The history of the world, as interpreted by me

I’m not getting any smarter as I age. Today was the day we were supposed to take a big bus tour with 50 people to go see Siracusa. I was smart enough to know that a group that size would not be any fun and so I talked Ron into booking a private tour. I found Chiara Rozzi, who picked us up this morning and took us out driving. We started in Catania, which wasn’t even on my radar. Chiara reminded me of a tour guide, Petar, who drove us around Bosnia a few years ago and had a habit of announcing items of danger/concern only after it was too late to take any preventative action (Petar: sometimes these large boulders fall right onto this stretch of the roadway, sometimes the Russian mafia shoots people in this square etc.)

Chiara took us on a walking tour through parts of Catania and told us how often people tell her to keep an eye on her purse and also told us (as we walked right through a square) that this very square was the most dangerous in Catania.

But Catania clearly has gone through (something) of a rebirth because mostly it was just fantastic. Chiara wanted us to see Catania because she called it the “Black City”, as opposed to the “White City” of Siracusa that I had originally asked to see. You want to see what led to these monikers?

Here’s Catania:

Here’s the Ortigia area of Siracusa:

Isn’t that fantastic? Sicily, in general, is full of buildings and neighborhoods with a dilapidated charm that really appeals to me.

But back to my limited intelligence. Touring becomes quite stressful for me when we are in the hands of someone with a real grasp on history. If Ron wants to wax historical in front of me, I can ignore him or distract him with a doughnut or pretty much any filled pastry (see Canoli we tried today).

But when someone like Chiara imparts some historical information, I really really want to grasp it and process it but it does not take more than 30 or 45 seconds of Normans, Byzantine, Phoenicians, Romans before I am lost. Couple this with the fact that it was 91 degrees out as we traveled. At some point, in Siracusa, Chiara stopped at a reservoir of some kind (historical significance forgotten) and I spied what I thought was a turkey and pointed it out with some pride, happy to contribute something to the conversation.

We toured a Greek theatre in Siracusa with a cave area that had fantastical sound echo properties, allowing Chiara to walk the length (60 meters?) of the cave away from us and sing. The echo carried her voice directly to us like she was standing a foot away. She sang something (Italian) and the entire cave applauded her. Here’s the cave site:

My favorite part of the day was actually Catania. I liked the workaday look and feel of it. Chiara took us through the market and I was able to purchase a watermelon and some peanuts that are coated in some crystallized green sugar that look awful but taste good.

Here’s one more market shot – that long light green thing is a variey of zucchini and the red bean pods are fagioli beans.

As we drove into Siracusa, marveling over the antiquity of it all, I spied this building in the distance. It looks like a spaceship readying for flight. Chiara told me that it’s a church and, at the end of the day, she agreed to take us over there and let us have a peek inside. I’ll let you draw your own opinions of it.

I’ll leave it at that. We had a great day. I tried to pepper Chiara with my usual social historian questions but did not get too far. I spent most of the 90 minute drive home asking questions about the Mafia in Sicily and the interaction of the average citizen and the Mafia. I’m not sure I understood it all but I was able to conclude that the Mafia has a big impact on elections, construction bidding and supply bidding. I didn’t want to distract her too much as I find the Sicilian highways to be a bit chaotic and I felt she needed her focus to be on the roads and not on my insatiable need for cultural ephemera.

Here’s Ron, sending you all a big greeting from one of the university buildings in Catania. We’ve got tomorrow to relax here in Taormina and then we make our way back to London and then home.