Katane, Catania, eastern Sicily

We drove today from Siracusa to Catania, an easy 60 Km on the highway. As you approach Catania there in front of you it looms large, very large, it looks like any other mountain, lost in the clouds. This is no ordinary mountain this is Mount Etna, the most active volcano in Europe and a deadly one at that, in its known history it has probably killed one hundred thousand people and destroyed numerous towns and villages, provoked great earthquakes and enormous tidal waves (tsunamis). At the moment it looks peaceful but like any monster it can wake-up and wreak havoc. Catania spreads at its feet, and Etna has destroyed Catania and killed its inhabitants about 8 times so far in recorded history, but they hung on and rebuilt.

Catania has several great churches, a Royal Chapel Santa Maria of the Alms blessed by Pope Eugene IV so that the Royal Bourbon Family of Spain who ruled Sicily for nearly 500 years would have a place to go and pray when they came to town. Several great princely families had palaces rebuilt after the earthquake of 1693 called Earthquake Baroque out of black lava rock and limestone giving the town sort of a Mexico City look. The most famous avenue is Via Aetna which crosses the city and ends on the slopes of the volcano. The cathedral is dedicated to Santa Agatha who is the patron saint of the city. She was a pretty local virgin who refused the advances of a powerful Roman official on the grounds that good girls don’t do things like that, early Christian morality which did not hold water with the old Roman morality and values of the time.

Her punishment was to be raped, have her breast cut off and rolled in hot sizzling charcoal for good measure, ouch!

In the cathedral you can also see the body of Blessed Cardinal Dusmet, he died a long time ago, but his body is on display in fine Cardinal red robes, it is quite obvious that under the robes is nothing but a skeleton, the skin of the hands are paper thin and black and his cardinal ring hangs loosely from the dried up fingers. This is something about Catholicism I find very disturbing, why do they have to expose corpses to pray too? The same thing is about to happen to the late Pope Jean-Paul II who is going to be placed in Saint Sebastian Chapel next to the Pieta in the basilica of St-Peter in Rome.

The local musical celebrity who is also buried in the Cathedral in a beautiful mausoleum is Vincenzo Bellini who was born in Catania. In his short life, he died at 34 he wrote 10 operas like Norma and I Puritani. The opera house in Catania one of the largest in Europe and also in need of a major restoration is named after him.

Catania is a port city and of all the cities I have seen in Sicily so far on this trip, I cannot say that it is appealing.

Since 2002 an effort has been made by the authorities to clean up and restore monuments but much remains to be done and I have to say that I found it all a bit sad looking. The black lava stone used in construction of so many buildings with the downtrodden aspect of the city does not help in the overall aesthetics. Let’s hope the authorities continue to improve the city and services and clean up its monuments, much has been done so far. The business people are friendly, the locals less so, it is a port city, you hear many foreign languages, French, German, Turk and Russian.

The one monument I really liked is in the Piazza del Duomo and it is the smiling statue of the Elephant Leotru, it is made of black lava rock. The story goes that he belonged to a famous magician in the 8^th century A.D. Leotru is the symbol of Catania found on the Coat of Arms of the City. We also took the little train around town, a 30 minute tour of the most famous sites. Like many such tours it is not made for accuracy in details but to show off what the city has to offer. The comments are a rattle of statistics and names of places as you go down the streets. Most of it is entertaining and gives you a good idea of the layout of the city. The city is known for its fish and seafood restaurants. We did find good restaurants Antica Sicilia near the Piazza del’universita was one and the other was Metro an enoteca with very good food at reasonable prices, friendly and knowledgeable waiters.

We sail from Catania Sunday on our 12 hour ride up the coast of Italy to Naples.

    

Ragusa Ibla, Sicily, City of the Arts

We arrived in Ragusa on a Sunday afternoon at lunch time. The city was deserted not a soul to be seen anywhere, no cars, absolute quiet, very strange really.

Suddenly we turn a corner and a big crowd of children coming out of Church from their First Communion with parents etc. But that was it for people, nothing else, just a quiet sunny day in Ragusa. The city is 537 meters above sea level and the sea is only about 20 minutes away by car, it is a very steep ascension by car on a narrow road with numerous hair pin turns, you have to drive no more than 40 km per hour otherwise you are over the cliff. Once in Ragusa you discover that there is actually 2 towns with two enormous cathedrals. 

                      Cathedral of St-John the Baptist in Ragusa, our hotel is in front of this church.

One is dedicated to St-John the Baptist in the newer part of Ragusa and across the narrow valley on the other hill is the other Cathedral to St-George in Ragusa Ibla. This is the old historic city destroyed by a massive earthquake in 1693 and rebuilt immediately more splendid than before. Ragusa Ibla is a city lined with Palaces to the great families, and of course the two cathedrals would probably fit in a large metropolis instead of a small town with pretension of imperial glory. It is a beautiful city, the baroque architecture and the steep geography makes of the people of Raguzza cliff dwellers with a fantastic panorama. For walking you need good shoes and be ready to go up and down steep streets and long staircases. It seems that staircases is sort of a feature of the town, the cathedral of St-George has no less than 250 steps on its grand front entrance.

 The Cathedral of St-George (Patron Saint of Ragusa) in old Ragusa Ibla.

Arriving at lunch time we were hungry, we decided to look for a place to eat but everything was closed. So we walked for about 45 minutes admiring the panorama all along the way, you see Ragusa is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We finally arrived at Don Serafino which is an award winning restaurant and is featured in Le  Soste di Ulisse.  The restaurant is located in a huge cave which use to be a horse stable. The décor of stark rock and white marble floor is startling. The tables and chairs are very modern, it is elegant and simple but also very refined. We did not choose this restaurant but since we were tired from the drive and very hungry we went for it.

                                   Piazza del Duomo

It’s a high end restaurant but the food was wonderful,

absolutely delicious. I had rabbit meat on a bed of diced green and red peppers with a light Madeira sauce to start. Then I went for the ravioli with a light lemon sauce. The dessert was a granita of blood oranges, very Sicilian.

 Via della Scala ( a long staircase street) 

We then walked back up and down the old streets of Ragusa to our hotel for a well deserved nap.

But before we got to our hotel we crossed Piazza Repubblica and heard organ music in an otherwise totally quiet and deserted Piazza, the music was coming from the Church of the Holy Souls in Purgatory. We went in and were entertained by the organist who was practising. However the music he was playing was Circus music like Barnum and Bailey music, I thought this very odd and could not understand how it could be associated with a church service, but we did find out the next day.

                      A view of Holy Souls in Purgatory Church on Piazza Repubblica 

 You see Ragusa has a great tradition like so many Sicilian cities of the I Misteri, which is a strong link with Easter but also the cult of the Patron Saint of the City. In Antiquity, Greek Gods and Godesses protected the city when Christianity became the new religion patron saints replaced the old Gods. The Festivities remained the same just new names, that is all. In Ragusa May 28-29 are the Feast days of St-George and this involves great parties and the entire city will participate, fireworks, marching bands, great parades throughout the city, ordinary life stops for those 2 days and it all starts in the Cathedral Church building itself.