Saturday, June 12, 2010

Saturday, June 12th, Siracusa








Greetings!

Today, we visited the museum at Agrigento, one of the best in the country. Seeing so much Greek pottery and sculpture from the 6th to the third century BC, I can better understand the predominance of Greek culture in the shops and neighborhoods. While the Roman, Byzantine, and Norman cultures controlled this area from the 2nd century BC until the 12th century AD, they left very little behind to fill museums or to visit on tops of hills. It’s the Greek artifacts and images which are sold to tourists, and appear on guidebooks.

And let me say that there is much more than great female faces in the collection. I just got on a roll with those, and I do think that the artists of the era favored them.

Afterwards, we asked Greta to chart us a drive as direct as we could from Agrigento to Siracusa. The route took us away from the coast in the beginning, over a mountain, and then back down to the coast again. Lots of winding roads, up and down, and through some small towns. Not as scenic as we’ve seen, but still better than the autostrada. We even stopped for a train crossing, which seemed like it took forever getting to us. And then it turned out to only have two cars.

For a look at the photos taken today, click on: June11-12th, Agrigento


Gregory

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