Exploring the Eastern Coast of Sicily

For the past ten days, in addition to taking several cooking classes, I have been exploring the eastern coast of Sicily with five others enrolled in this Road Scholar course.  Our guide is a man named Moshe (Moses), an Israeli Jew who came to Sicily nearly thirty years ago to study Italian and never left.  He has squired us around to cathedrals and told us stories of saints and relics.  He has provided a great deal of historical context as we have visited ancient Greek and Roman sites.  And he has been full of information about Sicilian traditions and foods and even the Cosa Nostra (Mafia).

We have visited the cities of Siracusa (Syracuse), Catania, Taormina, and Messina; the village of Castelmola; and hiked a portion of the active volcano, Mount Etna, which erupted just as we were leaving. 

Sicily was settled by the Phoenicians who sailed here from Palestine and Tunisia, by the Greeks and later the Romans, by the Norman invaders who came down from Northern Europe, by the Moors from North Africa, by the Spaniards and then the Turks.  The influences of all those peoples are found in the buildings (and ruins) as well as in the agriculture, and thus the food, of Sicily.

In Siracusa we visited an ancient Greek rock quarry and stood in awe in the Greek theatre which is still used for concerts and theatrical productions.  The Greek theatre-turned Roman Amphitheatre in Taormina is also impressive.  According to Moshe, the Greeks chiseled the native limestone to form seats and steps.  The theatres were oriented so that the audience could enjoy the natural beauty of the area while watching plays.

Later, the Romans made bricks from the clay in the region, added arches to the Greek structures, closed off the views so the people would have to attend to what was happening in the amphitheater, and further decorated the space with embellishments.  The theatre below is in Taormina and shows clearly the Greek and the Roman structures.

On my own one afternoon, I strolled through Taormina’s Public Gardens and delighted in several unusual structures there.  Later, Moshe told of a wealthy British woman who had purchased land in the area in the nineteenth century and designed these buildings using elements of Oriental design.

The early churches of the region were constructed by the Normans, some used Moorish designs.  During the Baroque period, many of these structures were extensively decorated.  This church in Siracusa shows the many phases of architectural history, beginning with the Greek columns left from a temple to one of the Greek gods.  The Normans built onto that structure, adding their plain, flat walls, and later generations added baroque details to the façade.

The island of Sicily has been shaped by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, like Mount Etna.  We hiked on Mount Etna one day (top photo) and within an hour of our leaving it erupted, spewing ash six kilometers into the air and closing the Catania airport for a few hours.  The photo of the eruption was taken from my hotel balcony.

The island also suffered significant destruction from bombing during World War II as the Allies stormed the coast, occupied the island, and moved into mainland Italy, eventually driving the Germans out and capturing Mussolini.  We visited the very interesting World War II Landing Museum in Catania.  

In Messina there is a memorial to the war dead with a bell that tolls hourly.  The original structure, which was built as a religious sanctuary in the thirteenth century, was destroyed by a massive earthquake in 1908.

Above the town of Taormina sits the village of Castelmola.  With two other members of our group, I walked up approximately 450 steps to a church sitting on a hilltop.  The rest of the tour group picked us up there and continued on to Castelmola where we enjoyed coffee, almond wine (very like Amaretto), and almond cake as we enjoyed the views of Taormina and the Ionian Sea below. 

In Catania, there is a very busy fish market.  

It is located near the Duomo Plaza (Cathedral square) whose centerpiece is an elephant statue.  

Another statue in Catania celebrates native-son Vincente Bellini.  

His most famous opera, Norma, is remembered nearly daily in a common dish, pasta alla Norma.  The Catania Opera House also celebrates the life and work of Bellini.

Catania, Sicily’s second-largest city, is also a center of Mafia activity.  Perhaps the graffiti covering nearly every building in town is a result of that activity.

The third largest Sicilian city of Messina sits at the point of the island’s triangle which is closest to the Italian mainland, the boot toe region of Calabria.  There were two churches in Messina that were interesting to me.  One was a Norman church with Moorish designs and the other had a mechanical clock tower.  

We watched the show at noon, including a roaring lion, and crowing rooster, and characters paying homage to the nativity as Ave Marie played over the loud speaker.

The symbol of Sicily, Trinacria, is a three legged or pointed figure representing the triangular shape of the island.  The head is of Medusa, a beautiful woman with a head of snakes.  In Greek mythology Medusa seduced men who were turned into stone when they looked at her. The symbol is on many houses as a protection of the family.

I enjoyed the parts of Sicily that I visited but understand that it was only a very small slice of this large island.  I guess I will need to return someday to further explore Sicily’s beaches, mountains, and other cities.