Sicilia, Napoli Roma: two months in Italy: Siracusa

venerdì 11 febbraio 2011

Siracusa

Eccoci, a Siracusa, finalemente, recuperandoci dopo uno lungo viaggio. Here we are at last, recovering after a long trip. Il nostro apartamento our apartment a via Roma 152, Ortigia, Siracusa, is a few doors from the sea and the most wonderful 8am sitting place.

Siamo fuori a quest'ora della nostra prima mattina perche il mercato a Ortigia si apri alle 7 ogni giorno.

We are out at this early hour on our first morning because the market in Ortigia opens at 7 every day.

Raggiungere il mercato abbiamo usato il Lungomare. Qui, di sotto - le scale? Archimede le ha usato?

Here we look back at the peninsula forming the mouth of the harbour on the other side, a small harbour in which 2425 years ago, Siracusa destroyed the armed might of Athens in a battle involving 162 triremes.

There are some modern decorations along the way, variation from the dominant Baroque this quarter of the city.

We were able to buy the utterly fresh at the market.

and have a tableload of food at home

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TOP PHOTO

A seat on the cliff road at Positano just off the Amalfi Drive, south of Naples.

Just out there in the blue, the Sirens lived and tempted Ulysses. Ulysses' men, according to Homer's Odyssey, had their ears filled with wax, rowing furiously, deaf to the lure of the Sirens. Ulysses had lashed himself to the mast to avoid the Sirens' temptation. According to myth, Parthenope, one of the Sirens, fell in love with Ulysses but he ignored here. She came ashore and died of a broken heart near what is now Naples, a city founded as 'Neapolis' by the Greeks — and still Greek, luxurious and epicurean, through Roman imperial times. Parthenope and Neapolitan culture are synonymous.

Also, according to Greek myth, Persephone, daughter of Demeter, goddess of fertility and harvest, was abducted by Pluto and taken to Hades via the entrance to the underworld in the crater of the volcano at Avernus, near Naples. Not knowing of Pluto's action, Demeter charged three of the sirens, including Parthenope, to find her daughter, lighting the sea with the great volcanoes between Vesuvius which broods over Naples to Etna which occupies southeast Sicily. Demeter was angered when the Sirens could not find Persephone, changing them into birds with female faces or in later rendering creature more like mermaids. Demeter eventually came to terms with Pluto for sharing Persephone, each for half a year.(Gosh, how modern!) Persephone, from the Hades of death and sleeping plants, ascended to Demeter, near Naples, with its rich soils, as the bringer of harvests each year.

To travel in Italy from the south to the centre, from Sicily (occupied by Greeks, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Germans, French, Spanish and Americans in twists and turns) northwards to Rome, is to follow the heart a special way, through depths of culture and complexity of character very different from the better known worship from abroad of the world of Tuscany and Florence.