TEMPLE OF CONCORDIA
Sicily has some of the best ancient Greek ruins anywhere, including an entire city (Selinunte), a whole collection of temples (Agrigento) and magnificent theatres (Syracuse and Taormina). The Temple of Concordia at Segesta is surely the most romantic, though. It isn't just one of the world's best-preserved Doric temples but has a magnificently remote setting in a plunging, wildflower-dotted and fennel-scented landscape with distant glimpses of the sea. It dates to the fifth century BCE. A later theatre is scalloped from the hillside nearby, while the ruins of the ancient town leave ghostly foundations inhabited by lizards. See visitsicily.info
VILLA ROMANA DEL CASALE
Photo: iStock
This fourth-century-CE Roman-era villa at Piazza Armerina in central Sicily, possibly a hunting lodge and perhaps imperial, is a massive assortment of interconnected buildings of which only evocative bits and pieces remain, including a triumphal entrance arch. It does however preserve the largest collection of Roman mosaics still in their original location, wonderfully detailed and coloured and almost perfectly preserved. They're noted for their subject range too. You'll see a chariot race, several hunting scenes, ships and dolphins, stories from mythology, and Olympic athletes in bikinis working out with dumbbells. See villaromanadelcasale.it
PALATINE CHAPEL
Photo: iStock
If this private chapel of the Norman kings of Sicily isn't the world's most beautiful church it certainly comes close. Built as part of the royal palace in Palermo in the early twelfth century, it shows remarkable influences from Sicily's earlier Byzantine and Muslim rulers. Walls and ceilings are lavished with blue and gold mosaics, vaults shimmer with stars, and motifs from Persian and Arab art include palm trees, peacocks, falcons and human figures wearing turbans. Everything is encrusted with gold, malachite and porphyry. Christ Pantocrator dominates the decoration, surrounded by a swirl of angels. See visitsicily.info
CASTELLO URSINO
Photo: iStock
This fortress is devoid of romantic castle-like turrets and crenellations and will never win a beauty contest, but it starkly conveys the brutal reality of medieval life. The solid, brooding fortress is a simple square anchored by four huge corner towers and only the tiniest of high windows. The plain, vaulted rooms and sombre decoration of the interior seem fit for ogres. The castle once guarded the sea approach to Catania, although thanks to earthquakes and lava flows now sits a kilometre inland. It houses a museum with a interesting collection of historical artefacts. See comune.catania.it
PIAZZA MUNICIPIO OF NOTO
Photo: iStock
The baroque can often seem overblown when it comes to interior decoration, but when the architecture is done well nothing is more beautiful. Case in point, the main square of Noto, a town that fell down in a 1693 earthquake and was rebuilt in gracious baroque style out of local honey-coloured stone that looks like spun toffee. Domes and towers hang on the skyline, and locals lounge below on the massive flight of cathedral steps, slurping ice cream. The whole Val di Noto region is scattered with sumptuous World Heritage baroque towns, including Modica, Catane and Ragusa. See visitsicily.info
MONREALE CATHEDRAL
Photo: iStock
Sicily's Norman kings completed this cathedral in 1176 and by then their artisans had honed their skills. The result is one of medieval Europe's most magnificent monuments. This is what it feels like to step into a billionaire's version of heaven: shimmering gold, floors inlaid with semi-precious stones, and everywhere a sensuous assault of religious bling. Byzantine-style mosaics show entertaining scenes from the Bible, including a freshly-revived Lazarus being unwrapped from his shroud, Jacob teetering on his ladder and Noah leaping off the ark. The adjacent cloister with its formal gardens and fountain is distinctly Islamic in style. See visitsicily.info
Comments