Otranto

Today we are in the port of Otranto at the end of the heel on the boot of Italy. It's a beautiful city beside the very blue and calm Mediterranean Sea. 

Because of it's strategic location, it is a fortified old city. The ramparts are still in evidence as the new city was built upon the old. The  city was invaded by the Islamic Ottoman Turks in 1480, overcoming the fortifications, killing the men and enslaving the women and children. The Ottomans stayed for a year, and then left, never to return again. Thereafter, the fortifications became stronger, but they were never tested. 

This "arrow head wall" was part of the new addition. There was a moat around it, but remember the first obstacle was the sea.

The beautiful blue sea.

Like many of the towns we are visiting, the streets are narrow...however, these streets are shiny and clean. Otranto is set up to be a high-end tourist location...it's not for the masses. Apparently, it gets crowded in July and August, but in early June it's just about perfect.

There's a 10th century Romanesque cathedral that is has an unusual mosaic floor that depicts the Tree of Life. It took a monk 10 years to create the mosaic in 900 AD.     

I took a few pictures of the floor, which is absolutely amazing.

Some of the animals are fantastical...like this critter...2 legs, wings, on a long necked camel. JK Rowling might have seen this critter when she created a "hippogrif." 

A highlight or lowlight (depending on your opinion) is the side chapel that is the ossuary of the 800 men who were killed by the Muslims in 1480. The bones are carefully placed in glassed in windows. These men are martyr heroes of Otranto. Muslims were killing Christiams 500+ years ago ... and they still are. Who says Islam is a peaceful religion? Not me! 

I'll end with a postive note on the cathedral...the beautiful ceiling.     

This is the ceiling of the crypt under the cathedral. It's very reminiscent of the ceiling at the Cistern in Istanbul. The columns are Roman and like many thngs in ancient times, were reused for this purpose.

The view from the top of the fortress.

A Kindergarten class practicing the national anthem. It's and ancient town with a modern life.

The water is warm and clear. 

 

 

 

Pictures from Riace

Riace is a tiny village in Calabria, Italy. It is nestled in the hillside, with houses that climb up and down the streets. (And "aha moment"...many folks from Calabria settled in San Francisco which is also a hilly environment.) 

The homes are narrow with no front yards     

The roofs are made of tile....and eventhough the roofs are old, the satellite dishes are modern

The streets were designed for people and carts not for cars...

The village is like many in this part of Calabria and the south of Italy.

The village church

The homes all have electricity and modern plumbing, but they were not built that way.

It is also famous for the "Bronzes." Two life size bronze statues were found underwater in 1974 . They are Greek from 650 B . What is strange is they are missing a spear and a shield and no other bronzes have been found. Why are these two the only two found? 

 

Riace

We toured Riace (Ree-aa--che) today. It's a tiny Italian village in the south of the country. It's poor down in the south. The soil is clay and the land does not support a lot of crops. There are a few orange orchards but not much else. The village of Riace might have been thriving at one point in time, but most of the folks left for the greener pastures of Nortern Italy or America. The area is "Calabria" and many "Calabrese" settled in California.

But something special happened 15 years ago. A boat of about 200 half-soaked and very scared immigrants from Pakistan washed up on the shore. The mayor saw them and tried to help. He knew there were empty apartments in Riace that could house these stranded people until help could be found. The mayor went into overdrive...he sought funds from the Italian government and in time, the town of Riace was transformed into an immigration center of sorts. Immigrants could come here find a place to live, learn Italian, learn a skill or craft and then move on to become productive Italian citizens. 

Here is the Mayor's Wife, and our two guides and one of the immigrants, explaining how this all came about.

There are classes for the children, teenagers and adults where they are learning Italian,  and other skills to get along in modern Italy. You might notice a few smartphonesw...these are not toys...they are translation devices that the folks use to learn Italian.       

To date they have helped people from these countries and expect more to come. It's not a perfect solution, but it seems to be working. The townsfolks like the immigrants and the immigrants are thankful for the opportunity. I talked to one woman from Pakistan about living in Italy and she said it was just like living at home. She has friends, a school for her daughter, a job and a home. She would like to go back to Pakistan as she has a daughter there, but knows it's impossible. It's not an easy for her but she is making it work (more than making do). She's hopeful to get her permanent papers in 6 months so she can become an Italian citizen. 

 

 

The Rainbow auditorium explains it the best. Everyone is doing their part to help another. It's such a simple solution, but one that needs to be YELLED to the rest of the world. We can get along...please stop the attacks and bombing. STOP!

M'dina

This is the second time I've written the post about M'dina. I was reading the first post last night when I discovered a few errors. I tried to fix them and the next thing I saw was a blank page. I pushed the wrong button and everything was gone. I'll try to recreate it...and this time i will try not to delete it too.

M'dina was the original capital Malta. It was a walled city, within a walled country. The walls were surrounded by a dry moat as another layer of protection from the infidels. On the back of this wall are the 3 saints of M'dina, adding a layer of supernatural protection to the city.  

The next layer of protection is the church...the infidel had to think twice before invading this city.

Then a few meters away is yet another church...

The streets are narrow and winding again making invasion difficult.   

The view from the battlements was good...you can see the main church in Malta as well as the sea. There were a series of high fortifications along the villages of Malta and when trouble was coming on the horizon, fires were lit from fort to fort telling others that danger was coming.

Throughout Malta you see balconies...they are the only structures that are painted--every other building is the honey colored limestone.  

We boarded our ship and left the harbor for the rest of the adventure. Since this is the second time I've written this post, I did not realize the importance of these fortifications. Every large town had a fort or castle...and the castle was absolutely needed as the towns were invaded and destroyed...oftentimes by the Muslim Ottoman Turks. It's a message that we hear at every town we have visited. The Muslim Turks were relentless...their purpose was to capture these Christian cities, kill the men and enslave the women and children if they did not succumb to Islam. The people did not do that...and they died! Something similar is happening now--this is not ancient history...this is NOW. Pay attention world!

Hagar Qim Malta

It was a beautiful day to explore Malta. This tiny island has some of the oldest neolithic ruins anywhere. We took a bus to 

View them. The ruins at Hagar Qin are older than Stonehenge AND the Pryamids. No one really knows who built them or why they were built...but the archeologists speculate the large stone structures were temples. There are 24 of these temples on the island 

The stones are huge...over a foot thick and five to six feet tall. They are worked with patterns. From the ruins it's known that large slabs of finished stone were moved up ramps using wheels. The structures were built to capture a beam of sunlight on the solstice and/or the equinox. They know that the builders are not related to current day Maltese people. 

This might have been a doorway...and a wooden door might have been hung here lashed up with either rope or leather.         

This structure, about 25 inches tall might have been an altar..or a stand for an offering. The "dots" are decorative and the center groove has a carving of a plant in a pot. What I think is interesting, is the plant looks like the design on one of my century old Navaho rugs...and that design is called "corn"...could this be a corn plant? 

The tallest stone is on the right...look at the poeple to get an idea how tall it is. It's hard to imagine carving the stone then moving it...but these new stone age people did exactly that. 

The museum has a diorama on display to help interpret what you are seeing. All the 24 temples have the same basic design, much like all churches have the same basic design. There's a doorway, the leads to a double lobed room...with another doorway leading to a second double lobed room, leading to an altar. 

on the altar, sits a statue. The statue is neither man nor woman and it does not have a head, yet in many of these statues, there are holes where a "head" would be, and again it's speculated, the people could place a different head in the "hole" to depict or represent a season...which might have been done before or after an equinox or solstice. No one knows as there is no written record.

The site is covered by a huge canopy and archeologists are working to find out more information about the builders. They think they were from Sicily, about 60 miles away...but who, why, what are not known?         

We do know they are the largest free-standing stone monuments in the world!

It is speculated this is an external altar. So many questions and no real way to find the answers.

The "Blue Grotto" is easier to interpret. Malta is made up of 2 types of limestone...one is softer than the other. The "soft" interior of this cave was carved out by water for millenia. Today, it's a pretty place to play         

With your boat and maybe swim in the warm azure waters of the Mediterranean.

We had lunch at the fishing village of Marsaxlokk. One more example of the Maltese language. Hagar Qim is pronounced "hajer kim" and Marsaxlokk is pronouced like "mar-sash-lock" (but I might not have that correct either). The boats are traditional craft painted many colors and guided by a pair of eyes.        

The colors denote the village as well as the amount of fish they are allowed to catch.

Fishing boats come in all sizes and shapes, including this small trapezoidal boat...

The island nation is Catholic and there are many churches

Each village has a patron saint...and the saint's day is celebrated with special delights.

These chocolate goodies are yummy.

         

Here is an example of the Maltese language. It's a Semitic language, written in Latin letters. The people are Christian, and like Sicily, they are mixture of many ethnicities...our guide said the people of Malta are 50 shades of white.

 

 

One-Third of the Way

We just traversed a third if the world...and this is ehat i saw outside the window

Leaving Denver

Over Wales

England to France

Landing in Frankfurt

The adventure continues to Malta...keep watching...

We are now in Malta  

I like this tiny island because it's so uniform. The native geology is a honey-yellow color stone and most of the buildings are built with native stones. The streets look very uniform and tidy!

This gives you a good look at the color...very easy on the eyes. The deep blue Mediterranean Sea is beautiful.

Did you know that Malta was a British colony? In 1964 the country became independent. However, they still drive on the wrong side of the road, and all the vehicles are right hand drive. The official language is Maltese, which is a combination of Italian and Arabic written with typical "English" characters. It's very unusual to look at. Every child starts learning English in first grade, so everyone knows English. For English speakers, t's an easy foreign country to visit. This is our third time in Malta.