Denmark Trip, August 2024

My daughters, Anne and Sarah, granddaughters (Anne’s girls: Lauren 10, Emma 8, Sarah’s: Maya 8, Gemma 6) and I had an exciting vacation in Denmark. We were seven, driving to different places and staying mostly for three nights. Since the girls don’t see each other very often, it was a wonderful time for them to be together. Anne, her girls and I were in Copenhagen about a week before Sarah arrived. We stayed with my dear friend, Corinne, and Jørgen in their comfortable home in the old city. We did some sightseeing: Rosenborg Castle, Round Tower, Changing of the Guard at Amalienborg, the Little Mermaid, the modern Royal Library. We also visited a number of playgrounds. We took trains, subways and water taxis. We joined Corinne for a swim in the cold harbor in a protected area 70 meters in length. I joined Corinne and swam up and back and Lauren jumped off a platform. There are no dressing rooms, so you change at the side of the pool. 

After Sarah arrived with her daughters, we drove  north of Copenhagen to Helsingør to visit Anne’s and Sarah’s cousins nearby, their children and grandchildren. We were invited to a garden party to celebrate a baptism. We toured the famous Hamlet castle, Kronborg, in Helsingør which Shakespeare used as the setting for his play in 1602. It dramatically sits by itself on an island with impressive spires, moats, and walls. 

We then drove to Marielyst, a beach town, where my daughters had spent time with their father every summer. The water was cold but the girls played in the water, and I swam. One day there were many iridescent jellyfish floating up on the beach. At first the girls were afraid of them, but eventually they were poking and prodding them. We drove to the southernmost part of Denmark by Gedser where the paternal grandparents had lived. 

We sought out four of the huge trolls by Thomas Dambo, made of recycled wood. They were great and the girls enjoyed climbing on them. One you had to access by pulling yourself across a small body of water on a raft. Another we searched for because it was not easy to find. He recently constructed six trolls in Detroit Lakes in northern Minnesota.

From Marielyst on the way to Jutland, the westernmost part of Denmark, we stopped in Odense, the birthplace of H. C. Andersen. The girls had an exciting time in the kids section of the museum trying on different stunning costumes and then “performing” on stage.

We drove west to Jutland, crossing some very impressive bridges. Our destination was Billund where Legoland is located and legos were invented in 1932, and the first factory built. Legoland is a big amusement park where everything except the rides are built of legos. The heart of Legoland is from the 1960’s with knee-high Danish towns and cities. This is what I saw in 1962. It’s amazing all the lego structures: animals, villages, waterfalls, mountains and people. The girls went on a number of rides and the adults went on several. The next day we spent the morning in a water park and in the afternoon went to Lego House where in different stations you are provided with an experience which encourages creativity. In one area they built custom mini-figures with appropriate clothing and props. The creations were then scanned and animated on a tv screen.

                                         

Danish town of legos.

From Billund we drove north on very narrow country roads with 90 degree turns to arrive at the summer house where we would stay five nights. Once close to the coast, we saw endless sand dunes that followed the coast. We got to our spacious house with four bedrooms and the bonus, an indoor swimming pool, just the right size for four little girls. The girls ended up spending a lot of time in the pool - the temperature was definitely warmer than the ocean. We walked ten minutes on a road, over a sand dune, and to the beach several times a  day. There were some lovely flowers and wild rose bushes with huge rose hips.  Because of the wind there were waves. Mostly Anne and the girls held hands and jumped the waves. Great fun! There were many attractive summer houses with thatched roofs. Besides swimming, the girls painted rocks they had found, played with their new legos, and of course were on their iPads. The Olympics were on so the adults watched them. One day we climbed the Lyngvig Lighthouse - a great view, but very windy. At each of the houses where we stayed, and all over Denmark, food compost is collected weekly along with the trash. 

                                                                                       Our summer house.

We ate a lot of ramen, pizza, spaghetti, french bread, and bakery goods. The girls also ate "chocolate sandwiches," a thin piece of chocolate on bread. Everyone consumed huge quantities of yogurt with muesli; the yogurt is so much better than American yogurt. It comes in a liter carton, as do other delicious dairy products. All plastic caps are attached to the spouts so they aren’t loose. We also consumed gummi candy including strong salty black licorice. On several occasions when we were out and about we treated ourselves to “gammeldags is” old-fashion ice cream in crispy waffle cones with whipped cream on top.

Everyone left and I had made arrangements to take the bus to Aarhus, the happiest city in the world, and the second largest city in Denmark. I went there especially to visit the ARoS Art Museum which has an upper floor with a skywalk with multi-colored glass, a fun way to view the city. I also wandered in Old Town with structures from three different eras. After Aarhus, I returned to Copenhagen and to my friend, Corinne, always a gracious host. I also had the opportunity to visit my other friend, Jacqueline. I went to several museums, and Corinne and I went swimming again in the harbor. With Corinne and Jørgen I watched part of the official PRIDE parade, and then people parading by themselves in wild and crazy costumes. Thousands of people were out and about.

Aarhus

       Pool within canal

All in all it was a fun holiday with great weather, but sometimes challenging for the moms, but I was impressed with the patience of each of my daughters. I was well taken care of. It was nice not being in charge. In our self portraits there was often a child missing. They took turns being mad about something (hunger, cold, wrong clothes, broken rock) and therefore refusing to be part of the photo. The cousins got on really well and had fun together. It was an adventure for all of us.

Peru

                                                                   January 2023

My friend, Glenda, and I decided to escape winter by going to Peru from mid-January to mid- February where temperatures are in the upper 20’s C/ 70’s and 80’s F. We had planned a four week trip, and it was a great trip until the very end when the day before we were leaving Glenda fell and fractured her hip in two places and her femur. For over a week Glenda was in a private clinic in a nice suburb of Lima receiving care. After six days, I returned home because I didn’t feel that I could help Glenda anymore, and she returned to Victoria, BC several days later with an attending nurse. She is home in Victoria, BC recovering.

After we purchased our tickets the political demonstrations began, some violent. I had been both in Kenya and Chile when there were political demonstrations and managed to avoid them, so we carried on with our plans for Peru. We changed our tentative itinerary to avoid the areas where the roads were blocked. We both had been to Machu Picchu before so that had never been on our itinerary. I had been in Peru several times before, especially when I was teaching in Santiago.

Peru has a long coastline which consists of sandy desert and scrubland stretching from Chile to Ecuador. Inland are the Andes and then on the eastern side of the mountains the rain forest begins, and the Amazon basin. Peru became independent in 1824.

Probably the best and most interesting part of our trip was the first part when we were in the jungle and on the Amazon River. Iquitos is far away from any roads so we flew in. Most of the traffic in Iquitos is “motos” (tuk tuks), a three-wheeled vehicle driven by a motorbike and with room for passengers in back.The rubber boom hit Iquitos in the 1870’s and continued for about 30 years. There was great wealth at that time, but also extreme poverty. Many natives in the area suffered from disease and abuse. There are some mansions from this time covered with tiles and even a building by Eiffel that was exported piece by piece from France.

Glenda in moto

Former mansion with tiles

From Iquitos we went on a four-day, three-night jungle tour on the Amazon. On the tour, it was just the two of us, our young indigenous guide and the boatman. We stayed in a very nice ecolodge high up on the river bank and went out everyday exploring the Amazon, tributaries, villages and jungle trails. We saw gray and pink dolphins. Our guide studied medicinal plants with his shaman grandfather so we learned about some of the plants. We saw beautiful huge lily pads - the largest in the world - on a pond, and I paddled a canoe by them. We interacted with the Yahua tribe, learning about their life and dancing with them.

Our guide

Everything was so green, a lush lush green, and it was hot and humid of course. I love seeing large healthy tropical plants growing in the wild that at home we struggle to grow in pots. I went swimming in the Amazon, nice temperature, but rather muddy where we were. We also fished for small piranhas and later ate them for lunch. Peruvian food isn’t exactly gourmet but the food at the lodge was excellent with delicious fish, salads and fruit. Another time we had a wonderful seafood meal at a very good restaurant in Trujillo. Peruvians eat a large amount of rice, manioc or cassava, and beans. The mangoes were incredible as were the avocados. We visited several villages where all the houses were made of wood and on stilts. The river rises three meters, almost ten feet in March and the only way to get around at that time is by canoe. When the water recedes the villagers plant crops (manioc, sugarcane, corn). Fruit trees are abundant, and of course they fish. All the villages have kindergartens and primary schools but for further education, students must go to Iquitos. The villages we saw had houses and a municipal building built around a large rectangular grassy field which also served as a soccer field. Other houses, all very open and primitive were further on down lanes.

Village houses

Our boat is the green one

One afternoon we visited a monkey rescue center, Monkey Island. Any number of tame monkeys climbed all over us, especially Glenda who was more patient. It was fascinating interacting with different monkeys and we saw many in the wild who hang out near the center.

We returned to Lima with just enough time to organize a flight to Trujillo, north of Lima. We were still avoiding the highways because of a chance of road blocks. This would be the beginning of our archeological trip. We explored a number of cities north and east of Lima. When we first arrived in a city, often after a long bus ride, we sought out the Plaza de Armas, the main square and the center of the city with the cathedral and perhaps some colonial buildings if they still existed. It’s a place where people gather, always a great place to people-watch.

Plaza de Armas, Trujillo

We traveled by bus from Trujillo to Chiclayo to Chachapoyas, then to Cajamarca before returning to Trujillo and Lima, a total of 1,870 km/1,162 mi. There are an endless number of archeological sites in the area; we only visited a few of the major ones. Site information is organized historically.

Therefore the first site is Cumbemayo, located outside Cajamarca at 3,500 m/11,500 ft, a beautiful area with high dome-shaped basalt towers. The Chavin culture was there from 1500 - 1000 BC. The aqueduct system is most amazing. Water flows for 9 k/5.6 mi through smooth volcanic rock much of which was cut smoothly and which also makes right angle turns. It was used for irrigation and flowed into a reservoir. There is also a ceremonial altar, caves and shelters with petroglyphs in stone that archeologists can’t decipher. It was a fun area to hike in.

Cumbemayo

Kuélap, a colossal sandstone walled city, at 3,000 m/10,000 ft was in the cloud forest near Chachapoyas. Unfortunately it is closed for restoration so you cannot enter the city but the walls are impressive. The walls form an oval 600 m/656 yd by 100 m/109 yd. The Chachapoyas were there from 500 AD - 1490 (built 500 years before Machu Picchu). Within the walls are 400 round dwellings with straw roofs. It is estimated that 3-4,000 people lived there. A gondola was built by the French several years ago so it is easy to ascend the mountain. After the 20 minute gondola ride, there is a a half hour hike further up the mountainside. The Chachapoyas placed their dead on cliff ledges wrapping them first in clay, then a mixture of mud and straw, finally they were painted cream and brightly decorated. These special clay containers are called sarcophagi.

Kuélap

Sipán is a site outside of Chiclayo with 14 tombs from the Moche period, 50 AD - 700 AD. The tombs were found under a huge mound of adobe bricks and earth. The Lord of Sipán was buried here and adorned with copper, silver and gold jewelry, a headdress, face mask, necklaces, nose and earrings. He was accompanied in death by his wife, two concubines, a boy, two guards whose feet had been amputated (perhaps so they wouldn't escape), a military chief, a flag bearer, two dogs, and a headless llama.There were many ceramic jugs and other treasures, a total of 451 ceremonial items. Another tomb contained a Moche priest. There is a fabulous museum, Museo Tumbas Reales de Sipán, in another town north of Chiclayo, Lambayeque, which has the original valuable pieces that were found in the tombs.

Looking down into a tomb from above

Huacas (mystical sites) del Sol y de la Luna are near Trujillo and attributed to the Moche Period (100-800 AD) and more than 700 years older than Chan Chan, the other major site near Trujillo. The Huaca de la Luna was the ceremonial center, while the Huaca del Sol was the administrative center. They were built over six centuries to 600 AD. There were six generations and each generation completely covered the previous structures. The two huacas are separated by 500 m/547 yd of open desert where dwellings and other buildings of common people were located. There are many rooms that contained ceramics and precious metals and there are beautiful polychrome friezes with stylized figures on every level. This site was the most impressive because of the beautiful friezes with bold colors.

Frieze, Huaca de la Luna

Within Lima and close to where I was staying in Miraflores I visited the site Huaca Pucllana where the Lima culture first occupied the site (500 AD) and later the Wasi culture (700 AD). It covers an area of 22 sq m/72 sq ft. It was primarily a ceremonial site, but also administrative with a large pyramid and plazas and patios below. The people held religious ceremonies, fiestas and ritual banquets here. Young women were sacrificed, as were babies who were wrapped, no doubt to appease the gods and to perhaps ask for rain. There are niches for storage and ceremonial pits. On a large vessel there are aquatic scenes. Sharks played an important role and they no doubt ate shark at their banquets. The blocks of adobe bricks are built up vertically (like books on a shelf). This makes the structure more stable in an earthquake. The Lima people moved away and the Wari took over the site.

Pyramid, Huaca Pucllana

Chan Chan, near Trujillo, the largest adobe city in the Americas, was the capital of the Chimú. I visited this site in 1969 when very little of it was uncovered. The Chimú were there from 900 AD until the Inca conquered them in 1470. The city covers an area of 20 sq km/7.7 sq miles with 15-18 m/ 50-60 ft high walls. There were ten walled citadels within the city with plazas, storerooms, chambers for treasures, royal courtyards, and burial platforms for the royalty. One is available to visit. The population of the city was 40-60,000 people. An irrigation system for agriculture was formed from run off from the mountains. They also depended on fish from the nearby Pacific Ocean. The walls consist of adobe brick and mud. On the walls are stylized reliefs of waves, fishing nets, pelicans, sea lion/otter. There was a place for craftsman, an administrative section, and a large restored courtyard.

Administrative center, Chan Chan

We took a walking tour of historic Lima one day. There was definitely a police presence in the city, and especially in the main square. We also visited the Museum Larco with a wonderful collection of Moche pottery, portrait vessels, and ceramics showing everyday life, people, crops, wild and domestic animals, marine life, architecture, and much more.

Traffic in Peru is dangerous. The drivers are very aggressive and don’t stop for pedestrians. Often the roads are very crowded and drivers swerve in and out of traffic, especially in roundabouts. Many highways in the countryside are narrow and death defying because of huge drop offs. There were many times when I didn’t want to look out the bus window. One time when we were in the rain forest on our way to Cajamarca women were on the road selling small mangoes. Each vendor had an endless number of mangoes selling them for 1 sole (25 cents) for a kilo which was six mangoes, or so. What they need in this area of endless mangoes is a factory to make chutney or juice. Many mangoes must go to waste.

All in all it was a good trip until the very end. We had fun and met some very nice people. I enjoyed eating tropical fruit again, and a new fruit for me called granadina. It was good speaking Spanish and getting to know different aspects of Peruvian culture.

Granadina

Museum Courtyard, Lima

Sunset on the Amazon

Kunze Farm

                                               History, Kunze Farm

                                                   Darlene Kunze

Part I

My great grandfather, Alexander Kunze, came to Minnesota in I868 and acquired farming land. Later my grandfather, Oscar Kunze, lived and worked on the farm, and my father, Willis Kunze, grew up on the farm. He later built a house on a piece of the property which is the house I live in now.  

In the late 1800’s, the Kunze farm was located approximately at Nebraska and Victoria, northeast of Como Lake. This area was part of Rose Township. It consisted not only of farm land, but also hills and swamps. Eventually the hills would be leveled with donkey-pulled plows, and the swamps filled in. 

Map by Willis Kunze, 1990

Farmers in the area originally were regular farmers, but found that truck farming was more profitable as more and more people moved into the St. Paul area. Truck farms grew vegetables and they were delivered to St. Paul daily by horse-driven carts and later by trucks. Farmers close to the city found that vegetables for daily shipments were the most profitable because people needed fresh food daily. It provided farmers with many opportunities for a growing urban market. In the first decade of the 20th century these farms were known as “urban fringe farms”. They were in the shadow of the city and depended upon the residents of the city for their income (St. Paul Historical Society, Vol. 20, No. 3, p. 6). The Kunze farm not only grew vegetables, but also flowers, peonies and lilacs which were cut, packed and sent to Duluth and Chicago.   

Original farm house with greenhouse on side

Map of farm by Willis Kunze, 1990

My great grandfather, Alexander Joseph Kunze (1840-1919) was from Prussia (formally a part of Germany) as was his wife, Matilda Hohlen (Holmann) (1845-1917). According to census data, they were married in 1868 and most likely came to the United States at that time and acquired land in Minnesota. Perhaps he came to this country to avoid military service as was common at that time. They built a farmhouse consisting of thirteen rooms and eleven out buildings. All nine of their children were born in the farmhouse. My grandfather, Oscar Kunze (1878-1971), was the fifth child. 

Alexander and Matilda with Oscar

The house had various addresses because the names of the streets changed. Originally, in 1870, Nebraska was Woodland Ave or Grove Street, and Victoria was perhaps Plum Street that became Quincy Street. In the 1905 census the address was listed as the corner of Quincy and Nebraska. The address of the farm was at first 1514 Quincy, then 1269 Quincy and by 1916, the farmhouse was 875 and the farm buildings were 883 Nebraska at the northeast corner of the intersection. Later when my house was built in 1942, it became 875 and the former farmhouse 883 (Information from historical maps and census data).

1886 map

1920

Alexander, my great grandfather, must have done well. The family could afford to go to the photographer and have their portraits taken; in the photographs you can see that the children are well-dressed. 

1892, Oscar top row, third from left

Alexander was respected in the community; he was president of St. Paul’s Growers Association and active with this group at the State Fair. In a newspaper article from 1903 (The St. Paul Globe, Sept. 3, 1903), it mentions prizes he won for his vegetables. He also farmed potatoes on a property that today is Roselawn Cemetery. My grandfather recalled that they had to plant and harvest all the potatoes by hand and that they also had to pick off potato bugs and later kill them by pouring hot water on them. The potatoes were sold at 25 cents a bushel (Pioneer Press, November 21, 1968). Willis, grandson of Alexander and son of Oscar, remembers Alexander as being strict and one who liked order.

Two years prior to Alexander’s death in 1919, my grandfather, Oscar (1880-1971), moved onto the farm with his family, his wife Hilda (1881-1954), sons Harold and Willis (Bill), and daughter, Dorothy. 

Willis and Harold, 1920

The first decade of the 20th century truck farming was extensive and profitable, but later city folk weren't so dependent on the farms close to urban areas because there were new national markets for goods and products that became available. There wasn’t such a great demand for local fresh fruits and vegetables. Whatever food was needed could be delivered in a few days from anywhere in the country  (St. Paul Historical Society, Vol. 20, No. 3, p. 9). Oscar continued to farm, but not full time. He also began to work at various companies: Merrill Greer Chapman, Wholesale Crockery Company, and Louis F. Dow Company.

Changes had come to urban farming near St. Paul in the second decade of the twentieth century. The second part of the story will share my grandfather’s and my father’s memories of the Kunze farm.

Part II

Kunze Farm by Darlene Kunze

Grandfather Oscar and father Willis share memories of the Kunze farm in this second part of the Kunze farm story. Information is also from a newspaper clipping, interviews, and a personal account written by my father, Willis. In the newspaper on the occasion of Oscar’s 90th birthday (Pioneer Press, November 21,1968), he was interviewed at the Gibbs farm on Larpenteur and Cleveland where as a boy, his family visited the Gibbs family. He remembers the kids went to the kitchen and knit while the adults played 66, a German card game. He says that the boys and the girls all knit, if you wanted warm mittens or long socks, you had to knit them yourself. They stayed until midnight and then went home after having something to eat.

Oscar  also recalled that in the winter they would gather up fish at night that came to the open water where the ice had been harvested on Como Lake. They’d scoop them up out of the water with pitchforks and throw them in the back of the wagon. By the time they got home, the fish would be frozen. Later, they would cook them with bran and short, a flour substance, and feed them to the pigs. He also remembers his mom making bread with short.

My father, Willis (1911-1906), was about seven years old when he moved to the farm. He remembers the many outbuildings, such as barns for the different animals (pigs, chickens, cows, horses), a greenhouse attached to the south side of the house, and a windmill which he liked to climb. He would wave a white flag as a signal when he had finished chores and was able to play. The property covered about eight square blocks, and the nearest of five farms was over a block away. The immediate yard was covered with peonies and lilacs. Eventually rooms on the house were eliminated and the animal barns were torn down. 

Winter mornings were cold because there was only a wood burning stove in the kitchen and a coal stove in the next room, and it was especially cold if the fire went out. It was my dad’s job to cut wood for the stove. To the east of the house was a hill for sledding. I also went sledding on this hill when I was growing up. Dad says there was a skating rink across the street near the fire hydrant where the city flooded a rink. Dad played hockey with home-made gear and clamp-on skates. The road was plowed with a V-shaped plow pulled by a team of horses.

Eventually electricity came in 1912, telephone in 1918, and water with sewer mains in 1936, which is when they eliminated the windmill and water tank. Willis went to Logan School and then Como Elementary and later Mechanic Arts High School. One of his teachers, Mr. Zumbach, at Logan School, was hurt when a streetcar jumped the tracks. Dad was captain of the school police at Como Elementary School and got to ring the school bells. In 1929 when he was eighteen years old he worked the summer at the Ganzer truck farm nearby. 

Not much information is available about the women in the family. Their job was to care for the house and children. Matilda had nine children over a period of 20 years so she must have been busy. When she was old, she wandered on the neighboring farms and my dad used to find her and bring her home. My grandmother, Hilda, was quiet and mild-mannered except when she was going after snakes with a hoe, and apparently there were plenty when the new houses were being built. 

Eventually in the 1930’s lots were sold and the city took over. My house was built by my parents in 1942 and was given the address of the farm, 875, and the farmhouse became 883. The farmhouse was sold in 2006 and a new home was built.

Farmhouse 1940’s

Farmhouse 1990’s

I have a special affinity to the land where I live, which is where the Kunze farm was located. I can imagine Great Grandfather Alexander tilling the soil and growing beautiful organic vegetables, ones that earned prizes at the State Fair. My family grew up on beautiful organic vegetables that my dad grew, a skill he no doubt inherited from his grandfather, Alexander. Dad often talked about the lovely peonies in front of my house and the lilacs next door that were originally from the farm. When I was growing up my grandfather Oscar lived next door in the farmhouse. He was always a part of my life and I remember playing games with him. After graduating from Macalester College, I spent many years living and teaching English abroad. Eventually I returned to Como, and later  moved into my childhood home after my mother passed away and my dad moved into the old farmhouse next door. For many reasons I feel attached to the land where the Kunze farm was located.

Southern Italy + Venice, April-May 2022

                                                    

Together with cabin neighbors, Katie and Randy, we began our three and a half week
Italian adventure on the Island of Sicily. It was good to be out and about again in a foreign country. We toured archeological sites and the old parts of the towns, eating fish and seafood, drinking red wine, walking/hiking/climbing, and playing Rummikub. We stayed at airbnbs, all comfortable, several with the IKEA theme and others with Grandma’s hand-me-downs. Most had balconies or outdoor areas with a view. Masks were required in all shops and museums, although many were worn with exposed noses.

Randy did all the driving which was great because some of it was very scary. One wrong turn and it was extremely difficult to get back on track again because of small one-way streets and dead ends in parking lots. Randy drove while Katie navigated using directions on her phone. I sat in the back and did my best to remain quiet. There were some very steep hills with hairpin turns and very narrow roads, also many road changes with renumbering, or no names shown at all. Towns had many roundabouts. Most challenging were the extremely steep streets that were barely the width of the car (ours was a small standard transmission Fiat). In one driving adventure, Katie and I were so terrified by the steep incline on an extremely narrow street with a sharp turn at the top that we got out and walked.  

The countryside consisted of rolling green hills with many vineyards, olive, orange, and other fruit trees. Small stone houses, many abandoned, dotted the hillsides. In a few places there were cattle and sheep, but mostly crops grew on the hills. There were lovely wildflowers, especially red poppies and tall yellow dandelion-like ones. 

Poppies by Pompeii

On Sicily we started out in Palermo, the regional capital, and then wound our way around the island in a counter clockwise direction. Leaving the airport, there were mountains, with palms and cacti next to the highway. We stayed in the old part of town where the narrow streets were made of stone. Often you couldn’t tell where one building ended and the next began. In Palermo, we had the best pastries on the whole island at a café in a church, the dolceria at Saint Caterina church, where the nuns prepared the cannoli according to the “ancient recipe,” with cannoli properly filled with whipped ricotta cheese only when ordered. 

Pastries

We visited the Puppet (marionette) Museum; there’s an old tradition from the 1500’s of puppetry in southern Italy when stories of French knights were recorded and then produced at puppet shows. The museum had over 2500 puppets from different countries. We watched part of a show where there was lots of fighting between the knights with the appropriate sounds. We also toured the impressive opera house from 1897, the third largest in Europe after Vienna and Paris. 

We were first introduced to the many cultures that have inhabited the island at the Palermo Archaeological Museum. We saw artifacts and architecture: the Palermo Stone, a “stele”(stone tablet/monument) from the times of the Pharaohs, Phoenician (25-64 BCE) objects such as sarcophagi (stone burial coffins) from the 5th century BCE. Greek statues and columns also from the 5th century BCE, and Roman objects, such as mosaics from the 1st century CE. This layering of cultures was the main archaeological experience we had of Sicily. Sicily layered cultures; later came the Byzantines (500-800s), then the Muslims with the Arab conquest (800-1000s), and the Roman Catholics with the Norman conquest in the 11h century.

We visited the Greek archaeological site in Selinunte from the 7th century BCE. There was one large temple that had been rebuilt in the 50’s, not very accurately apparently, but it was impressive, and there were ruins of other temples. We then walked to the acropolis where about 30,000 people lived with a view of the sea.

The next big archeological site was the Greek Valley of the Temples in the next town, Agrigento, founded in 582 BCE. There were many ruins of temples, but one temple, the Temple of Concordia, built in the 5th century BCE, Is beautifully preserved. Originally the building was of ground white marble stucco. Over 200,000 people lived there. The archaeological museum had an endless number of artifacts, especially exquisite drawings on vases. In all of the museums the number of artifacts was overwhelming.

Concordia Temple

We visited a Roman villa, Villa Romana del Cassale from 300 CE located in the interior, a sprawling villa, 37,000 square feet, with amazing  mosaics. Landslides sealed off the area in the 1300’s and it wasn’t excavated until the 1930’s; the mosaics of a great hunt and women athletes were found in the 1950’s. There were many rooms and apartments all with amazing mosaics, some pieces so small, the size of a fingernail. One theory is that the owner of the villa was a dealer of exotic animals which he sold to circuses.

One of the best parts of being in towns was wandering in the old sections with narrow streets and flowers and plants on the balconies. The town of Noto was probably the most impressive. It had been rebuilt after the earthquake of 1693 in a planned and consistent manner, like most towns it was built on a hillside and so there are stairs all over town. From the rooftop of our apartment, we could see much of the town.

Darlene climbing stairs to our Airbnb

From there we went to Siracusa where we saw both a Greek and a Roman theater. The Greeks built their theaters into the hillside, while the Romans built theirs freestanding. The Greek theater could hold 15,000 spectators. The Roman gladiators fought each other and it could be rather bloody so there was sand on the ground to soak up the blood. We stayed and wandered in the old part of town, Ortygia, which is an island connected to Siracusa. The cathedral has a baroque facade from 1728-53, but it was built over an ancient temple. On the side of the cathedral, you can see the Greek columns from the 5th century BCE temple; then the Byzantines filled them in to make a church in the 6th century BCE. The Arabs created a mosque in 878, and the Normans created a fortress/church and added the crenellations on top. In the earthquake of 1693 the Norman facade fell off.

Cathedral in Ortygia

Katie had wanted to find the Jewish ritual bath, a mikvah, it took awhile, but we eventually found it.  It is about 60 feet underground. [A mikvah is a ritual purification bath that is used at a variety of times over the life of very observant Jews, such as before marriages, conversions, etc. The water in the pools must be “gathered” fresh water running freely from springs, not pumped in and not tap water.] This mikvah is the oldest surviving mikvah in Europe. Jews were in Italy since Roman times, probably first on Sicily. At some time about 135 AD, Rome expelled the Jews from Jerusalem and more Jews poured into Siracusa. It would have remained in use until Spain, having conquered Sicily, expelled the Jews from Spain and its territories in 1492.At that time, about a quarter of the population of Ortiga was Jewish.Then the mikvah was both forgotten and protected until it was excavated by accident in the 1990s.  At this time, there are no Jews on Sicily. 

We ate at one especially fine seafood restaurant, La Lisca Cucina e Bottegaso, so delicious that we returned the next night. I raved about the mussels in ginger and mint and was brought a dish compliments of the owner.The view of a  square from our apartment was very pleasant and relaxing. We then drove north to Taormina, passing the volcano Mt. Etna which has been somewhat  active lately, spitting up smoke and hot stones. In Taormina, we could see the volcano from our balcony.

Mt. Etna

We flew to Naples and then took a bus to Sorrento on the Almalfi coast. We enjoyed Sorrento, especially the apartment where we stayed surrounded by lemon trees, in fact the whole town was filled with lemon trees of different types, large ones, called citrons, bumpy ones, and ones pointed at the ends. We gathered those that had fallen from the trees in the yard and Katie made delicious lemonade. 

Sorrento was a real town compared to the other two that we visited, Positano and Almafi. Positano seemed to be an especially superficial rich tourist town. The towns are built on the hillsides and definitely very picturesque. We did our share of climbing stairs and going up and downhill. 

Amalfi Coast

Visiting the Roman archaeological site of Pompeii was a highlight of the trip. We wandered on the streets with our guide and visited the shops and small houses. So much was intact. Everything was gray stone, but originally it had been covered with ground white marble stucco. A large villa was especially impressive as we entered and observed where the office of the noble would have been and then the courtyard with greenery, and finally the rooms where guests were entertained. There were six public baths where both the rich and the poor gathered. Now the sea is three kilometers from the town, before it had been close by. Pompeii was founded in 600 BCE, an important trading town bustling with activity with 11,000 residents and busy with seamen and merchants from other places. The brothels were handy when men came into town. We saw the brothels, which had explicit stuccos of sexual positions and the prices, as the travelers would not be able to communicate their desires, nor the prostitutes able to name the prices.

Road with crosswalk

A villa

We saw the Roman theater where 5000 people could be seated, women and slaves up high. The gladiators fought one another; we also saw the small rooms where they lived as slaves.  When Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE, blowing off two thirds of its height, the pyroclastic cloud of hot gas killed most of the people and ash buried everything, 13 to 20 feet deep, crushing the top floors of the buildings. However, because it was ash and not lava, Pompeii was not incinerated and was preserved for the next 1600-1700 years. Pompeii wasn’t discovered until 1738.

In Naples we went to the archaeological museum to see the mosaics and the frescoes from Pompeii. Once again we were very impressed with the mosaics and all the work that went into creating the beautiful designs with color subtleties made with teeny tiny tiles. An amusing part of the exhibit was the collection of art with the subject of penises. Apparently, penises were the symbol of fecundity and therefore success. Statues, stuccos, and mosaics reflected this good luck charm. 

We took the fast train to Venice, a very beautiful and special city for our last few days. We wandered and took ferries and toured the Doge’s Palace in St. Mark’s Square. The extremely impressive palace was from where the government ruled all through history; it housed public offices, courtrooms, prisons, the Doge’s apartments, stables, armories. The governing men met and voted there. The ceilings and walls have paintings by famous Venetian artists. The building itself has undergone many changes and rebuilding, mainly because of fires.

Doge Palace

We spent the last two days enjoying the art at the Biennale and visiting the country pavilions. It was fascinating. The theme of the Biennale was “Milk of Dreams - life is constantly re-envisioned through the prism of imagination.”  The US pavilion with the sculptures of an African American woman, Simone Leigh, was impressive. Some of the presentations at the pavilions were rather strange and even after reading the interpretation were challenging to understand, but of course they were artists’ visions. Some of the art was especially interesting, maybe not beautiful, but it was a good experience in pleasant surroundings.

American Pavilion

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Our  final night in Italy, we ate at Ongia, in Campo San Barnaba, a restaurant Katie and Randy had first visited in 2016. Again we had seafood and red wine, but this time finishing the dinner, our stay in Venice, and our time in Italy, with an after dinner liquor, limoncello. It was an amazing trip that we all thoroughly enjoyed.

To see photo album:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/LGFhyRWBFsKX9RmN7

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