An Offer You Can't Refuse

I'm sitting here in a 4-star hotel, enjoying the first internet I've had in 4 days, and I decided to attempt updating my blog, which at this point is quite an endeavor. I may give up half way through and end with a 'To Be Continued...'
Let's begin, shall we? I'm in Sicily! Wheeee! The Centro takes us on two long trips, one to Sicily and one, in about a month, to Campania. We were warned about the intensity of this trip. We were told that this is 'the moment' people often pick out as when they really got into this program and Classics- or didn't. (This has been the subject of many jokes- 'oh god guys, is this the moment? is this it?') It has been intense. We're in a different hotel every night, after full day field trips of walking around in any kind of weather or sitting through long bus rides. But I'm loving every minute of it! I've definitely had my moment. :P
So, for you my avid blog audience, I'll go through the high lights of every day of my trip so you can enjoy it too! Because that's how this works, right? (note: keep in mind that after 6 days of this trip, we are all going insane).
It all started on Saturday. *DUN DUN DUNNNN*. We left bright and early, and after a picnic lunch it was time for our first Greek temples! We visited 3 temples, a forum and the museum in Paestum. Around 5:30 we got to go watch the sunset at the beach, which was exciting. A few brave people even got in the water- I couldn't even stand to put my feet in for too long... too cold! After dinner, we got our first Franco Surprise (TM). We took a walk back to the temples and got to see them in the dark. Very cool. Here are Paestum temples (get ready for lots of temple pictures!)

Next, it was Sunday! And we still weren't in Sicily! Sunday was pretty bus-filled. We stopped on the way to see an inscription in Polla, and spent an hour at the museum in Reggio Calabria before heading up to the hotel there. We had a lovely dinner in a room with a panoramic view of the beach, and went to bed. That was the last of laid back days.
Monday was the day we finally made it to Sicily! In the morning we took an exciting 15 minute ferry ride and then drove up to Taormina, where apparently classy movie stars all vacationed in the 50's. We saw our first Greek theater. I will say no more about it, but show you these pictures which even I can't believe I have on my camera:

 Choosing only 2 was like picking my favorite baby

Behind the theatre

After the most breath-taking view of my life, we had free time to walk around in Taormina. We had lunch and then embarked on the search for our first Sicilian Canoli. Which was the best. EVER. 

The two best things about Sicily

Later we stopped at an ancient fort outside of Syracuse. We got about an hour to wander around the ruins, crawl into tunnels, get lost, and realize we were somehow back at the entrance again. It was fun! Unfortunately I left my camera on the bus for that bit, but all my pictures would have been of the dog that decided to follow us around the ruins, so you didn't miss much.

What day are we on? Tuesday. Right. After a disappointing breakfast (disappointing because it was not served by a 4-star hotel in a panoramic top floor room) we drove to Ortigia island off the coast of Syracuse. We saw some temples and a spring, though I was mostly distracted by this:

After that we had another Franco Surprise (TM). He took us on a 'tour' of the free market, which was basically us following him through fruit and fish stands as he said 'look at these oranges... oh, great strawberries, don't you? Ohhh fish. Look, octopus!' Gotta love Franco. Finally, we ended the tour at a cheese shop where we got to try some baked ricotta. So naturally, as soon as the Franco Surprise (TM) ended, I returned with a few friends to the cheese shop, and we purchased half a round of said ricotta. While 2 friends and I were outside buying our cheese, our friend Dan called us into the store saying they had a 'present' for us. Sketchy sounding.... we went inside, and the guy at the counter was just making us free sandwiches. 'For my American friends!'. Best. Sandwich. Ever. Baked mozarella, fresh dried tomato paste, fresh cut prosciutto. And he opened a bottle of wine for us. Then he let us taste some of that morning's fresh mozarella. All just because he was a nice guy. He didn't try to sell us anything, and the cheese we bought wasn't even that expensive. (2 euro whaaat). After that amazing experience we bought a loaf of bread for 60 euro cents, a little thing of the best strawberries I've ever tasted, especially for early march, and stood by the ancient temple of Apollo eating ricotta with our hands. What can I say? Centristi are classy. Then, as if we didn't have enough food, we went into a bakery where I had this pastry that was basically cake, then ricotta, then marzipan, then icing. I might just move to Sicily. 

After lunch we saw another theatre and then our first ampitheatre! We also saw a kitten. After that, we had a two hour drive through the part of Sicily that the godfather takes place in to get to our hotel. After dinner, Franco taught us how to play Scopa, a Napolitan card game that, according to Franco, no one is smart enough to play except Naples natives and Centristi. 

INTERMISSION. Go get a drink or something. 

Wednesday! We started the day at an ancient villa in which all of the floors are covered in amazing mosaics. We met our dog companion for the day (there's one dog that follows us at every site...) and saw the famous mosaic of women in bikinis. Everyone knows what I'm talking about, right?

After seeing that we had a very interesting discussion about preservation and the challenges that come with both wanting to preserve the ancient things and also wanting to show them to the world. Tricky stuff. We then drove off to Agrigento, where we were met by terrible rain clouds. We spent as much time as we could in the museum, where we kind of walked in on an Italian high school dress-rehersal of Euripides' Medea, but eventually, alas, we had to go see the so-called Hellenistic quarter. Once I got over the rain and wind it was pretty cool- we got to climb around the remains of a giant complex of ancient houses and shops. Afterwards we drove to the shelter of our 4-star hotel and after dinner I finally watched the Godfather! Now I know all about the Sicilian mafia. 

Finally, we're on today! Today was a temple-filled day. We started the morning in Agrigento, where we saw some nice, more-than-usual intact temples. We also got to 'sneak' into a temple, which was justified by our professor with 'this side doesn't really have a fence... in some areas...do it quickly.' After lunch we  got to see more temples (shocker!). It was quite exciting, because we got half an hour to climb the ruins of a huge temple. And by ruins I mean it was just a giant pile of giant rocks. Dangerous? Nahhh. After the exciting climbing we had our first official autoptic. That means we had half an hour to sketch out a temple we had never seen before with semi-accurate measurements and a good idea of what it looked like without piles of fallen rocks on top. It was a painful experience for all, made better by some more climbing that we got to do afterwards. Then we headed to our hotel where we had a lovely women's day dinner with balloons, flowers, and live music (a middle-aged Italian guy and his keyboard). Now I must go to bed for yet another long day tomorrow!