Scoutmaster trip to Eurpoe 2007

Europe 2007 2008

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

With only a minor glitch, I made it to the town of Lecce crossing the “boot heel” of Italy. Leaving the train station in Salerno challenged me; there were no posted signs saying which platform my “intercity train” was to leave from. I searched and talked to a few people and finally thought I understood that the train was leaving from platform four (of six). At about the right time, I boarded a train, and as we pulled out of the station I asked a fellow passenger if the train was going to the town of Taranto, which was the place I had to change to a second train. You guessed it; the train I boarded was not going to Taranto. After a little discussion, I sort of figured out that I should get off the train in two stops and wait for the correct train. It turned out to be just a little hassle, and I finally boarded the correct train. By the way, Taranto is the town in which the Tarantella Dance was invented.

So in Taranto, I caught a second train, only two cars in length, to the coastal town of Brindisi, and then caught an even smaller train, just one car long, to Lecce. I got into Lecce around 4:00 p.m., and walked to my 16th century baroque palazzo bed and breakfast. The ceiling in my room is vaulted and about twenty feet high; it’s quite the place to stay. The rooms have been upgraded with modern conveniences, and I have a nicely appointed room with a large double bed, TV, and complete bathroom.

I have used trains in many countries, and, without a doubt, the best trains have been the trains in Korea and in the trains in Japan, including the Japanese Shinkansen, bullet trains. You can set your watch by the trains in those two countries, and the trains have spacious interiors that are spotlessly clean. The seats and carpets are brightly colored, and the service often includes stewards serving drinks like on an airplane. The trains and the train stations in Britain and here in Italy are, at best, shabby, but at least the British trains and stations have working information signs. I guess we don’t have much to brag about in America either when it comes to passenger rail. Although the northeast corridor trains from Washington, D.C. to New York and to Boston are OK. However, the trains in America are very expensive compared to foreign passenger trains, all of which are subsidized. I think that the reason for the shabby state of trains in Italy, despite their extensive use, probably has to do with government corruption and organized crime. Apparently most government services, and the transportation system are no exception, suffer from having money skimmed off. I would wager that what actually is left after every official and criminal gets his share is a fraction of what had been allocated. So no wonder things are in such bad shape.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

The old part of Lecce has many ornately decorated historic churches from the 16th through the 18th century. Most of the churches have intricate baroque facades and interiors with many intricately carved altars and alcoves. The cathedral museum has paintings by local artists; an English-speaking guide took me around and explained some of the art. The patron saint of Lecce, Saint Oronzo, became a martyr in the early days of Christianity, when Nero had him beheaded. During the middle ages, the people of the region prayed to Saint Oronzo to protect them from the plague, which, according to legend, he did. The inhabitants of the old city of Lecce did not suffer from the plague. Later, the people of Lecce invoked their saint’s protection from the catastrophic earthquakes that have hit the region. I am not sure if the saint helped much during the earthquakes though.

I discovered the origin of the name Dominick. In Latin, “Dominicus Cani” means “God’s Dog.” Monks of the Dominican Order are painted wearing black and white robes and having a dog carrying a candle beside them. The candle represents the Dominican mission to convert people to Christianity.

Friday, November 23, 2007

Last night, I boarded the train to Siracusa in Sicilia (Syracuse in Sicily). The trip took almost sixteen hours and involved changing trains three times. I slept a little, but I did arrive in Siracusa quite tired. I checked many times with fellow passengers and one conductor as to exactly where I should change trains, at night, in the dark, with no signs. The ticket agent had printed out a schedule for me, but the conductor directed me to go about an hour further along on the second train. He told me to get off in the town of Villa di San Giovani, the town closest to the island of Sicily. So early in the morning, I waited on the train platform of Villa di San Giovani for the train to Sicily; it was the same train I could have boarded earlier that night according to my printed schedule. The train arrived late in Villa di San Giovani, and then one railroad car at a time moved onto a ferry to cross into Sicily. That was a new experience for me, i.e., riding the rails on a ship at sea! On the Sicilian side, the train reassembled and continued down the east coast of Sicily to Syracuse. We passed through the ancient city of Messina, and under the most active volcano in Europe, Mount Etna, but it was overcast, and I did not see the volcano.

My guidebook recommended a bed and breakfast in the old part of Siracusa, on the island Ortigia, and about a kilometer from the train station. On my walk to the B&B, I stopped for food and had my first Sicilian pizza. Like the real Neopolitan pizza, it was baked in a wood fired oven, but the dough was thicker. I like the thinner crust Neopolitan version better.

The B&B that I checked into is in the old Jewish quarter, in fact, an ancient mikvah, ritual Jewish baths, was discovered when the place was renovated. The B&B is called Alla Giudecca; it has beautiful rooms, very modern, spacious and clean. I have a suite of three rooms because that was what was available. The ceilings have dark wood beams about twenty feet at the peak, and the furniture is made of beautiful dark wood too. My bed here is a king-size, four-poster! This place is very nice. The most fascinating thing about the old towns in Italy that I have seen so far is how deceptive the outsides of buildings are. Restaurants, stores and houses have ramshackle facades with walls of patchwork stucco or stone, but once inside, the places change dramatically with well-maintained interiors. It’s just the way it is here.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

I had wondered if I would ever get a “normal” breakfast in Italy. I have not seen a restaurant that served breakfast so far. There are little “bars” that serve coffee and pastries in the morning, but that’s all I have seen. So the breakfast buffet at the B&B came as a welcome surprise; they offered eggs, cheese, meats, cereals, yogurt, rolls, butter and jams along with juices and coffee/tea, really normal stuff and just what I wanted.

After breakfast, I headed into Siracusa to explore. Working my way through the old town on the island of Ortigia, and along the waterfront, I eventually crossed onto the mainland and headed to the Archeology Museum that turned out to be disappointing. The building is nice, but the displays are poor and not informative. Many of the artifacts are in glass cases that do not allow you to see the backs of the objects.

The best thing today was a tour of the mikvah beneath the B&B that the receptionists conduct as guided tours. We walked down fifty-five stone steps. Greeks dug a freshwater well here in the 6th century B.C.E., and Jews chiseled out the bathing facility in the 1st century C.E. The mikvah was only rediscovered twenty years ago. Originally, the well water that fed the mikvah had an outlet to the sea, but construction of a sea wall many years ago blocked the outlet, and the entire cavern had been flooded. Today, the well water is pumped into the normal drainage system of Ortigia, and the mikvah baths are filled to the proper level.

There are actually four “bathtubs” in this mikvah. The guide properly explained that Jewish women were obligated to bathe in the mikvah at the end of their monthly menstrual cycles, before certain holidays, and after childbirth. Men were not obligated to bathe in the mikvah, but many did. The water from the well was considered “pure.” I think it must have been heated because it’s only 15 degrees Celsius in the well. However, it may not have been heated, and no heating devices, like stoves, have been found. The mikvah looks like a cavern; the walls are chiseled out of solid rock. Three of the four baths are near the well and look like round tubs sunk into the stone. The fourth bath looks more like other mikvah that I have seen. It is in a separate “room” with stairs leading down into a rectangular bathtub.

I asked the guide if many Jewish tourists stay at the B&B because of the historical connection; she said they did. Of course, Jews no longer live in Siracusa; there is probably only a handful of Jews in all of Sicily. The Jews were kicked out of Sicily in 1492, because the Spanish ruled much of Sicily back then. Good old Ferdinand and Isabella, Los Reyes Catolicos, enforced the expulsion of the Jews along with the Moors from all their lands. It’s worth noting that Sicily has been under the control of many foreign powers through the ages. The Greeks called the places they ruled in Italy, Magna Graecia. French Bourbons ruled much of Italy, including their provincial capital in Naples, in the middle ages, and the Spanish, Carthaginians from North Africa, and others had their shares too, at various times.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

I like Sicilian food! Dinner yesterday included a seafood ravioli dish that is a specialty of this part of Sicily. The sauce, a clear brown color had various little items like pine nuts, small shrimp, small bits of seafood, cooked cherry tomatoes, and translucent onions, and the red pasta ravioli was stuffed with all kinds of little shellfish. Even the beer, Birra Moretti, tasted great; the label said “Qualita e Tradizione,” and the label has a picture of a sinister guy, who looks like Al Capone wearing a 1920’s era green suit and hat, drinking his favorite beer. This evening I had a fish soup, zuppa di pesce con crostini; it contained most of a whole fish cut in sections, excluding the head and tail, in a tomato sauce with chunks of tomato, rings of squid and pieces of octopus. There was little liquid to the soup, but surrounding the soup was four sections of toasted crusty bread like brochettes. This is really good stuff!

The archeological zone contains the Roman Amphitheater and a cavern called the Cave of Dionysus. These sights were worthwhile, and took several hours to explore. Archimedes worked in Syracuse; he’s the city’s favorite son. Papyrus grows in the area, and people still collect the plants to make paper and create local art. One of the ancient coins has an image of a goddess’ head named is Atreus (not sure if it’s Medusa or Artemis). Three legs, bent at the knees, like a pinwheel, surround the goddess’ head, and surrounding the entire image are the words for the three seas that surround Sicily, the Mediterranean to the south, the Tyrrhenian to the north, and the Ionian to the east. The name of the famous coin that is the symbol for Sicily is the “Decadramma.”

Another good thing about Sicily is the weather; it’s warm, somewhat humid, and mostly sunny. It’s somewhat like Florida weather in the winter. That’s good for late November, I’d say.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Did my laundry this morning in a self-service Laundromat, and now I’m ready to travel to Palermo. Tomorrow, I plan to catch a bus back to Catania, near Mount Etna, and then another bus to Palermo.

I have two more observations about Italian dress. Firstly, many women and young ladies wear designer boots in conjunction with their fashion-laden outfits. Generally their boots are made of soft leather and have a wrinkled look to them, almost like fabric. The height of the boots varies from just over the ankle to just below the knee. Many boots have high heels too. Almost all the women carry large handbags draped over their shoulders as well. Sometimes the leather boots and handbags are coordinated.

The other odd item of dress is eyeglasses and sunglasses for men and boys mostly. The frames of their glasses are often brightly colored, like pink and purple or red. The part of the frame that goes over the ears is sometimes quite wide, and sometimes is made of two thick colored wires. I can’t help but look twice when I see a man wearing a pink sweater with a contrasting baby blue scarf and a pair of matching eyeglasses or sunglasses. Even schoolboys wear these bright colored items of clothing; these kids would have a terrible time if they dressed like they do and attended an American school.

Philip Sternberg
Scoutmaster, Troop 1131