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In 2000 we went to Sicily. Early one morning near Agrigento we went for a drive on back roads looking for a small ancient site written up in our guide book. Being Sunday there were few cars or people about. We found the site and spent an hour or so walking around all by ourselves. It was interesting because you could see from the ruins that the streets in this ancient town had been laid out in a grid pattern similar to what is now quite common in Canada. On our way back we couldn't find the road we had used to reach the site. It was a lovely morning and we were enjoying the drive when all of a sudden we came upon the beautiful beach that is featured in the photos. The restaurant was open, but no one else was there. We had a delightful swim followed by Cappuccino. What a wonderful feeling to come upon something so enjoyable and so unexpected! Later we found the name of the place - Eraclea Minoa.
Here is another photo taken in 2000 of a beautiful Greek temple at Selinunte in Sicily. As in several other temples in Sicily, we were are able to walk directly into the temple itself, something we had never been able to do before. Like all Greek temples, one of its most striking features is its having been posiioned within the landscape in a way that enhances its beauty and fine proportions.
A wonderful part our Sicily vacation in 200 was to see the many ancient Greek temples. The island has more of these - and in a better state of preservation - than anywhere I know of outside Greece itself. The temple in the photo is located near Agrigento where there are extensive ruins.
The Basilica of Maria Maggiore, photographed in 1994, is only one of the many beautiful buildings in Rome.
In 1994, when we vacationed in Italy, we visited the coliseum in Rome. Being there, one could easily imagine how horrific it would have been to be there in ancient Rome to see early Christians being thrown to the lions.
At the cathedral at Monreale in Sicily, photographed in 2000, the mosaics you will see are truly outstanding.
Taormina is one of our very favourite resorts. We spent three or four days in the town in 2000. Each day in the late afternoon when we had finished with sightseeing, we went to this beach for fine swimming and sunbathing.
Etna is an active volcano that is in an almost constant state of eruption. We considered taking a tour of the mountain, but didn't feel up to the exertion or what we considered to be the risk. We read in our guidebook that residents of villages near the mountain continue to occupy their homes even while Etna is erupting. Etna is almost 11,000 feet high and dominates the skyline for miles around. It is shrouded in cloud on the left of the photo.
These are two photos taken in 2000 that demonstrate the beauty of Sicily. The first one looks down onto Taormina, the famous Sicilian resort. The second is a view looking down from the Roman theatre near Taormina.
We visited Rome in 1994 in the middle of a heat wave. Can't you almost see the heat in this photo of the Roman Forum? If you look very closely, you can just make out the man and woman near the bottom right. This will give you an idea of the scale of the ruins. The forum itself is very large. We walked here for an hour or so until we felt burned to a crisp and returned to our hotel, disappointed that we couldn't spend more time reading the guide book to see what we had actually been looking at.
Here in 1994 is the famous dome of the Florence cathedral. Designed and built by Brunelleschi, it was one of the foremost architectural achievements of the Renaissance. The cathedral complex is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The dome posed major technical challenges which Brunelleschi managed to resolve. Construction was from 1420 to 1436.
Masaccio, who lived from 1401 to 1428, was the first great painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaissance. Because few of his works survive, I was eager to see his famous frescoes here in the Brancacci chapel in Florence in 1994. Masaccio is famous for being the first painter, with the possible exception of Giotto, to paint the human figure as three dimensional, using perspective and placing his figures in proper proportion to their surroundings. His innovative work had a strong influence on other painters despite his brief career. Seeing these frescoes was a high point of our Italian vacation.
We traveled to Sicily in 2000. The theatre at Segesta dates from about 409 BC. It was originally Greek and later used by the Romans. Greek plays are staged here in the summer. The theatre dominates the hillside, and from the top, the views are spectacular.
This unique bridge, the Ponte Vecchio, was only one of many interesting things to see in Florence, which we visited in 1994. The bridge, dating from the medieval period, is noteworthy for continuing to have shops contained within it, as was once common. The shops were originally butcher shops, but today are mainly jewelers, art dealers and sellers of souvenirs.
At Agrigento in 2000, as elsewhere in Sicily, we were able to walk freely among the ancient ruins, something that made it possible to appreciate these beautiful sites in a new way. The city of Agrigento was nothing special, but near it there were several Greek temples to wander about in. These have been designated a World Heritage Site and date from the 6th and 5th Centuries B.C.
