to as yellow at a traffic light in the US is often called an orange light in Italy. In truth, the color here is slightly different and closer to what we would also refer to as orange than to yellow.

Del Vento

By all accounts, this winter in Viterbo was unusual. The vast majority of the time the temperature was well above normal. Then we had late January and most of February where it was very cold and we had more snow than has fallen at any time in the last 50 years. I have been told that the key ingredients which were missing for most of the winter were an overcast, drizzle/rain and wind. I can’t say that I missed them much.

The wind which cuts so deeply in Viterbo is referred to as la tramontane. It comes barreling out of the north having hopped the Alps and being trapped to the west of the Apennines which form a ridge down the spine of Italy. When they get howling they will hit a steady 45 mph. I was reminded of that fact during my 6 AM walk around the city walls this morning. The temperature was a reasonable 40 degrees, but the wind nearly took my breath away when I was walking into it and just about blew me on my face when it was hitting me from behind. When I did a little digging I discovered that tramontane is one of the traditional names for the winds of the Mediterranean. They were named by Flavio Gioia in the 14^th century. There are eight of them, one for each of the cardinal directions and each of the directions between. Perhaps the most famous of these is the Sirocco which blows out of the southeast and has been known to deposit desert sand from Africa even as far north as Viterbo and beyond.

A second wind connection is found at the school. The rooms are referred to by letters: A, B, E, N and Z. That doesn’t make much sense unless you know the names of the Greek gods of the winds. A is Aeolus, the ruler of the winds in Greek mythology. B is Boreas, E is Eurus, N is Notus and Z is Zephyrus. These are the gods of the north, east, south and west winds, respectively.

The tramontane is essentially a boreas wind. The word boreas shares a common root with Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights. I teach my one class this year in Zephyrus, the bringer of spring and summer breezes. I guess that means it is my time now.

Assisi

During the first Sunday in March we embarked on a pilgrimage of sorts with our friends the H-P’s. One of the items high on Carolyn’s to-do list while in Italy was to visit the town of Assisi and to take in the sites related to the life of Saint Francis. We headed out through the early morning nebbia to beat the crowds and perhaps take in part of a service at one of the most widely visited pilgrimage sites in Italy. During the two hour drive Carolyn poured over an assortment of guide books, picking and choosing from among the dozens of suggestions until she converged on our itinerary.

Assisi sits on the western flank of Monte Subasio near the city of Perugia in Umbria. The old, walled city center sits well above the surrounding region, but is nowhere near the top of the mountain which peaks out around 1300 meters. My first impression of Assisi as we circled below the walls was not particularly favorable, due mainly to the fact that we parked in a large, multi-level parking garage recently constructed into the side of the mountain. This certainly isn’t the first parking garage we have encountered. They were all over Siena and parts of Sicily. It simply reminded me that we weren’t visiting a charming little town. We were visiting a major tourist hot spot, set up to take advantage of the situation in any way they could. That perspective is perhaps overly harsh. In truth, Assisi was hit by a major earthquake in 1997 which damaged large portions of the town. During the rebuilding process they had the opportunity to do things differently and decided to take it.

Our first stop after climbing our way up to the city was the Piazza del Commune, complete with requisite fountain.

Just off the main square is what remains of a 15^th century, fresco-painted, vaulted ceiling.

A half mile trek, mostly downhill, brings you to the first stop on our San Francesco pilgrimage, the Basilica di San Francesco. The basilica and the collection of other sites related to San Francesco is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is a huge complex. What you first encounter is the upper church.

The interior was badly damaged by the earthquakes and was closed for restoration for over two years. When you enter, you are greeted by painted frescoes covering every square inch of every surface. The interiors of many churches, including all on this trip, are off-limits for photographs so I have nothing to show. It is clear that many of the frescoes have been refurbished and reworked as part of the restoration following the earthquake. It must be difficult to decide what to do in a case like that. Do you leave it be, or attempt to restore it to its former state? I guess the decision has as much to do with function as anything else. This place isn’t a museum; it is a healthy, functioning place of worship. What is also provides is a chance to see what all of the other churches with plain interiors might have looked like before their decorative finish was lost. By the way, Giotto painted many of the frescoes, including the famous sermon to the birds.

The platform which supports the upper church is actually the roof of the lower church, another full-sized edifice. The entrance to the left of and below the entrance to the main basilica is accessed by going down a long flight of stairs. While inside we were able to observe part of a mass and visit the tomb of St. Francis. Parts of the church were closed to visitors because of the mass. Carolyn was able to see a few of the works, including a famous portrait of St. Francis by Cimabue, that interested her during a short break between the celebrations of mass. There is a great deal more building there than is open to the public since there is also a large Franciscan monastery.

Following lunch with a spectacular view overlooking the surrounding countryside we made our way back through town to the Basilica di Santa Chiara (St. Clare). Santa Chiara was a contemporary of San Francesco. St. Francis founded the Franciscan Order; St. Clare founded the Poor Ladies which was eventually renamed in her honor to the Order of the Poor Clares. Both were from Assisi and are the patron saints of the town. The local stone used in the construction of the basilica, unlike the grey of Viterbo, is a beautiful mix of white and pink. While inside the church, we visited the tomb of Santa Chiara and viewed a collection of relics related to both Francis and Clare, including St. Clare's really comfy-looking hair shirt.

Following our visit to Santa Chiara’s we headed back to our car to explore the surrounding area.

Our next stop took us slightly downhill to the Santuario di San Damiano. It was there that Clare organized her followers and founded her order. She also died there. Given the importance of the place, I suspect it is overrun by visitors during the high part of the tourist season. However, unlike the hustle and bustle of the town, San Damiano was a calm and peaceful oasis during our visit.

Our final stop was high on Monte Subasio at a place referred to as the Hermitage. There was no signage and we had to take it on faith that we were on the right road as we climbed up, up, up. Apparently, there is a walking path through the woods, but I was in no mood for a 90 minute climb no matter how scenic. Without meaning to offend anyone, St. Francis went a bit loopy toward the end of his life. In addition to being the first to receive the stigmata (via heavenly laser, if the frescoes can be trusted), he spent months living in a cave up on the mountain while fasting and praying. Our trip took us to a beautiful, isolated natural area where we saw the caves that he and some of his contemporary brothers lived in. The cave of San Francesco has been incorporated into a building so it is difficult to imagine what it might have been like. We did visit two other, unimproved caves as well as the place, shown below, where St. Francis would lie out and look up at the heavens.

All in all, it was a great visit which exceeded Carolyn’s already high expectations. We also sighted a mendicant monk, dressed in a patched burlap robe and walking around in bare feet.

Festa della Donna

Yesterday I was caught completely by surprise by celebration which is international while being entirely non-American. It turns out March 8 is International Women's Day. In Italy in 1945, the Union of Italian Women decided to hold their commemoration of women on May 8 in rememberance of two events whcih took place on that day: a women garment workers strike in New York (1857) and a bread and peace strike by Russian women (1917). Shortly after, the tradition began of Italian men giving their wives, daughters, mothers, etc. yellow mimosa flowers. Now it is common for women to also give other women these flowers. Since mimosa might be not be in flower at this time, it is acceptable to give other yellow flowers in their place.

When school opened, students, prompted no doubt by their host families, began arriving with mimosa blooms for all of the women in the program. The mimosa flowers are quite delicate and fragrant. Then, when I went to the fruit store, the proprietress, Laura, gave me a potted yellow pansy with a sprig of mimosa for me to bring home to Amy. It is a wonderful tradition that I hope to continue when we return to the US although mimosa might be hard to come by!

Monreale

Our final stop in Sicily was to the small town of Monreale. The town of  Monreale was a tiny village which first gained any kind of recognition after it was chosen as a hunting resort by the Normans. The cathedral was begun in 1174 by King William II and is widely considered one of the greatest existing examples of Norman architecture. We arrived mid-morning to the bus parking area and walked the staircase and hill which leads to the center of the small town. We were greeted by blaring loud music and herds of young, costumed children. For most of the time we were in Sicily, Carnivale was taking place. We happened to time our arrival in Monreale just as they were having their Fat Tuesday parade in preparation for the beginning of Lent.

Our first stop was actually the exterior of the apse. Even this is done up in intricate inlaid stone.

When you enter the cathedral it quite literally takes your breath away. The Cappella Palatino in Palermo comes close, but nothing else really compares.

It would seem that every story every told in the Bible is somewhere on the walls in mosaic tile. I recognized Noah’s Ark, the baptism of Christ, etc. and I feel I should know what this one is, but I don’t. However, I was quite amused by the angels climbing a physical ladder to the heavens so I have included it here.

After our visit to the cathedral we visited the attached cloister where we saw iconography similar to that of the cloister in Cefalu. This time, rather than being carved into the column, the four elements were represented by inlaid stone. I think this one is once again fire. However, there were 5 distinct patterns, so I am just guessing since a 1-to-1 correspondence isn’t possible.

Following lunch we headed back to the Port of Palermo to board our ship to take us home overnight. It was a different shipping line, but the same idea. There were rougher seas so there were some stories of vomit to be told by the students upon our return, but Amy and I slept well and arrived refreshed in Civitavecchia for the short bus ride back to Viterbo. What did we find upon our return? Miraculously clear streets with only small hints of snow. We left during winter, we returned to spring, complete with longer hours of daylight, warmer temperatures and less of a bite in the air. But, don’t tell the Italians. They are all still bundled up in their winter best.

Cefalu

The city of Cefalu lies a little less than 1/3 of the way between Palermo and Messina on the northern coast of the island. It is a bustling tourist town during the summer, but was relatively quiet for our visit. While the origins of the town are Greek, our interest was once again in the Norman period. The main cathedral in the center of town is a fine example of Sicilian Romanesque. The only remaining Byzantine mosaics are in the apse and choir, but they are considered by some to be the most original of those found on Sicily as they have been the least tampered with and restored over the centuries.

I found the windows in the upper portion of the church nearly as intriguing. If I had to guess, I would say that they definitely are of more modern origin. It was impossible to tell from ground level whether they were pieced, painted, or what. The large window at the back was particularly interesting. It was hard to get a decent picture of it and even harder to find one that reduced well for the purposes of this post.

Next to the cathedral was the first of two cloisters that we would visit on our trip. We were treated to a discussion of the structure and symbolism of the space by a docent of the cloister, but it was all in Italian. I really should learn more of the language if I want to get much out of the rest of our time here. The main discussion centered upon the double columns which ring the outer perimeter of the promenade around the open, garden space in the middle of the cloister.  

The original columns are meant to represent the four elements: earth, water, fire and air. The swirling spiral is fire, seen next to a plain replacement column.

The sawtooth is water, again next to a plain column.

Air is represented by an eight-sided column. Quite a few of them have had to be replaced. When that is done a nondescript simple column has been used. Earth is usually plain, which would make it difficult to tell the original earth columns from the replacements were it not for the obvious differences in age between the two. Another way of identifying the type of column is to look at the top which usually depicts something representative of the same element. For instance, there might be a phoenix on top of a fire column or Noah’s Ark atop water. I’m not sure what the chicken would represent, although it is probably earth based on the simple column below it.

Bagheria

Three hundred or so years ago, Palermo was significantly smaller than it is now. Rather than the 1%/99% that we rant about now, the split in Sicily was probably closer to 0.1/99.9. A small handful of people controlled the vast majority of wealth on the island. They had the wherewithal to live lives we can’t imagine. For instance, the wealthy families maintained a hunting lodge in Bagheria where they would go occasionally. When you see it now, hemmed in on all sides by suburban Palermo sprawl, it is hard to imagine that it was ever even remotely isolated.

The Villa Palagonia is a European baroque party house with a huge reception hall, ballroom, dining area and bedrooms. With the exception of the ballroom, think frat house on steroids. The current visitor’s entrance is in the back, through a citrus grove.

The entire grounds are ringed by a ten foot tall wall, topped with a row of grotesque figures. This picture is of the figures above the main/front entrance.

In this picture of the front of the building you note the ornate baroque coming through as well as the symmetry of the building. The double staircase is quite unusual for this period.

When you enter after climbing the exterior stairs to the primo piano you find yourself in a hallway painted with four scenes from the labors of Herakles. Recognize this one? You should. It is the capture of the Erymanthian boar, the same labor as the one pictured from the Palazzo Reale. Again, everything you see in this picture is painted. Not even the columns are real stone.

To the right of the entry hall is the Hall of Mirrors. The ceiling looks like it is made of polished grey stone, but that is the result of the deterioration of its original mirrored surfaces. The decorations are an interesting combination of real materials and fake, painted ones married so seamlessly that I don’t expect many people can tell them apart. Some of the marble on the walls is real. However, most of the interesting colored pieces are actually paint on the back of glass which has been done so skillfully it looks like highly polished stone.

Finally, while it doesn’t seem intentional on the part of the owners of the property, the grounds are a semi cat sanctuary. At one point when looking out the window I counted no fewer than 7 cats in the garden including two hanging out in this tree.

Palermo

I am sure that when you are sitting at home reading about our travels, the idea of heading to Sicily for ten days sounds wonderful. But for us it was also work. We shepherded the students around, escorted them to emergency rooms, dealt with their personal crises and just dealt with being in the presence of 59 teenagers. It is not all fun for them either. While they might not be doing much math, the trips are a major component of their classes in ancient history and art history. As you might have gathered from the previous posts, the first part of the trip was heavy on the classical world, especially the Greek period. The second portion of the trip, which began in Palermo, focused primarily on the art and architecture of the Norman period.

I have to step back and admit, especially for those of you who think I am a total Italophile, that there are actually places in Italy that don’t really rock my world. Milano is one of them. Been there, done that and don’t ever need to go back. Palermo is another. It really doesn’t have that much in the way of charm. At least it doesn’t naturally ooze charm like other places do. It is a rough, dirty, grey, sort of non-descript city. But, if you look hard enough it does have its moments. For instance, driving into the city we passed a little donkey cart being driven around a small square. It wasn’t a tourist thing; it was just an older gentleman going about his business.

Another gem is the Cappella Palatina, located in the Palazzo Reale. The interior of the chapel is covered in mosaic tile from the Norman period. The two pictures here are of the nave and pulpit.

Again, for better or worse, the guided tour we were given for the entire day was in Italian. Amy was able to understand most of it with extreme concentration; I got little out of it. The Palace is also the meeting site of the Sicilian Parliament. Sicily is semi-autonomous and their elected representatives meet in a room painted with the labors of Herakles. This one depicts the fourth task – the capture of the Erymanthian boar. It is interesting to note that the picture is painted directly on the walls. What appears to be an ornate frame around is also painted on the wall. Check out the fire extinguisher sign in the lower left of the photo.

During the afternoon we took a walk around with the same guide. We stopped for what seemed like forever at the Pretoria Fountain next to the city hall, a particularly uninspiring, triple-tiered monstrosity that was cordoned off so that you couldn’t get within 25 meters of it. If I had to guess I would say city officials were worried what people might do should they be allowed to express their opinion of it.  

We also took a disappointing stroll past la Martorana, yet another Norman period, mosaic covered church. The interior was closed, but we saw many mosaics elsewhere. It actually has a reasonably nice exterior as well, which we also did not see. What we got was a rear shot with the three red domes, kind of like red nipples. We finished the afternoon being escorted around the city by a pair of street dogs who protected us from strangers by chasing them away. They seemed to harbor extreme animosity toward dark-skinned males.

Segesta

A bit further up the western coast from Selinunte lie the ruins of the city of Segesta. Segesta was one of the three principal cites of the Elymian people, one of the indigenous populations of Sicily. They were major rivals of the city of Selinunte. The ruins lie on top of Monte Barbaro. Again, they are relatively removed from any modern habitation. There are three interesting archeological entities. Two date from the 400’s BC. It was at that time that the city of Segesta formed an alliance with Athens. In order to cultivate the relationship they built a Greek theater and temple. To get to the theater you must negotiate a 2 km long road which climbs nearly 300 meters. It is quite a hike. Once you arrive at the top you are treated to a spectacular view out over the surrounding countryside. The theater was entirely restored between 1995 and 2001. Again, the newer portions are easily recognizable by the different building materials used and by bronze plaques set into the concrete. The acoustics are magnificent. From the right spot within the theater you can turn away from the audience and speak towards the mountains in little more than a whisper and still be heard. There is some wonderful science of diffraction and reflection occurring there.

Much further down the mountain are the remains of a 6 x 14 column, Doric temple. Apparently, once the cooperation and alliance with the Athenians was arranged, the residents never bothered to complete the temple. The external frame is intact, but there is absolutely no evidence that any cella and interior features were ever completed. In fact, it is likely that there was never even a roof. The presence of these quintessentially Greek buildings is remarkable given that the Greeks were a relatively minor (but still important) part of the community.

The final interesting bit of ruins is what is left from a Muslim mosque near an old Norman Castle on top of the same hill with the theater. While it doesn’t look like much and can barely be discerned in the picture below, it is one of the few, if not only, holy remnants of the Muslim community in all of Sicily. It likely dates from the 12^th century and was destroyed by the Christians at the beginning of the 13^th century shortly before the city was abandoned in the second half of the 13^th century. Coincidence? Well, probably.

Selinunte

When Amy travels with her school groups to Rome, she makes a point of using local transportation rather than hiring a motor coach. In addition to being much cheaper it has the added benefit of connecting the students to the place. They see the people and get a sense for how it all fits together. For this trip with the school, all of our transportation on Sicily was accomplished by private motor coach. We departed base-camp Agrigento on the morning of Saturday, 18 febbraio, headed for base-camp Palermo. Our route took us first to the archeological site at Selinunte. Unlike many of the other sites we visited which were in or at the outskirts of cities and towns, Selinunte is in the middle of nowhere. Since I was lulled to inattention by sitting on the bus, I can’t even tell you what it is near.

The city of Selinunte was founded sometime early in the 600’s BC. It was relatively important in the grand scheme of things. However, it didn’t fare well in a couple of major conflicts and was completely destroyed in the mid 200’s BC. Apparently, it was never rebuilt. When you arrive at the site you are greeted by a group of temples. Unlike the temples in Agrigento, no conventionally accepted attributions exist, so they are referred to alphabetically. One temple, referred to as Temple E, was partially rebuilt in the 1900’s. Contrary to what you might imagine, rather than trying to reconstruct it as originally as possible, the restorers took pains to clearly demark what was original and what was newly added. For example, rather than creating new stone pieces to span between some of the columns they used concrete beams instead, interspersing them with the originals. There is a small piece of inscription believed to be from Temple E which mentions Hera, so it is sometimes referred to at the Temple of Hera.

Off on another peninsula is a second temple which is in relatively good shape. You can’t walk there from where we were. It is called Temple C and it can be seen in the distance in this picture.

Most of the temples are little more than HUGE piles of rubble. The students spent quite a bit of time just climbing around the rocks. To give you a sense of scale, this picture is the remains of the pieces of a column. Columns were not constructed of a single piece of material, but were made from a series of cylinders or drums.

Each of the drum in the picture below is almost 8 feet in diameter!

Finally, we have a very happy Amy, at home in the ruins.