Southern Italy 2022

We toured Sicily and the “heal of the boot” for 3 weeks starting in mid-February 2022 with Marv and Laurie Baker.  The depth of history was remarkable and somewhat unexpected.  In addition to your everyday 2000 year-old Roman stuff, there are amazing Greek and Byzantine buildings, cultures, and history going as far back as the 10^th century BC.  To generalize, Southern Italy is more rustic than Northern Italy, including the (excellent) food.  Our Sicilian guide told us that Southern Italy is “more Greek than Italian”.  After going to Greece, the similarities are striking. 

Our Southern Italy travel was exclusively by car. Getting around and parking in small towns was extremely tight and provided endless “entertainment”.  Driving in Palermo was insane and terrifying.  We saw  some maneuvers that I didn’t think were physically possible.  Nonetheless, we made it through 3 weeks without a scratch.  We visited the “greatest hits” of the south of Italy, but stopped in a number of smaller cities and venues as well.  In most places we did walking tours with local guides.  This was very helpful to understand the local history, customs, and people.  A summary is below, but the pictures tell the story.

Palermo – The largest of the cities we visited and the capital of Sicily. A vibrant town with great food, history, and a lively population.  Suzanne and I went to see an opera in the largest theatre in Italy.

Erice and Segesta – This was a day trip from Palermo.  Erice is a medieval mountain top village that is beautifully preserved.  It has quaint shops featuring local artists interspersed with small family owned restaurants and provides stunning views of the city of Tripani and the Tyrrhenian Sea.  We visited the ancient Segesta Greek Temple and Theater on the way back to Palermo.

Enna – We went to Enna to see the magnificent Villa Romana del Casale.  It is one of the largest and most elaborate collection of ancient roman mosaics in the world. Our guide expertly interpreted the dozens of mosaics to provide insight to Roman life at the height of the empire.  The mountaintop city of Enna was so picturesque and provided awesome views of the surrounding countryside, including a “just-erupted-and-still-smoking” Mount Etna.

Ortigia – The island of Ortigia is the oldest and most beautiful part Syracuse.  It includes Greek Temple ruins from nearly 8000 years ago and consists of a charming labyrinth of streets, alleys, and piazzas.  Today, it is full of lovely restaurants, shops, and markets.  One of the coolest things we saw was Jewish Mikveh ritual baths carved out of solid rock that were more than 30 feet below the surface dating back to the 6^th century BC.

Noto, Modica, and Ragusa – We took a day trip from Ortigia to visit these three baroque towns in southern Sicily.  Although they share similarities, they are all unique and have different histories.  Each have beautiful cathedrals, palaces (mansions), and awesome streets and alleys.  Modica is famous for its chocolate, which we heavily invested in.

Mount Etna – It is an active volcano that rises 11,000 feet above sea level and can be seen from many places on the island of Sicily.  It erupted the day before we arrived in Sicily and there was still soot in many places around the mountain. We took a cable car up the mountain to get a closer look but needed to wear all the layers of clothes we had, as the temperatures we close to freezing at the higher altitudes.

Taormina – This is arguably the glamor center of Sicily.  It’s a gorgeous cliff-side city catering to the European wealthy and tourists.  The views of the hillsides and the Ionian Sea are stunning.  The city center and dining was exceptional.  This was the closest we came to staying in a resort.

Matera – Home of the Sassi: caves carved in the hillsides and stacked on top of each other.  They date back to the 10^th century BC and Matera is considered as one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the world.  The Sassi were condemned in the 1950’s due to living conditions and abandoned until the 80’s.  Since then, plumbing and power have been installed and the caves have been turned into homes, shops, and restaurants.

Lecce – Known for its beautiful baroque buildings, it is nicknamed “the Florence of the South”.  Like most of the major towns in Southern Italy, its early settlers were Greeks.  Consequently, there are excavated Greek structures all over town.  The town has a huge number of elaborate churches with amazing detail and workmanship.

Alberobello – Home of the cone shaped stone houses known and the Trulli. The original houses in the 1600’s were constructed by simply stacking flat limestone rocks on top of each other because the owners weren’t taxed if their building had no mortar.  Over time, the Trulli become regulated and renovations must conform to strict rules.