Rome, Sicily and the Amalfi Coast

This is a long post, as it’s been a while since the last one. Sincere apologies.

While still in Rome (Sep 20–26), Paul and I visited the Mouth of Truth, where we re-enacted a classic photo from the film “Roman Holiday” (starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck). We then visited Mussolini’s EUR building, which was built for an exhibition that never eventuated due to the war. The main thing I learnt at EUR was that Fascist architecture is amazingly awful — the Post Office was mentioned as a classic example and was absolutely brutal to observe in person. We’re talking instant headache material. This was redeemed by only one building — the Palazzo della Civilta’ del Lavoro — that was strikingly pleasant by comparison. We met with Matt and Dirk in the evening at the Trevi Fountain, still packed with tourists despite the late hour and the rain. It did live up to its reputation as a very impressive fountain. Matt and Dirk had risen early for a tour of the Vatican — Paul and I had decided not to get out of bed before 9am, and so we missed the tour.

Another impressive sight was the Pantheon — an architectural feat that is well preserved and would apparently still be extremely difficult to construct today. Another notable stop was the Galleria Doria Pamphilij, a palace turned into an amazing gallery that is apparently kept secret from most of the tourists. It was almost kept secret from us too, as the Lonely Planet guide provided an incorrect address, but we eventually arrived. The audio tour was exceptional, the only problem was that we arrived too late (3pm) and did not have time to see everything before the 5pm closing time. I also managed to nearly run afoul of the military police, who do not like photos being taken of their buildings. This would be an easier law to obey if the damn buildings were clearly signed. At least I avoided any real confrontation, managing to survive a brief outburst of Italian, followed by the repeated phrase “no photo, no photo”.

On September 26, Paul and I left Rome in order to see what Sicily had to offer. On our first night on the island, we shared a dorm with an American by the name of Marco who had already spent five months in Tuscany and Sicily, and who ended up spending most of the week traveling across Sicily with us. Apart from being a very friendly and interesting person, Marco also graced us with some delightful songs on his acoustic guitar.

The temple and theatre at Segesta were impressively placed in what was in retrospect the most picturesque part of the Sicilian country side. Segesta was such a nice out-of-the-way place (the train station was a single platform attached to the back of a small restaurant in the middle of nowhere) that the prospect of spending the night at the train station did not daunt us in the slightest. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Trenitalia finally managed to send a train our way that could take us back to our hostel. The Valle dei Templi in Agrigento houses five ancient Greek temples in various states of decay, which are Unesco-listed and accompanied by informative signs written only in Italian. They were beautifully illuminated at night, and we managed to take a few photos in the evening before being kicked out by a security guard.

One the other hand, the capital city of Palermo was not the nicest Italian town. The address of our hostel turned out to be a dilapidated shopfront. Luckily for us, the town contains many streets with duplicate names, and we had merely stumbled onto the wrong Via Candelai. Our hostel actually turned out to be located on what we later decided was possibly the best street in Palermo, filled with bars, cafes, tables and scooters. Late at night, it was nice to sit on the street, sipping a beer in just a light shirt and shorts. The rest of the town was not as impressive, mostly seeming quite poor and rundown. The catacombs were also somewhat disappointing, as almost all of the bodies were mere skeletons. However, the final addition to the catacombs, of a two year-old girl in 1920, was hauntingly life-like and appeared likely to awaken at any moment.

We also spent two nights at Taormina, a popular beach resort town that is situated high on a point above two sweeping bays. We arrived late at night to find that the train station was at the foot of the mountains and that the town was suspended high above us, glowing brightly in the sky. After a steep climb, struggling with the humid evening and our heavy packs, we arrived at the hostel about 90 minutes later. In our time at Taormina, we found that the medieval main street was quite charming, that the town was still rather full with tourists, and that the Greek theatre which is one of the main attractions of the town showed little evidence of its origins, having been vastly rebuilt and renovated to house theatrical shows in the summer. This would have been overlooked by the stunning views across the bays, but the weather had turned sour, ruining both the view and our plans to spend a day at the beach while in Sicily.

Having spent one week in Sicily, my overall impression was of some small measure of disappointment — although it was a nice week and Sicily did prove to be quite different from the other parts of Italy that I’ve seen, in most of the towns it felt somewhat seedy and unsettled. This was made up for by spending an entire afternoon at the tiny Segesta train station, looking across the rolling vineyards and herds of sheep (whose bells rang a relaxing melody across the gentle hills). Despite cursing Trenitalia for their incompetence, and worrying about being unable to return to our hostel, where our luggage and valuables were, it was also the most relaxing, peaceful and carefree day of my travels thus far. I was almost looking forward to spending the night on the tiny platform, it was truly idyllic.

I have now returned to mainland Italy to spend two nights at Salerno, on the edge of the Amalfi coast and right near the Unesco-listed temples at Paestum. Upon arrival, we were treated to the most sinister sky I have ever seen in my life — the clouds were low enough and thick enough to entirely block out the nearby mountains, and were blacker than any bushfire-fuelled smoke I’ve ever seen. I am desperately hoping that the weather improves enough tomrrow for a swim in the ocean to become possible. Having walked around the town for an entire evening, Salerno comes across as a very nice, intimate town, somewhat similar to Padova. Today we visited the Greek ruins at Paestrum, which included the single most impressive ruin that I have seen on this trip, the temple of Neptune (which was actually dedicated to Apollo). I could not take a photo that did this temple any justice.

My final night in Italy (Oct 5) will be spent somewhere in Rome airport, from where I depart for Iceland. I’m actually looking forward to a cooler climate, as the warmth and humidity of the Mediterranean has been uncomfortable at times. Once I have traveled through Iceland, Russia and Scandinavia, I expect I’ll have different thoughts on the matter.

I hope that all is well wherever you are!