Our guide today led us past the water front to the old part of the city which is a maze of streets that curve around, which made it difficult for invaders to see where their objective was. She showed us 2 street signs on the same street. The lower one meant what you would find if you went to the left, the upper one to the right.
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| There were piles of nets like these laying around on the dock. They either need repair or replacement, but they reuse the good parts. |
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| The fisherman on the right is working to fix his net. |
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| This church outside the old city walls was designed to look like the much larger cathedral. There were always religious pilgrims coming thru and the church took the same name as the cathedral and basically scammed the pilgrims into staying there and paying them instead of the church they were really seeking. |
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| Entry to the old city. The street ahead leads to the Jewish quarter and business district. There is also a street to the left that was residential. |
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| Entry to the residential area |
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| The two filled arches were for the tax collectors, and the Jews in the town had been given that job by the king. |
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| We stopped at a ceramics shop with kitchen tools and our guide had us guess what this was for. The top piece has 4 spaced holes. We were clueless. Turns out it was for soaking the bread that had been dried for preservation, and the holes let the diner drain the excess water. |
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| When the Jews were expelled during the Inquisition, their temple was converted to a church and a bell tower was added. In 2009, the church was converted back into a Jewish temple, but the bell tower was historic and couldn't be removed, so they replaced the cross with a Star of David. |
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| Because of the way the city was laid out, the side of the cathedral was more prominent than the front, so this false front was created. |
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| Initially the church was quite small and this is the second enlarged sanctuary on the 1st level. They needed a saint and a 19 year old who went around yelling things about loving god was considered crazy. The bishop had the idea that he was ill and in fact he died 2 months later and then miracles he had caused were documented or created. They raised him to a saint and said his name was Nicholas At the same time, there was another better known St. Nicolas, much older, who was the St. Nick that became Santa. The 2 cathedrals were fairly close together and having a saint of the same name as the famous one allowed the church to say Yes! when asked if this one was dedicated to St. Nicholas. |
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| Above and below: a second, much grander story was built. The 600 pipe organ is visible in the top and the main sanctuary below. There was a wedding scheduled for later in the morning so we got the pleasure of hearing the organist practice. When Baroque style became popular, the cathedral responded with elaborate paintings on the pillars and ceiling, which were removed in the modern era to restore its original simple beauty. I found this much more inspiring than all the fancy overdecorated churches we have found throughout the world. |
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| The original door, no longer in use, is displayed at one side in the back of the sanctuary |
We left the cathedral and hopped on our bus for our trip to the winery/olive maker. They have been continuously in business since the 1600s. We got a tour of the wine and olive oil making areas, then had lunch with wine and olive oil tasting. As in Taormina, the 'tastes' were actually 3-4 ounce glasses of wine. We tried a white, rose, and a red. The rose and red were made from the same Nero grapes, but the rose is only exposed to the skins for 2 hours vs. 2 weeks for the red. The red was also aged in barrels for several years before being released. We tried a 2019 and the 2020 will be released later this year.
They have a lovely garden area with sayings like "A meal without wine is called breakfast". I thought I took a photo of one, but apparently not.
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| They used to use these fiberglass barrels, but now use steel. |
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| These red circles mark the old concrete, fiberglass lined fermenting areas. |
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| This barrel is about my height. Unlike a few places in the US that feature barrel tastings, the only person who tastes from these is the wine maker. |
The olive oil processing is all machine driven now to ensure that the cold pressing is the correct temperature to qualify as Extra Virgin Olive Oil, the only type they produce. Once the stems and leaves are removed, the entire olive, including the pit, is crushed. The result is piped into a centrifuge and the oil goes from there into a filtering machine, and finally to storage.
Lunch was a combination of salad and small bites, many of which we've had before, and a lentil pasta which I skipped. The dessert is a south Italy specialty that we encountered on our 2017 Sicily trip. St Agnes refused to marry because she was wedded to the church and so she was martyred when her breast was cut off. The nuns started making the cream filled buns to celebrate her sacrifice.
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| Dessert |
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