Today was a superb day, full of unexpected surprises. First, however, was our usual breakfast – an espresso and crème-filled croissant. That got us on the go and we were on the road by 10am. There is no real point heading off before 9am because the travelling distances are pretty small and check-in at our next place of accommodation usually isn’t until around mid-afternoon.
Our first destination today was the Roman site of Segesta, about an hour’s drive away, where there is a large and reasonably intact 5th century BC Greek temple standing in the middle of a field. It is considered to be the best surviving example of Doric architecture in Europe, so well worth a look.
The drive was very easy, through
country that was more hilly and scenic than it has been so far. Grapevines
abound and the region looked more prosperous. We still can’t understand the incredible
number and length of massive engineered viaducts over the land though, land that is often of
gentle profile and where perhaps the odd cut and fill would have worked fine, rather than building giant structures and at much lesser cost. They don’t sever the farming land below them
though, so that must be a benefit to the farmers.
We arrived at Segesta, expecting to spend about 20 minutes there. However, the interpretation signboards told us that apart from the temple there were substantial remains of a large Roman settlement. This included the ruins of a large agora (public square surrounded by colonnades and shops), amphitheatre, and fort, all built in the 2nd - 1st century BC. This settlement superseded a town that had earlier been built by the Elymians (who came from Troy) in the 5th century BC, then the Carthaginians. Following the successive pattern of conflict, the Romans were then defeated by the Moors then the Normans. The ruins are therefore multi-layered, but the alignment of the Roman agora, for example, is very clear, even though its main plaza area is now a bus-turning area!
It was already 33 degrees by 11.30am when we arrived and also a very strong wind, the scirocco from the African deserts. In fact, a strong wind warning had been issued for the northern coast of Sicily. We first visited the temple, which was in a separate location from all the other structures and relatively close. It was amazing, both in its size and also for having all its Doric pillars still standing. Evidence indicates that the temple was never finished, for example the columns hadn't been fluted and the stone tabs that were used to lift the blocks of the base into place were never removed. The very steep cliff-face which provides the backdrop to the temple makes the location a rather special one.
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| The 5th century BC Greek temple |
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| The square stone tabs along the two horizontal platforms along the base were used for construction purposes. These would have been removed if the temple had been finished, |
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| It was so windy my cap wouldn't stay on |
Unfortunately, a huge fire had ravaged part of this region, including the archaeological site, in July, just a few months ago. Most of the trees and other vegetation are blackened but there are signs that some species are starting to regrow. The authorities must have been devastated when the fire swept through – it burnt some of the signboard panels, most roadside safety barriers, and the tourist information centre. The local mayor suspects it was caused by arson.
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| Ruins of the Roman agora |
After walking around and inside the temple we set off on the hike up the hill to the other archaeological sights. One of these, the amphitheatre really caught my imagination. Its location, right on the top of the hill, with a 360 degree view for many kms in every direction, was simply spectacular. It is oriented so spectators looked northwards towards the sea. John and I have been lucky enough to see a number of Roman amphitheatres on our travels, and some of these particularly stand out, e.g. Aspendos in Turkey and Taormina on the eastern coast of Sicily (we saw the latter in 2011). I consider the one we saw today at Segesta to be right up there with the most impressive. Though it was small in size, its location and completeness just give it an incredible WOW factor.
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| The Roman amphitheatre (the snake in the distance is not an aqueduct, it's a recent road viaduct) |
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| View of the surrounding countryside |
With the wind whipping up dust and the heat being seriously intense, we hot-footed it (no pun intended) back down the track to the carpark. We’d been exploring the site for over 1.5 hours. Time to head towards Erice and find some lunch. 40 minutes later saw us weaving up the hairpin bends to the hill-top town of Erice. It is situated very high up above the surrounding landscape and the views from the top when we got there went up and down the north-western coastline of Sicily. We fluked a carpark and, just one minute later and just inside the town gate, we sat down to eat a much-needed arancina (filled deep-fried riceball) for lunch. My favourite is the spinach-mozzarella filling, while John samples a variety.
Virtually straight away, at
2.30pm, we met our host for our night’s accommodation and checked into our
little apartment, complete with free parking. The immediate next mission was to
walk 3 minutes back into town and buy an almond granita. Granitas are
absolutely perfect when you want something very cold, wet and highly flavoured.
With some sustenance on board we
set off to explore Erice. We’d looked up that it is a nice little town and has
a renowned historic centre. What we didn’t realise is that it is virtually
vehicle-free, with traffic severely restricted and no doubt just for
residents anyway. The buildings are all very well maintained and everything is
very clean and tidy, including all the alleys. There were hardly any cigarette
butts even, so the council definitely has a seriously good cleaning regime. It was quite some difference to the places we had recently been, where rubbish is a part of every scene, town and country.
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| Erice |
We thoroughly enjoyed wandering through the lanes. A particular delight was finding a large public garden at the very top of the town, next to the castle. The views over the countryside were spectacular. Our host told us that the strong wind is the Scirocco, blowing from the Sahara Desert, hence there is a lot of dust in the air and it’s pretty hazy. However, the view north-westwards from the castle was still very impressive. Erice is a lovely little town, not dissimilar to San Gimignano in Tuscany.
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| View from the hilltop gardens next to the castle |
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| Once-typical highly decorated old-style cart |
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| A quirky shot - a large black and white photograph in the doorway shows an older woman peering at something down the lane |
On this trip we have typically spent an hour or so in the afternoon in siesta mode, partly because it’s been too hot to keep on exploring and partly because we’ve been knackered. Today, since it was already after 4pm by the time we’d finished walking around town, we thought it might be an idea to just sit down at a bar with an Aperol Soda. The few bars on offer were tourist-priced so we found a little grocery store. The proprietress came up trumps when we asked if she had a cold bottle of Prosecco on offer. She hauled one out from the depths of her fridge and we quickly carried it home to enjoy while resting up on our bed. We ventured out again at 7pm to source a few arancini for an easy dinner but the vendors were all closed up. Instead we bought a few slabs of pizza just as the outlet was closing down.
Today has been a particularly
enjoyable day and, for me, the amphitheatre has been one of the highlights.
