Sunday, April 27 - Day 7
Athens, GR
Today's Bloggers: Julianne & Margaret
Today, some of us started the day with a half-marathon here in Athens, running across the coast. The participants were Erika, Maddy, and Ben, who ran into Professor Martin while at the race. We are so proud of our runners! Afterward, Professor Christesen hosted a brunch for all of us at one o'clock. Some of the menu items included eggs, yogurt, berries, pastries, and homemade orange juice made by Jamie. It was lovely to be as a group in a more informal setting, getting to reflect on our time together as we reach the halfway point of the FSP. We all gave our takeaways of what we have learned, not only about Classics but also about ourselves. Everyone told stories about resilience, perseverance, learning teamwork skills, and the importance of hands-on learning experiences. It is extraordinary to learn about things firsthand, where they took place. Throughout the day, people were doing laundry, catching up on schoolwork, and enjoying their free day in Athens. Many of us enjoyed getting back into a routine that included our go-to gyro stand and favorite cafe.
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Saturday, April 26 - day 6
Athens, GR
Today's Bloggers: Erika and Maddie
Today was our first day back in Athens since the Sicily trip! Well.. That's true for some of us. Actually a group went to Rome from Sicily, instead of coming back and got to witness the Pope's funeral!
The rest of us back in Athens decided to take a ferry to the beautiful island of Aegina, about an hour away. The town was charming, with lots of shops, seafood restaurants, and fruit stands. We spent most of our time lounging by the sea and soaking up the sunshine. We read our books and ate delicious strawberries that we bought in town!
For the group who went to Aegina, the day was a great way to relax and unwind after our travels in Sicily. For many of us, it was our first time taking the ferry from the Piraeus port in Athens which we found to be both easy and very scenic. We are so excited to come back to Aegina later with the rest of our classmates and explore the archaeological site here!
For the group who went to Rome, the Pope’s funeral was sure to be a memorable event and although sad, perfect timing to be in town. This Saturday was a great way to transition between our travels in Sicily and our next week returning to classes in Athens.
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Friday, April 25 - Day 5
Palermo, IT
Today's Bloggers: Aryeh & Joyce
Ciao, Ciao! Today, with tears in our eyes and cannoli in our bellies we said farewell to the beautiful Sicilian countryside and hit the road. The morning consisted of yet another beautiful bus ride with the Mediterranean waves to our left and rolling pastures and vineyards to our right. The group travelling back to Athens was smaller than the one we began with, as a large contingent of our compatriots elected to spend the free weekend visiting various bucket-list-worthy European cities. Some went off to Rome, another group to Naples, and a lone traveler ventured to the land of croissants and mustaches (Paris). As for the rest of us, the majority of our day consisted of (drumroll please).....Airport Time! Espresso, energy drinks, and our final mortadella paninis were consumed in the Catania airport as we awaited the arrival of our valiant eagle of the sky, Ryan (a handsome Boeing aircraft championing the RyanAir fleet). The flight went smoothly, like the creamy filling of a cannoli. The landing was bumpy, like the charred, chewy crusts of a Sicilian margarita pizza. The bus ride back to Pagrati was pleasant, like a sunset over the beaches of Selinunte. And, at long last after a full day of travel, our beds were warm and comforting, like the bed of handmade bread on which rests thin slices of prosciutto and thick hunks of mozzarella under a blanket of arugula. Needless to say, Italy, we’ll miss you dearly!
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Thursday, April 24 - Day 4
Palermo, IT
Today's Bloggers: Hadley and Jacob
Today the class had a special guest lecturer: Professor Cecilia Gaposchkin, the wife of trip director Professor Christesen. Professor Gaposchkin showed us around the Duomo di Monreale and the Cappella Palatina, two Norman churches in Palermo. The churches exemplify Sicily’s position in the center of the Mediterranean and various rulership, embracing Latin, Greek Orthodox, and Islamic characteristics. We paid close attention to the multi-cultural artistic iconography and mediums and how even the shapes of the churches themselves blend Latin and Greek Orthodox architectural styles.
After the churches, students got to explore Palermo for lunch (and gelato) and then made their way to the Palermo Archeological Museum. There, we had the opportunity to see many of the metopes, triglyphs, and other architectural features from the temples we previously visited in Selinus/Selinunte. We gave presentations on three sets of metopes from temples Y, C, and E, performing formal artistic analysis, paying attention to iconography, style, workmanship, and broader context. It was interesting to see stylistic developments over time in the temples ranging from the archaic to the classical period. It was a great way to conclude our time in Sicily!
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Wednesday, April 23 - Day 3
Motya and Segesta, IT
Today's Bloggers: Tori and Felipe
GOOOOOOD morning! Today started with a beauty bright and early wake up at 8am in Selinute. This, however, was not the case for all of us. Ryker and Aryeh (willingly?!?) wanted to wake up especially early for a sunrise swim. So to say they have been up since the crack of dawn would be an understatement.
All 27 of us then lugged our baggage up a hill to meet the bus and headed for Motya, the best preserved Phoenician site on Sicily. For those who did not fall asleep on the bus ride, we were able to appreciate the marvelous scenery as we winded up the coast. Upon reaching Motya, we were briefly lectured then ushered onto a ferry, which was quite the treat. Motya was absolutely beautiful— the flowers, the water and the architecture blended seamlessly together to create paradise. This contrasted strikingly with Motya’s rather grim ruins including a suspected field for child sacrifice. Together we explored from coast to coast of the island while “exploding from beauty” as Aryeh says so frequently.
After our exploration, our stomaches rumbled with hunger and we hit the cafe for a scrumptious lunch. Morale was high and we rallied the troops back to the ferry for our departure. We savored every second of the 7 minute ferry ride back before we embarked on the bus to Segesta, a site of the pre-Greek Sicilian indigenous population.
Not much is left at Segesta besides the remains of a Doric temple. Having seen tens of Doric temples by this point on our Sicilian Expedition, the group immediately noticed the temple’s distinctive features - unfluted columns, a steeper echinus, a four step crepidima with an elongated stylobate - and could determine without help that the temple must date to the Classical period and must’ve been left unfinished.
After that, it was another bus ride to Palermo, where we were staying the evening. We were treated to a lecture by the amazing Professor Gaposchkin on the medieval history of the Normans in Sicily, to prepare us for the magnificent chapels we are to see tomorrow.
Arrivederci!
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Tuesday, April 22 - Day 2
Selinunte, IT
Today's Bloggers: Jordan and Max
Today we got to sleep in! We all searched around town for something to pack for lunch, and after breakfast we made our way to the first and only site of the day. We spent all day trekking around the ancient site of Selinunte. Through miles and many many steps we got to see temples, sheep, fortification walls, and the sanctuary of the chthonic Gods. We started our day exploring the main urban sancturaies of the city. Then, to get to the sanctuary of the chthonic Gods, we walked over the “river styx”, a water channel carved in the stone at the propylon. We vistited the Acropolis of the city and viewed the fortification walls from a more conflict-heavy part of Selinunte's ancient past. Lastly, we visited the eastern part of the site, with the colossal remains of temples E, F, and G, which the latter two were scattered across the countryside like the "bones of the skeleton" - a romantic idea of archaeological remains presented by writer von Goethe.
The site was one of the largest archaeological sites in Europe, and it was an amazing day exploring the site’s serene environment and monumental ruins. Around 7, we finished for the day and a lot of us went to the beach for sunset. Some people played football, some swam in the ice cold water, and some went on walks down the beach. We ended the day with dinner in town.
takeaways from the day:
- Prof Martin knows her Phoenician history
- cattle dogs take care of the sheep
- DO NOT climb on the temple
- the doric “order” is more of a constellation of architectural features
quotes from the day:
- Walker: “did the officials come? I jumped in the middle because i didn’t want to get deported”
- Sabriel: ”how is this not everyone’s favorite site, this is my favorite site we’ve been to”
- Zander: “what are these dogs for, what do they do?”
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Monday, April 21 - Day 1
Today's Bloggers: Angie and Sabriel
We started the day waking up at Hotel Dioscuri Bay Palace in Agrigento and the breakfast spread was insane. Everyone was genuinely thrilled (and slightly overwhelmed) by how many options there were, especially the desserts. Honestly, nothing brings people together like cake at 8:00 AM before we need to go to a site. After fueling up, we took a quick 15-minute bus ride to the Valle dei Templi. And of course, as is tradition at this point, we kicked things off with a map quiz. To be fair, it was a map of Sicily and we already had all taken it before, so this was a refreshing start. Once that was over, we jumped straight into lecture mode.
We focused on the time period from around 730 to 264 BCE, so the entire arc from early Greek and Carthaginian settlement in Sicily to the Roman conquest. Some highlights of what we covered: The initial wave of Greek foundations along the coast, the rise of Syracuse and Carthage as the two dominant powers on the island, the Battle of Himera around 480 BCE, when Akragas (under Theron) and Syracuse teamed up to smash Carthage. Once we had that historical timeline in our heads, we walked the site itself and it was wild to see just how much of that history you could physically trace in the landscape. We focused especially on the Temple of Olympian Zeus, which is absolutely massive. We looked at its floor plan and the reconstructed southern flank in the sanctuary, plus a timeline of when each temple in Akragas was built throughout the 5th century BCE. After wrapping up the lecture part with Professor Martin, we switched gears and went with Professor Christesen to start on our drawing assignment. We were tasked with creating a scale drawing of the “Temple of Concordia.” I think it’s safe to say that this task put many of us out of our comfort zone. Armed with rulers, pencils we started drawing. The maths was simple but tedious and the stones and bedrock were not the easiest surfaces to write on, but we perceived. Just as we had started to draw our first lines, the heavens started to open up. The grey clouds that had been lingering started to rain. To preserve our paper we ran to the cafe but the outside seating offered little protection from the elements. Luckily it turned out to be a light drizzle, not a storm like the weather app suggested. In the end it took around 2.5 hours to finish.
Afterwards we headed to the museum. Unfortunately, Google Maps let us astray and the gates that were meant to lead us to the museum were all locked. Angie and I then spent some time walking through the weeds to try and find an exit. But other than hoping the fence, our only option was to walk back to the main site and walk from there. We then spent time in museum, were we admired the huge Telemon, pottery and terracotta figurines
