Buon giorno,
It's another muggy afternoon.My apartment has air conditioning should I need it. So far I have not. I looked up the times of services at St. Agatha, so I could time my arrival and actually get in.
But before that, I decided to stroll up Via Giuseppe Garabaldi to have a look at the Garabaldi Arch. Because of my wanderings, I have a good sense of the layout of the historical center and can find my way around very easily. I had plenty of windows to lick along the way, but Dang! the traffic!!. Drivers in Catania do not actually want to hit pedestrians, but they are also extremely reluctant to stop for us even when we are in a cross walk.Whew. Here's the arch. I was much closer to it than the photo indicates, and it is quite large even though you can barely see it.
I made my way back down the hill to Il Duomo--the Cathedral. But then I spotted a nice looking shop, so I went in and looked around. I made a couple of purchases, one of which I will discuss later. The kindly proprietor was amused and charmed by my (feeble) attempts to speak Italian. He was also pleased I gave him exact change.
On to Il Duomo. St. Agatha was a Virgin Martyr. I'm not going to recount her gruesome ordeal, but every bakery has very sweet cakes in her honor. In Palermo they're called cassaita. Catania has a different them, and each cake it crowned by a maraschino cherry.
I was surprised by the cathedral. Usually Baroque churches are highly decorated and very ornate. Santa Agata is remarkably plain, and yet the interior is harmonious and beautiful. Here is the nave.
Then I made my slow weary way up hill to home. I've had my apero and I included a couple of lemon cookies I bought at the shop along with my almonds. They were very tasty. Now I'm looking forward to a nice dinner of linguine dressed with cacio e pepe and some of that good Sicilian red wine.
Ciao for Now
No comments:
Post a Comment