AGRIGENTO AND ODYSSEUS

May 28-31

Lynda, Bob and I head south, to Sicily again. Lynda has never been, and Bob and I want to make it to Agrigento this time. We were thwarted in our plans last visit to Sicily, when Bob had a nasty fall and sprained his ankle.
This time we flew Bologna- Catania, and then had a taxi drive us to Taormina, 45 minutes north. We had enjoyed Taormina so much in March, with Angela, that we wanted to share it with Lynda.
What a difference 3 months makes. There were flowers everywhere, especially bouganvillia, and many more tourists. But the beach was hot and the Ionian Sean swimable, at least to us hardy Canucks.

The beach at Taormina

Gemellas - which is which

One of the wonderful things about Sicily are "la dolce", the sweets. Sicilians make the best cannoli, and Lynda found a shop where they stuff them right in front of you, so the cannoli shells stay crisp and fresh. The filling is sweet ricotta cheese, pistachios and dried fruit. Bob says my experience of Italy is "very oral". In this case I'd have to agree 100%. These treats are delicious!

Ready to eat!

Stuffing our cannoli

Eating cannoli

We left Lynda at the beach and took a bus tour of Agrigento, home of some of the best preserved Greek temples in the world, dating from 500 B.C. The temples, that have survived the sacking by the Carthaginians and Romans, are spread out along a valley about 1 mile long. It was very humbling to look at these temples and to realize that they are 2,500 years old.

Temple of Concord

We had recently been re-reading the Greek myths, especially The Iliad and The Odyssey, that Homer wrote in 7-900 B.C.  And now here we were, touring some of the areas that Odysseus visited on his long way home after the Trojan War. We thought of Odysseus navigating the rough and rapid Straits of Messina as he crossed over from Calabria to Sicily, and then encountered the Cyclops in Sicily.

A modern sculpture of fallen Icarus in front of the Greek Temple

 Our guide showed us drawings of the temples, recreated to show what they would have looked like in 500 BC. They would have all been covered in multi-coloured paints and frescoes. We could imagine Homer writing the stories here, and the  Greek gods living in these temples.

At one temple, a row of giants held up the temple roof. They are now all fallen on the ground, as in this photo of us, (right), but you get a sense of the scale of the immenseness and grandeur.

 Back in Taormina, we had time to stroll the streets, eat some great meals and listen to a group of roaming Sicilian troubadors. We asked to take their photo, which they willingly agreed to, but then insisted that we take a photo with their camera too. They seemed as interested in posing with us, as we were with them, especially when they heard we were "gemella". Maybe they saw some of their ancestors in us!

GEMELLA-LAND

My twin, Lynda arrived for the last 2 weeks of May. What fun for Bob and I to experience Italy through the eyes of my artistic, creative, dancer-twin. We were keen to show her some of our favourites, as she had never been to Italy before.
We started with a return visit to Venice, as we couldn't imagine anything more suited to Lynda.
Lynda's delight in the architecture, style, flair, fashion and people was infectious. We enjoyed looking anew at everything she pointed out.

The Gemellas 

Venice and the Gondoliers

The Canals

The highlight of the Venice trip was a night at the opera. I had booked us tickets to La Boheme at the famous La Fenice, opera theatre. This restored building glittered in gold trim. Just sitting in our boxes in the theatre was almost as good as listening to the opera.

Classy Bob

After a rest at home in Siena, we drove to Florence for a day of shopping and strolling. While I'm looking at buildings and statues, Lynda is engaging the street artists and getting them to pose with her, as only she can.  I love this shot of her and the mime artist.

Artists meeting in Florence

BELLA TOSCANA

In May, our old friend Greta came for a visit from her home in Geneva. Greta is a wonderful photographer, and it was so special to see some of our favourite spots through her camera lens.
The town hall of Siena and the main square look so much better on Greta's camera.

Greta and I had a country stroll outside the castle town of Montereggioni. The weather was perfect for hiking. All the red poppies were in bloom along the roadside and gave such vivid colour against the various shades of green of the countryside. Greta captured the lights and shades of the Tuscan countryside perfectly.

These images of Greta's are some of our best memories of the look of Tuscany and of Siena. They will be a great souvenir of our time in Siena. Thanks so much Greta!