Sicily

Hello! I'm back in Rome after being gone for a few weeks...I got back on Sunday from a week in Greece, and before that I spent a week with my class in Sicily! Both were fantastic. I'll start with Sicily, if I can remember everything properly...

We left on Friday morning, bright and early to catch an early flight. Our first stop in Sicily was an archaeological site called Segesta. It has an ancient Doric temple and a theater way up on a hill that we hiked up. The location was beautiful--lots of green grass, flowers, trees, and a view of the sea once we got a little ways up. The weather was really nice while we there too--much different than South Bend February weather! The afternoon kind of set the tone for the whole trip: beautiful weather, beautiful geography, and lots of walking and hiking!

We went to Palermo after that and spent the weekend there. As a city, it reminded me of Cairo a bit, and for good reason, because in fact it does have Arabic influence. Before this trip I knew nothing about Sicilian history, and I still don't have a completely clear picture, but I gathered that Sicilian history is above all quite complicated--they've been under the rule of several different peoples at different times. Greeks, Arabs, Romans, Spaniards...not to mention being affected fairly often by serious natural disasters like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Anyway, while in Palermo we also got out first taste (literally) of typical Sicilian foods. They like eggplants alot, and are pretty well known for almond flavored things (like gelato). And speaking of gelato, they also came up with the brilliant idea of "gelato con briocche", which is a gelato sandwich. Not like we usually think of ice cream sandwiches in the States, but an actual bun, sort of like a croissant I suppose, with gelato on it. I was skeptical at first, but it's delicious.

One of my favorite parts of Palermo was Sunday afternoon. We had free time, and most of us went to the beach! It was a little bit outside the city, so most people took a bus. However, I and some other crazy archies training for the marathon (which is this Sunday!) chose a different form of transportation--we ran about 18 miles first, and then ended up on the beach. Not bad!

We left Palermo on Monday morning, and the next few days were a tour of small Sicilian towns. We went to at least 2, sometimes up to 4 per day and mostly just walked around for a little while. We were making our way inland, and so got to see the biggest volcano in Europe (I think), Mt. Etna!

We ended the week in another big city, Syracusa, and spent a few days there. By then we were back on the coast. In one of our lectures there, one of our professors mentioned a few famous people who spent time in Syracusa, and it's a pretty impressive list: Plato, Archimedes, and Caravaggio! Also, it was the site of St. Lucy's maryrdom, which I didn't know til I got there, but I got to go into the church there that's dedicated to her! Another one of those unexpected experiences I love having and I know He loves giving to me:-)

We flew back to Rome on Friday afternoon. Then, less than 24 hours later I left for Greece with 3 of my classmates, Evan, Rebecca, and Chris. I managed to accomplish a lot in those few hours, though: I moved back into my hotel room (we had to move out for the week so other guests could use the rooms...weird) and I unpacked/repacked my backpack, then on Saturday morning I went to mass, went running, AND watched Hercules to prepare culturally for Greece:-) To avoid "bombing" you with too much information, though, as one of my professors would say, I'll post about Greece later...so stay tuned!

p.s.--for some reason my pictures aren't loading tonight, but I'm going to post this anyway. But I'll try to come back and add them in soon!