We spent the day exploring the town of Erice, a rather delightful and
relaxing enterprise. We started with the Castello di Venere, or Castle of
Venus, so named because it was built on a former Temple dedicated to the
worship of the goddess Venus, and before her, to the Carthaginian goddess
Astarte.
Then followed a procession of visits to gardens, churches, bell towers,
monasteries and convents, and a couple of museums, none of extraordinary
interest in its own right, but the totality creating a sense of an enduring and
vibrant community with ancient roots which has persisted in the face of
extraordinary change over the centuries, and today is reinventing itself as
both a centre for intellectual pursuits (there seem to be a number of
institutes which host conferences and the like) and tourism.
For me, the attraction is the sense of history which exudes from every
structure, whether grand or humble. I am sure that a better understanding of
Sicilian history would bring Erice much more alive, but the knowledge that
humans have been living here since Neolithic times, that structures exist here
which date back to 800BC, the streets paved with marble and limestone, the
walled paths, the medieval doors and statues, the sixty churches in what is a
small village, the abandoned monasteries and convents (following the closure of
religious corporations and expropriation of their assets in the 1860s following
unification of the Italian state), the pasticci on sale in every bar and caffe
based on the sweets made by nuns for hundreds of years, all add to creating a
sense that we live in a world which is shaped by the past and which will inevitably
shape the future.
Of course, the fact that Erice is located on top of a mountain, often
with fog and clouds swirling past (as they are now as I write this), adds to
the sense of drama and paradoxical exceptionalism, a village which is a window
into the world, both past and (in terms of the inevitability of change) future,
but which also gives the impression it is not of the present while
simultaneously hosting a constant stream of tourists which proves that is very
much is of the here and now.
After a small lunch of arancini and octopus salad, we rested, and will
now head out for a short walk before dinner. The future awaits!
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