Sat 06.May.2023
Syracuse, Sicily
My home base in Syracuse was in the Antica Giudecca, the old Jewish quarter, which in turn
was in the heart of Ortigia, the original Greek settlement.
A historic marker (see below) identifies the present day church of San Giovanni Battista
with the former Synagogue.
Today's church is a curious bird - walled normally, but open to the sky on the inside!
I gather that puppets (marionettes?) are a Sicilian tradition.
These two shops more or less face each other on the narrow main street of the Giudecca.
Friggitory?!? Sounds like someplace a kinky church might send you to in the
friggin' afterlife! Do I want to know what it really means? It couldn't be as interesting as
what I imagine of it.
A detail from some public building. (Cathedral?)
Papa goose to be, stands guard over mama and their not-yet-hatched kid(s?).
Wall decoration in the apartment I spent a night in at Catania airport, before riding the
bus to Syracuse the next morning.
Historic marker at the entrance to the Antica Giudecca
Syracuse Greek Theater Season. Promoting the city's Greek heritage!
In my youth, sometime in the 1950's, it was a Very Big Deal in the news that an ocean liner
by this name had sunk! I was too young to understand why it was quite that big a deal. I've never gone back and looked it up since. I would look it up tonight, if my apartment here in Cefalu
had an internet connection. As things stand, you can be mystified right along with me.
"That's a moray!"
I dunno which Christian sect these guys represented.
FWIW, Jehova's Witnesses were
set up in a different place in the same piazza.
