Adventures in Enna
Apr. 26th, 2014 07:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blatherskiteOur goal today was to make it to the Villa Romana archeological site near Piazza Armerina. This site was the home of a prosperous trader from around the 4th century A.D. He built a huge complex, basically a country estate, complete with the traditional Roman baths (i.e., hot, warm, and cold plunges), a couple dozen rooms, a large central courtyard surrounded by a peristyle, and a lovely view of the surrounding hills. Even given the potential cost advantage of using slave labor, he clearly spent an enormous sum creating extensive tile mosaics throughout the house. (There were also frescoes, which are paintings done in fresh plaster so that the paint becomes part of the surface instead of an additional surface layer, but most of these have been lost. The original home was apparently destroyed by fire, and that would have toasted the frescoes too.)
It's the tiles that most people come to see. Although the tiles have not aged well during the past 1700 or so years, they are surprisingly well preserved for their age. They're definitely faded, and there are many lacunae where tiles have gone missing or have been eroded away, but what remains is often spectacular: Some of the mosaics are simple, being little more than wide expanses of geometric patterns, isolated character studies, or the heads of animals. Some are more complex: scenes with multiple characters, such as a chariot race in which the horses have been replaced with geese and pigeons that represent different political factions. Some are full-blown narratives in graphic novel format: two long halls, each more than 30 m long, are filled with complete depictions of hunting. The first story is of a normal hunt, with dozens of characters engaged in various steps in bringing home food for the table, but also includes depictions of wild animals hunting each other and of the hunted animals sometimes turning on the hunter. The second is a more speculative narrative about bringing home exotic animals for the Roman Circus or private menageries, and includes depictions of ostriches, elephants, and a rhino being carried or dragged aboard a boat.
The viewing conditions are not ideal. Some of the elevated platforms from which you view the tiles are set back too far. This means that you see almost all of the mosaics at a large angle rather than more directly from above. (In fairness, it would be difficult to solve the problem in many cases because of the breadth of the rooms.) More seriously, the light is almost entirely natural, so it varies with time of day, position of the room within the house, and the weather. Since you're not supposed to use a flash, which would damage the pigments (after thousands of visitors doing this), this makes photography tricky. The photos I've posted provide a good overall sense of what the tiles look like, but will require some Photoshop work to make them more closely resemble what you can see with your own eyes. I'm not sure whether it's possible to correct for the distortion caused by the viewing angle, but it might be. Will see if I have time when I get back.
We returned to Enna, dumped our bags, and headed out to explore a bit more of the city. Stopped in at a few churches on our way to the far end of the city; some are spectacular (e.g., the Duomo), and others plain, but they're all worth a look, particularly if you have a guide like Shoshanna who knows much of the iconography. The last stop on our hike was the old Castello de Lombardia at the highest point of the northeastern corner of town. It has gone through a range of owners over the years, starting with the Saracens and ending with the Normans, and parts are still in impressively good condition after a thousand-some years. I can't imagine that most modern wood-frame or brick and mortar homes will last anywhere near that long. It's worth the stiff climb to the top of the tallest tower because it provides a wide view of the surrounding lands. On a clear day (which it wasn't), you can easily see Aetna off to the east-northeast.
The castle also overlooks the Temple of Demeter, which has been basically stripped down to the bare rock, but is still worth a hike up to the top. It's a lovely rock outcropping, surrounded on all sides by cliffs or steep slopes ablaze with wildflowers (particularly a species of orange flower right now), and gives a great view back towards town and down the steep slopes to the surrounding valleys.
Dinner that night was at the Trinacria, a restaurant that (like many others) specializes in Sicilian cuisine. Here, however, they include more meat dishes than in the regions we've previously visited, which were more coastal and therefore focused more on seafood. We shared a deliciously tender pot roast and pasta with ground wild boar meat. Both were delicious.
The next day, our last full day in Enna was actually outside the city. We descended briefly from the plateau on which Enna lies, and took a road trip north to the Parco Naturale delle Madonie, a nature reserve in the mountains on the central-north shore of Sicily. We'd planned to spend some time hiking along the way, but were unable to find sufficiently detailed information (signposting in Sicily ranging from adequate to nonexistent) and the one public information office we found was closed for some unidentified holiday. Plan B was to complete a driving loop through the mountains that covered the entire park, stopping in the occasional picturesque village. That was not my first choice, but turned out to be a perfectly suitable second choice, particularly given the steepness of the terrain. (It was a bright, sunny day, and would have been a very sweaty exercise even in flatter terrain. Hot enough that even Shoshanna requested air conditioning for much of the trip.) Lonely Planet suggested this was a full-day excursion, which it turned out to be: 9 hours, even without hiking.
We had lovely weather, which is a good thing: in addition to all the narrow streets, there are unending series of switchbacks throughout most of the drive, and many would have been undrivable in wet weather. This means that the unfortunate driver (Shoshanna for the first 2/3 of the trip, me for the rest) has to keep their eyes relentlessly focused on the road: you never know when you'll round a blind corner and find another car cutting the corner, a bicyclist, or even a hiker. (Fortunately, we were here early in the season, so we encountered no buses.) You do a lot of craning your neck as you drive to get that extra couple of degrees of peering around the corner that will give you a chance to see what's coming at you in time to react. Meanwhile, the passenger keeps an eye peeled for interesting stuff and for places to pull over so the driver can enjoy at least some of the scenery.
A word on GPS: We both have GPS software on our iPhones, but we've been mostly using Shoshanna's phone because it can use the car charger we have. That lets us keep it plugged in for continuous use. CoPilot GPS is not the finest example of software engineering (the interface is obscure and it crashes frequently), but when it's working, it generally works pretty well; in a few cases, it's saved us a considerable amount of time by avoiding the need to backtrack had we taken the wrong road. Rural Sicilian roads are not always well signposted, so you can get very lost if you don't have a co-pilot doing the navigation. The solution we've evolved is that the software provides announcements of what turns are coming up, and the human copilot translates them into terms humans can understand, as this generally works far better than the software's description.
On the other hand, the software has occasionally sent us on a wild goose chase, as in one example of leading us in a long loop through the narrow, cobbled, steeply sloping streets of Petralia Sottana (lower Petralia) while we were looking for Petralia Soprano (upper Petralia). We ended up right back where we started without ever finding the latter city. Several times the software got confused and sent us several kilometres down a road before reconsidering and sending us back along the same road, retracing our path. In cities, the narrow alleys and high walls often prevented us from getting enough of a signal to determine our position, and once during a rainstorm, it lost our position entirely and placed us several hundred metres off the road for nearly 10 minutes. Still, on balance, I can't imagine traveling without this software in the future. So long as there's human oversight to say "no, that makes no sense", it lets you easily navigate sometimes-complex courses with confidence.
We had two main stops along the way through the park, both targets of opportunity. The first was Geraci Siculo, where we spotted some ruins atop a peak beside the road and hiked up to see them. (Not much left except for a few walls, but very atmospheric, and wonderful views of the countryside.) The town itself was pretty much shut down, so apart from hiking through a few back alleys in search of food and bathrooms, we didn't find much to keep us there -- not even a dépanneur where we could get a drink. (The Italian equivalent of a corner store appears to be the "tabacchi", which sell both tobacco products and sundries such as soft drinks and candy bars. The farmacias function almost exclusively as pharmacies, without the vast and illogical range of products found in a North American pharmacy.)
The second stop was Castelbuono, which also appeared to be closed for some unnannounced holiday. However, Shoshanna's unerring instincts (and growing need for a bathroom) led us into the heart of the city, where we found a few open shops and finally, crowds of people. We found a nice pasticceria that was giving out samples (I bought a large tray of dark chocolate with hazelnuts) and bathroom access, and a little farther down the street, finaly found a piazza that was swarming with life. So we stopped for a drink and nosh (Shoshanna got a spritzer that contained a significant amount of champagne and orange-flavored alcohol, while I got a pistachio gelato) and for some people watching. Then, as it was getting late (towards 4), we got back in the car and I took over the driving and drove us home.
Dinner that night was at Il Centrale, the third of the restaurants our hosts had recommended. We both took the buffet for our primo (first course), and it was a good call: two large tables covered with a range of cold veggies and other miscellany, ranging from olives and sun-dried tomatoes to stewed or sauteed greens to sautéed bell peppers to deep-fried breaded cheese, plus all kinds of pickels and beans. For her main dish, Shoshanna had potato ravioli in a creamy, slightly lemony sauce; I had the grilled swordfish. We ended with a lovely tartuffo, an espresso, and two complimentary shots of grappa (basically a brandy-type of grape drink.)
It's the tiles that most people come to see. Although the tiles have not aged well during the past 1700 or so years, they are surprisingly well preserved for their age. They're definitely faded, and there are many lacunae where tiles have gone missing or have been eroded away, but what remains is often spectacular: Some of the mosaics are simple, being little more than wide expanses of geometric patterns, isolated character studies, or the heads of animals. Some are more complex: scenes with multiple characters, such as a chariot race in which the horses have been replaced with geese and pigeons that represent different political factions. Some are full-blown narratives in graphic novel format: two long halls, each more than 30 m long, are filled with complete depictions of hunting. The first story is of a normal hunt, with dozens of characters engaged in various steps in bringing home food for the table, but also includes depictions of wild animals hunting each other and of the hunted animals sometimes turning on the hunter. The second is a more speculative narrative about bringing home exotic animals for the Roman Circus or private menageries, and includes depictions of ostriches, elephants, and a rhino being carried or dragged aboard a boat.
The viewing conditions are not ideal. Some of the elevated platforms from which you view the tiles are set back too far. This means that you see almost all of the mosaics at a large angle rather than more directly from above. (In fairness, it would be difficult to solve the problem in many cases because of the breadth of the rooms.) More seriously, the light is almost entirely natural, so it varies with time of day, position of the room within the house, and the weather. Since you're not supposed to use a flash, which would damage the pigments (after thousands of visitors doing this), this makes photography tricky. The photos I've posted provide a good overall sense of what the tiles look like, but will require some Photoshop work to make them more closely resemble what you can see with your own eyes. I'm not sure whether it's possible to correct for the distortion caused by the viewing angle, but it might be. Will see if I have time when I get back.
We returned to Enna, dumped our bags, and headed out to explore a bit more of the city. Stopped in at a few churches on our way to the far end of the city; some are spectacular (e.g., the Duomo), and others plain, but they're all worth a look, particularly if you have a guide like Shoshanna who knows much of the iconography. The last stop on our hike was the old Castello de Lombardia at the highest point of the northeastern corner of town. It has gone through a range of owners over the years, starting with the Saracens and ending with the Normans, and parts are still in impressively good condition after a thousand-some years. I can't imagine that most modern wood-frame or brick and mortar homes will last anywhere near that long. It's worth the stiff climb to the top of the tallest tower because it provides a wide view of the surrounding lands. On a clear day (which it wasn't), you can easily see Aetna off to the east-northeast.
The castle also overlooks the Temple of Demeter, which has been basically stripped down to the bare rock, but is still worth a hike up to the top. It's a lovely rock outcropping, surrounded on all sides by cliffs or steep slopes ablaze with wildflowers (particularly a species of orange flower right now), and gives a great view back towards town and down the steep slopes to the surrounding valleys.
Dinner that night was at the Trinacria, a restaurant that (like many others) specializes in Sicilian cuisine. Here, however, they include more meat dishes than in the regions we've previously visited, which were more coastal and therefore focused more on seafood. We shared a deliciously tender pot roast and pasta with ground wild boar meat. Both were delicious.
The next day, our last full day in Enna was actually outside the city. We descended briefly from the plateau on which Enna lies, and took a road trip north to the Parco Naturale delle Madonie, a nature reserve in the mountains on the central-north shore of Sicily. We'd planned to spend some time hiking along the way, but were unable to find sufficiently detailed information (signposting in Sicily ranging from adequate to nonexistent) and the one public information office we found was closed for some unidentified holiday. Plan B was to complete a driving loop through the mountains that covered the entire park, stopping in the occasional picturesque village. That was not my first choice, but turned out to be a perfectly suitable second choice, particularly given the steepness of the terrain. (It was a bright, sunny day, and would have been a very sweaty exercise even in flatter terrain. Hot enough that even Shoshanna requested air conditioning for much of the trip.) Lonely Planet suggested this was a full-day excursion, which it turned out to be: 9 hours, even without hiking.
We had lovely weather, which is a good thing: in addition to all the narrow streets, there are unending series of switchbacks throughout most of the drive, and many would have been undrivable in wet weather. This means that the unfortunate driver (Shoshanna for the first 2/3 of the trip, me for the rest) has to keep their eyes relentlessly focused on the road: you never know when you'll round a blind corner and find another car cutting the corner, a bicyclist, or even a hiker. (Fortunately, we were here early in the season, so we encountered no buses.) You do a lot of craning your neck as you drive to get that extra couple of degrees of peering around the corner that will give you a chance to see what's coming at you in time to react. Meanwhile, the passenger keeps an eye peeled for interesting stuff and for places to pull over so the driver can enjoy at least some of the scenery.
A word on GPS: We both have GPS software on our iPhones, but we've been mostly using Shoshanna's phone because it can use the car charger we have. That lets us keep it plugged in for continuous use. CoPilot GPS is not the finest example of software engineering (the interface is obscure and it crashes frequently), but when it's working, it generally works pretty well; in a few cases, it's saved us a considerable amount of time by avoiding the need to backtrack had we taken the wrong road. Rural Sicilian roads are not always well signposted, so you can get very lost if you don't have a co-pilot doing the navigation. The solution we've evolved is that the software provides announcements of what turns are coming up, and the human copilot translates them into terms humans can understand, as this generally works far better than the software's description.
On the other hand, the software has occasionally sent us on a wild goose chase, as in one example of leading us in a long loop through the narrow, cobbled, steeply sloping streets of Petralia Sottana (lower Petralia) while we were looking for Petralia Soprano (upper Petralia). We ended up right back where we started without ever finding the latter city. Several times the software got confused and sent us several kilometres down a road before reconsidering and sending us back along the same road, retracing our path. In cities, the narrow alleys and high walls often prevented us from getting enough of a signal to determine our position, and once during a rainstorm, it lost our position entirely and placed us several hundred metres off the road for nearly 10 minutes. Still, on balance, I can't imagine traveling without this software in the future. So long as there's human oversight to say "no, that makes no sense", it lets you easily navigate sometimes-complex courses with confidence.
We had two main stops along the way through the park, both targets of opportunity. The first was Geraci Siculo, where we spotted some ruins atop a peak beside the road and hiked up to see them. (Not much left except for a few walls, but very atmospheric, and wonderful views of the countryside.) The town itself was pretty much shut down, so apart from hiking through a few back alleys in search of food and bathrooms, we didn't find much to keep us there -- not even a dépanneur where we could get a drink. (The Italian equivalent of a corner store appears to be the "tabacchi", which sell both tobacco products and sundries such as soft drinks and candy bars. The farmacias function almost exclusively as pharmacies, without the vast and illogical range of products found in a North American pharmacy.)
The second stop was Castelbuono, which also appeared to be closed for some unnannounced holiday. However, Shoshanna's unerring instincts (and growing need for a bathroom) led us into the heart of the city, where we found a few open shops and finally, crowds of people. We found a nice pasticceria that was giving out samples (I bought a large tray of dark chocolate with hazelnuts) and bathroom access, and a little farther down the street, finaly found a piazza that was swarming with life. So we stopped for a drink and nosh (Shoshanna got a spritzer that contained a significant amount of champagne and orange-flavored alcohol, while I got a pistachio gelato) and for some people watching. Then, as it was getting late (towards 4), we got back in the car and I took over the driving and drove us home.
Dinner that night was at Il Centrale, the third of the restaurants our hosts had recommended. We both took the buffet for our primo (first course), and it was a good call: two large tables covered with a range of cold veggies and other miscellany, ranging from olives and sun-dried tomatoes to stewed or sauteed greens to sautéed bell peppers to deep-fried breaded cheese, plus all kinds of pickels and beans. For her main dish, Shoshanna had potato ravioli in a creamy, slightly lemony sauce; I had the grilled swordfish. We ended with a lovely tartuffo, an espresso, and two complimentary shots of grappa (basically a brandy-type of grape drink.)
Jealous
Date: 2014-04-26 10:00 pm (UTC)