Saturday, September 30, 2023

We did a walk through part of the Villa property with Gabriella and saw some caves and a couple of tombs. Then we finished packing up and departed. We were among the last to leave. Here are a few more images of the property.

These images add to our memory of the Villa. And we received a few more images that belong in the last evening photos.

We still had a few more days in Sicily and headed first for the Villa Romana del Casele in the middle the island, to see the tile work we have heard so much about. The drive through the countryside was very pretty and interesting. Mark had no trouble with the roads as they were reasonably wide and he could go fast. He especially enjoyed the stick shift of the MG SUV we are traveling in. We reached the Villa Romana in about 1.5 hours. After finding a place to park among the large busses, we waited for our guide to arrive. She was late, but by the time she arrived, the crowd had dissipated and we could walk freely along the overhead walkways and see the tile work easily. We spent a couple of hours at the Villa Romana. The tile work was most impressive. It was all made of marble in the 3-4th centuries. We walked on elevated walkways throughout the Villa and could identify the purpose of many of the rooms from the size, shape and images on the tile.

The ladies above were gymnasts or olympians. Notice how different they look from women in other scenes, who are much more voluptuous. There are scenes of hunting for animals; bringing animals from Asia and Africa onto a ship. Carrying animals in boxes. Catching fish in nets. Pictures of many different animals. There are intricate geometrical patterns throughout the property in the service areas and passageways. Below are people gardening and harvesting plants; Mermaids swimming with unusual fish; voluptuous naked ladies with animals and fish and more. It was a lot to take in. It is unknown who the family was that lived in the Villa or who built it and designed the rooms. The tile has survived in such perfect condition because it spent centuries covered with mud from ancient earthquakes and mudslides.

More voluptuous ladies, mythical figures and wild and domestic animals. About 2:30pm we finished with our guide at the Villa Romana del Casale and drove another 1.5 hours to Agrigento and checked into our hotel, the Villa Athena. We wandered around the Villa and then ordered a drink for our patio. Soon we encountered Mimi and Phil, who had the room next to ours and we moved over to their patio. About 7:30 we went upstairs for dinner on the terrace. Martin and Catherine White joined us and we enjoyed the evening as if the birthday week had not ended. The view of the Temple Athena from. our table was a treat. Afterward, we said our good bye’s to Martin and Catherine and went to bed. Tomorrow we will explore the temples in Agrigento before heading for Mon Reale and Palermo.

Sunday, October 1, 2023

Mark and I took a morning tour through the Valley of the Temples. Our guide met us at our hotel and we walked through a gate into the archeological park. The park was quite large and we walked several kilometers to see the best preserved temples. The first was the Temple of Athena. It resembles the Parthenon in Athens, except that it is complete. Several centuries after it was built and destroyed, christians restored it and made it into a church. More recently, it was returned to the shape of the original temple and became an archeological site.

After walking around the Temple of Athena we walked to and around The Temple of Concordia and the Temple of Zeus.

The Temple tour took about 2 hours. Fortunately we did it early enough in the morning to avoid the crowds and the heat. We packed and headed cross country for Palermo via Monreale, the famous cathedral we had heard about. The scenery was full of small towns and villages and various agriculture fields and orchards of orange, olive and almond trees. We arrived in Monreale about 12:30, took a long time finding a place to park and then went to lunch, as the cathedral was closed until 2pm. The cathedral was huge and spectacular. It was built by Norman King William ll in the 12th century. The walls were mosaics of glass and gold leaf. Very stunning to see. The interior of the cathedral contains three naves, each of which has its own group of mosaics, which cover about 10,000 square meters in total.

The building was overwhelming in every way.

From Monreale, we drove to the airport to return the car. It had been a good companion for over a week, but we were ready to be free of the burden of the risk of hitting other cars in the very narrow streets and finding parking in those same streets. Then we took a taxi into Palermo city to our downtown residence, called Hotel Villafranca. That evening we reconnected with Mimi and Phil and had dinner in a pizza joint a few blocks from the hotel.

First I want to make a correction. All the time I have been calling the villa “Il Borgo” thinking that was the name of the villa, but I just learned that Borgo is not the name. It merely references a place. So the name of our villa is Commenda di San Calogero. This explains why everyone was having a hard time finding the place. Thank goodness that problem is solved.

Monday, September 25, 2023

Today was the food tasting tour in Catania.  Another event arranged by Terry.  Almost everyone got themselves to the elephant sculpture in the middle of the main piazza at 10am.  

There we met the walking food guide, Peppe.  He spoke English well and was loud and clear to hear.  We wandered through the fish market and arrived at a café that served us the most traditional, Sicilian food item called arancini.  It consists of a ball of rice and breadcrumbs filled with cheese and ham and deep fried.  It was delicious.  Then we cruised through other streets and tasted other foods that did not capture my taste buds.  We stopped for different drinks along the way too.  The most interesting was a mix of sparkling water, lemon juice and salt.  Supposedly it is an energy drink.  I drank it, but would not ask for it again.  

Along the walk Peppe took us to an ancient underground river and spring which were fascinating to see.  He finished the tour at a café that served us a variety of ice creams and coffee drinks.  I tried to get the drink we had had with Silvia a few days before, but it was only a partial approximation.  While at one café, I noticed it was very close to the Osmundo hotel we had stayed in a few nights before.   I wanted people to see how unusual it was, so I invited a few ladies and got in to see the public rooms.  They enjoyed the art as much as we had. Once we were finished with Peppe, we drove back to the villa to enjoy the pool and visit the rest of the day.  In addition to sunshine, the sky blessed us with several sprinkles of rain drops. No one was bothered by the rain.  Most everyone stayed at the villa for dinner. It is hard to keep track of who was doing what, but everyone seems to be having a good time.    

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Our fisrt day with no planned activities and everyone had an idea how to spend their day.  For me it was about the jigsaw puzzle I had brought from home.  It is a map of Italy indicating all the wine growing regions.  I set it up in the poolside dining area and put in the edges.  Soon others came around and started adding pieces.  My hope was to engage people in a collective activity and it seemed to work.  The steam room was on and hot.  The pool was delightful.  A small group went to Agrigento and another to Villa Romana for sightseeing.  Some went to nearby Brucoli for dinner.  Others stayed at the villa with Mark and me.   Here are a few images taken by others.

Wednesday, September 27, 2023

Today was Cannoli making day in Taormina, another activity Terry McAteer had arranged. High on a hillside overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, Taormina was a lovely place to see and visit and even more special having an activity to share.  The drive was 1.5 hours north of the villa and everyone went on the adventure, although a few did not engage in cannoli making.

We set off at 8:30 to be in time for our 10:30 date at Porto Messina Restaurant.    The restaurant was ready for our large group of 21 and we were each assigned a station in front of a small pile of flour, a half cup of wine, a quarter cup of sugar, an egg, a quarter cup of butter, a dash of cocoa powder and a pinch of cinnamon.   We mixed it all together and kneaded it until it was firm.  Then we rolled the blob into a thin flat shape we then cut into rings with round or square cutters.   Then we rolled the rings around split metal tubes and sealed the dough rings with egg white.   Some of us never quite got the hang of the process, but we all had fun making a mess any why.  The rings that were decent looking, went into boiling oil and came out fried.  Immediately after the dough was cooked, we removed the split rings from under the cooked dough by twisting them.  If all went well, the cannoli came out whole and was ready to be stuffed.  Once we had made the filling of ricotta or lemon curd, we stuffed as many as we could and then ate them, almost as fast as we stuffed them.  Much fun was had by all.  

After cleaning up as best as possible, Catherine and Martin White and Mark and I went on a guided tour of the city.

The town was packed with tourists, many of whom were from ships parked in the bay at the bottom of the town.  After wandering past many upscale shops and interesting facades and churches, we reached the 3^rdcentury BC Greek-Roman Amphitheater on the same level as mid-town.  It affords a super view of town and the sea in the distance.  Then we stopped at the Hotel Metropole in the middle of town and had a pizza and beer.   

We drove back to the villa and relaxed a while.  Then the 4 of us changed and went back to Catania for a Michelin Star dinner a place called Sapio.  The table was big enough for 8 and we had a hard time talking to each other across the expanse.  We laughed about the ridiculously oversized table and agreed to order a very nice 7-course meal that did not leave me overstuffed.  Mark, however, said he was more than full.

Thursday, September 28, 2023

This was our day to drive to Ragusa, walk the town per Rick Steve’s book, get a tour of a private home in the downtown and walk to another Michelin star restaurant.  This one was reputed to have 2 stars.  

As everyone was booked for the lunch, we all carpooled and enjoyed the scenic drive to Ragusa.  Parking was a bit of an issue for some, but eventually we all got parked and met up in the town.  The beginning was a lovely garden at the bottom of the rather steep hillside town.  After walking around the garden, we slowly walked up hill passing more shops, and trinket stores. 

 Midtown, we reached the private home we were scheduled to tour and met the owner.  Once we were all assembled, he walked us up a large central staircase into the formal rooms of the palatial home.  We were invited to inspect the ball room, drawing room, dining room and an office space.  We saw paintings and photographs of his relatives going back 5 generations, a ball gown worn by a great grandmother, several Venetian glass chandeliers, several generations of furniture.  His parents still live in the half of the house he did not show us.  His ancestors had been aristocrats, and public figures in the community.  It was an interesting tour that lasted about 45 minutes.   Then he pushed us out the door as he had an Italian group coming right behind us. I suspected this was his way of paying for the maintenance of the property, but it looked quite neglected

Exactly at that moment Scott Kellerman appeared with his luggage in tow.  He was expected, but it was still a surprise to actually see him.   

We all continued up hill to the cathedral, which was lovely to see and visit and then, at 2pm, we converge on Ciccio Sultan Duomo, the Michelin 2-Star restaurant Terry had booked us into for a 3-course lunch. We took up the entire placed sitting in overly padded, all white chairs in 2 all white rooms.  The wine flowed freely, and everyone became quite jovial.  It was a delightful afternoon with wonderful, delicious food.

After departing the restaurant everyone ambled downhill to their cars and drove back to the villa with a stop along the way in the little town of Modica, famous for its chocolate, especially the factory called Antica Dulceria Bonajuto  

 The factory was located on a side street off the main street of town. Eventually everyone found the place and we all bought bars of different flavors to take home and indulged in a cold; very dark chocolate drink topped with heavy whipped cream.  If we were not stuffed already, the drink finished us off.  By the time we got back to the villa, the sky was dark, and we were all pooped.  

September 21, 2023

We spent our last full day in Puglia with Silvia visiting 2 more towns in the Valle d’Itria and watching a cheese maker create his specialities of mozzarella and burrata cheeses.. The landscape consists of karst Murgia hills and large caves covered in dense vegetation and a cultivated plateau with red terrain that extends to the sea. The countryside is dotted with conical, white stone structures called trulli.

I was taken with these houses and wanted to see many of them. Here are a few of the offerings. We did get into an abandoned house Silvia knew about and that helped add to the story.

Our first stop in town was at a cafe shop called Bar Adula in Marina Franca. It was Silvia’s favorite place and we could understand why. The coffee choices were extensive and the best was a cold coffee drink called Granita Di Caffe that had an iced coffee mix at the bottom with dense whipped cream on top. Even I had to admit that it was excellent.

Once fortified with the coffee we walked under the entry arch into the Old City of Marina Franca. The first thing we saw was a statue of St Martino cutting his cloak in half in order to give half to a poor beggar. St Martin is the national patron saint of France.

We explored the Palazzo Ducale, a huge building that had belonged to the Caracciolo family of Naples. This family administered the town from 1600 to the 1800’s. Many rooms were frescoed with scenes from mythology and the Bible. Several doors were linked together to create a telescopic perspective with a baroque effect. An annual opera festival takes place here that is very popular, the Itria Valley Festival.

Martina Franca is the largest town in the valley with a population of 50,000. The town is named for St Martin and Franca refers to a tax free zone officially established in the 1300’s . The tax free zone helped establish the development of the area. Local products could be shipped in both directions to either sea. In the 1743 an earthquake damaged homes and public buildings. The new baroque style was used in new construction to good effect in the late 1700’s. Rococo decorations were also included in the structure. In front of the church is the Piazza Plebiscito.

Many buildings were originally built in the 1300’s, but an earthquake in 1743 caused much destruction. It was a good excuse to use the new, modern styles of Baroque and Rococo in late 1700’s construction, including the Basilica of San Martino, the Church of St Dominic and its attached cloister and many houses.

In front of St Martin’s Basilica is the Piazza Plebiscite. The piazza is surrounded by a covered archway that is popular for vendors in the summertime. Around the neighborhood we arrived at St Dominic Church, also from the late 1700’s. Attached to the church was the Dominican cloister, which is now used for a preschool. There were few people in the town. Almost no tourists. The streets provided very pleasant strolling with many upscale clothing stores. We found a store where Mark bought another shirt. This makes 3 new ones for him and one purple outfit for me. Enough!

We learned that many people who had lived in the town through the centuries had been very wealthy, but the younger generations turned to spending rather than investing and eventually they could not maintain their salacious homes, so they sold them. Today we see fancy entry doors, but plain walls on the rest of the building. New owners maintain the property as best they can. Here are a few.

A colorful scene of Martina Franca near the Basilica. From here we headed for the UNESCO Heritage site of Alberabello, which was begun in the 1500’s. The village is the town full of Trulli, round structures with cone shaped roofs that were dry-stacked. Many were whitewashed to protect the walls from crumbling as they built without cement. The people who initiated the structure were the Acquaviva Family. The first house was built in 1428. They paid no taxes because the roof was not permanent. By dry stacking, the owner could remove the roof and no longer have a taxable home, only a stable. As soon as the government taxing authority agreed there was nothing to tax and departed, the owner put the roof back on the building. The concept became popular. The town, having no taxable buildings, had no name either and was known as a ghost town.

Today Trulli houses are valuable as tourist attractions and second homes. Many of them are lived in full time and have all the conveniences of modern houses. Here is an abandoned countryside house Silvia found to explore. It had olive trees, and wheat fields. We pretended to be proud new purchasers of the fixer upper. This would be our 5th remodel. Nice huh.

We went into the town and found a Trullo house that the owner uses to attract tourist money. She does not live there but spends her days there to show off the place. Remodeling an old historic Trullo with a modern bathroom is illegal, but she has managed to get away with it because she did it before the restrictions took place.

We walked around the town an saw many trulli and eventually had enough.

From Albebello we headed into the countryside to a cheese factory called Itria Bonte and the home of the cheese maker, Georgio, He was a man of few words but oh could he make cheese. He took us through the process of making Mozzarella cheese, as well as burrata, which I much prefer. Mark, on the other hand, prefers mozzarella. I got so involved in the process that I forgot to take photos until we were standing with the finished products. After the demonstration, Georgio and his wife served the three of us lunch of a selection of cheeses, homemade salami, capicola, home made olives and wine and cheese cake for dessert.

We are at the end of our stay in Puglia and we have enjoyed every bit of it, just as our travel agent, Martina, said we would. Now we are headed for Sicily, where a whole new adventure begins.

September 12, 2023

We were picked up by our driver, Massimo, and left Matera for Altamura and Castel del Monte. We rendezvoued with our guide for the day, Silvia, at the Di Gesu Bakery in Altamura . We were met by Giuseppe, the 5th generation proprietor of the business. He was quite proud of his product and walked us through the steps of making the best bread around. We had to admit that it was very tasty, soft in the middle and crispy on the outside The wood burning oven behind us in the photo is 6 meters in diameter. Quite huge. It takes 40 minutes to load the oven and the best bread is what goes in first and comes out last.

From the bakery we walked through Altamura’s Old CIty, which had been abandoned in the 600’s when Rome fell and was rejuvenated by Frederick II in 1233. We stopped at the Cathedral of the Assumption to view the intricately carved portal, a lovely sculpture of a young Joseph with Jesus and a special painting of the conversion of St Paul.

I bought a purple outfit I saw in a store window and could not resist. Then we headed for the next town, Gravina, where we stoped at the Church of Purgatory and took in the sayings on the wall. “What you are, is what I used to be.” “What you are going to be, is what I am.” Sylvia had her own saying. “The mother of the idiot is always pregnant.” Not sure what she had in mind.

On that note we all had a coffee and then hit the road for my big goal for the day, the Castel del Monte an hour north of Gravina. The countryside was mostly gentle rolling hills. Very lovely even though the fields were mostly brown cut grass. Trees were very sporadic but added variety to the sameness of the undulating hills. Most of the buildings we saw along the way were abandoned farm houses. Farming and sheep raising had once been the main economy of the region. Today the economy is mostly olive oil, then olives and grapes, followed by almonds, fruit trees and then wheat–the crop we were passing through.

As we approached the Castel, the conversation turned to Frederick II, who commissioned the castel in the 1240’s. He was born in 1194, became the king of Germany in 1212=]\ and Emperor of Italy and the Holy Roman Empire in 1220. He was a Christian, but was excommunicated 3 times by the pope. He died in 1250 after having been a forward thinking leader and commissioner of great works.

This structure is a perfect octagon, that took years to get perfect. there are 8 sides, 8 equally sized rooms on two floors, beautiful marble walls with corinthian columns, and bathrooms on both floors. The building sits on top of a hill with a 360 degree view of the area. It was built with great precision and has a grace about it that makes me think of it more like the Taj Mahal. We spent an hour roaming around the place and taking in the atmosphere. I was pleased to have added it to our list of sights to see. We drove back to Matera and called it a good day. Mark and I had dinner in a local underground restaurant called La Lopa and went to bed. We have not yet adjusted to the time change..