Tyndaris

Wednesday 17th October, in the afternoon

I thought I'd provide an illustration of some of the viaducts and tunnels built to make the road as level as possible in this hilly country.

Especially in this area, if you are on the motorway, it's going to be all tunnels and huge long viaducts.

Another 90 minutes in the bus brought us to Tyndaris, originally founded in 396 BC by settlers from Syracuse, and fortified as a defence against the Carthaginian attacks along this coast. It is set on commanding heights, so there was another opportunity for our bus driver to demonstrate his skill in negotiating the steep narrow hairpin bends on the way up. This time, we had the interesting experience of meeting a big coach coming down as we were going up. It is necessary for a coach to occupy the entire road as it goes round the hairpin bend, so both vehicles wanted the whole road! This did not seem to faze either of the drivers, fortunately, though I was a bit worried.

The views on the way up, and from the top, were spectacular, as we have come to expect. We soon noticed the remains of the original fortifications

and later we paused to take photos of the bay and the sea over to the Aeolian Islands.

The site was small, but it had a tiny museum, with a wonderful head of Augustus.

The iconoclasts had unfortunately knocked his nose off, which spoiled his beauty a bit.

There were some coins, most notable being a small bronze coin from the time of Dionysus I, at the time of the founding of the city in the 4th century BC.

The majority of the ruins are Roman, as the city also flourished under Rome. The Greek theatre, which had a truly wonderful view, had been altered by the Romans so it could be used like an amphitheater.

The took out the bottom rows of the seats and built a high wall to keep the spectators away from the fighters and any wild beasts. The remains of the skena were Greek though.

We walked along one of the two main streets to look at the most complete insula. There was a bath house with mosaics, and you could clearly see the pipes in the walls to carry the warm air round the rooms that needed to be hot or warm.

We looked out over the Agora, just a jumble of ruins now. The modern houses cover what would have been the Acropolis. A rather kitsch church was built in the square in the 1960s to house the Black Madonna, a Byzantine icon held to have performed a number of miracles. We had almost no time to visit the church, and no photographs were allowed, so we just returned to the bus.

Our next destination is Giardini Naxos, which is near Taormini. On the way, we drove past the Straits of Messina.

There are only 2 km between Sicily and the coast of Italy at this point. I must say I had no idea it was that close. The ship you can see is one of the many ferries that cross the Straits.