Sicilia – ToBatheOrNotToBathe

Slides in 4 levels

Tobatheornottobathe is always looking for new and funny bathing experiences, but it is expensive in the long run to travel a lot. In order to keep costs down, we often live in private homes instead of hotels, and we sometimes rent out our own house when we are away (through HomeExchange.com). However, traveling from place to place and washing unfamiliar apartments when we leave isn’t the most relaxing way to spend the vacation. At the end of the 2024 holiday in Sicily, we therefore spent 2 nights at an ‘All Inclusive’ resort near the Palermo airport.

No water shortage when the middle class goes on a luxury holiday.

Well… it was basically nice, it really was. But you eat in a canteen, not really in a restaurant, and after a short time you realize that all the food tastes similar.

The advantage of ‘tourist traps’ is that they also provide jobs for cultural workers. After almost 3 weeks in ordinary apartments, we – actually! – experienced Sicilian folk music.

The resort was nice and clean and quiet (October) and had lots of facilities. All the staff spoke English well, to be honest we had to admit that their English was better than our Italian! Very very annoying indeed…

Toilet for elderly ladies with hats – only to be accompanied by a bartender.

But once you’re actually situated at a resort like this, you have to make the best out of it! Very unusual for the Tobatheornottobathe: We did do sunbathing, almost one hour, and afterwards: exercise in the 50 m long pool. Big surprise! The water was cold and fresh. We expected sea water, but no. A really nice place to swim.

Idun swims as a butterfly in the 50-metre pool.

After exercise, time was just right for the slides! Idun had seen a picture on fb, showing slides in 4 levels. YES! This was really fun. The slides are short but steep, so the speed gets quite high.

First you take a slide taking you to a small, lower pool.

Then you take a second slide down to the next pool.

Then the third slide down to an even lower level.

Finally, the fourth slide down to…the sea!

Brilliant!

At last down in the water, we know now that we weren’t alone! We didn’t know it then, but one camera in the hand was one while we were swimming. This guy and his buddies seemed to be used to strange creatures plopping in from outside their world.

Notice the wonderfully sun tanned leg, after an hour in the sun!

You can spend a lot of time at the toboggans, and if there are young people in the family, you can expect them to hang out here all day long. There were a lot of warning signs, of course, but this one was maybe a bit over the top?

Hmm. The point of entering the water via a slide is basically not to enter gradually into the pool?

However, Badebade did not end the day by the taboggans. After riding the slides a few times, maybe it would be nice to enter the water the normal way too? The resort area was rather steep, with poor access to the sea. To enjoy the beach life, you can join a minibus to the nearest sandy beach – not accessible from the resort area.

Well, they have installed stairs down to the sea, so there is access. This night a bit scary because of heavy wind in the sunset.

‘Huh, that was exciting, but fun!‘ Idun said. A little later: ‘I have a strange feeling. One of my feet is sore. After wearing the same sandals every day for 3 weeks, I suddenly get a chafing today! How is that even possible?‘ It was not water from a chafing wound, it was blood from an unpleasant encounter with a rock on the shore.

After an otherwise super day in the water, it’s nice to round off with mini golf. Since we were off season, we couldn’t find an open bar and decided to make the refreshments ourselves. With untravelled lemon!

Out of season, you can fix the drinks yourself.

Conclusion? It was relaxing to do an ‘All Inclusive’! But recommend it? No and no again, we certainly won’t do that. On vacation you should always stay in ordinary neighborhoods and leave your money in small, local businesses. It is much more fun and better for everyone. Basta!

The Jewish Baths

The Jewish quarter still exists in Syracuse, but the Jews are gone.

Jews have lived in Sicily since Roman times (before the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, AD 70). These were for a large part slaves. During 200 years of Arab rule, there was basically freedom of religion, persecution of Jews became severe later, after the island was Catholic again, around 1210. Over the centuries, various laws were introduced; that the Jews should have a mark (red wheel) on their clothes, that they should have nothing to do with Catholics, they should live in certain areas of the cities (ghettos), forced participation in Christmas celebrations, etc.

The Jewish Quarter of Syracuse. ‘*What happened to you? Nothing special, I haven’t lived here since 1492*.’

Sicily came under Spanish rule in 1298. After this the persecutions got worse. Grenada, as the last region in Spain, freed itself from Muslim rule in 1492. King Ferdinand II of Aragon, but above all Queen Isabella I of Castile, insisted that the spanish population should be Catholic, and only Catholic. On March 31st, 1492, they issued an edict, ‘The Alhambra Decree‘, which gave all Jews (later also Muslims) a deadline to either convert to Christianity or leave the country – by July 31^st the same year. As part of the Kingdom of Aragon, this also came to apply to Sicily. The number of Jews in Sicily was around 35,000 at the time. The only thing they were allowed to take with them was one set of changing clothes, a mattress and a set of bed linen. All other assets were confiscated, and they were not allowed to take neither gold nor other valuables out of the country.

Chiesa di San Filippo Apostolo in Syracuse.

Of Sicily’s Jews, about 25,000 moved to mainland Italy or the Ottoman Empire, where they were well received, while about 9,000 converted to Christianity in order to stay. As converts, they were highly suspected, they were nicknamed crypto-Jews (partly rightly so, since some continued to practice Judaism in secret), and many fell victim to the Inquisition. However, children of converted Jews were not persecuted by the Inquisition (as long as they were not baptized), and these could in principle grow up to become Jews again (with the risk of pogroms instead).

Under the church dedicated to the apostle Philip are the remains of a ‘*Mikveh*‘ – a Jewish ritual bath from before 1492. The water is crystal clear spring water, and the temptation was indeed sincere. Could there be a tiny tiny tiny chance of a bath here? NO!

The purification ceremony is for orthodox Judaism so important that they have to construct the mikveh before the synagogue. There are many requirements for a Jewish ritual bath. The water must come to the bath by itself (from a source) and not by the use of pumps or movement made by people or via a tank. The pool must be so large that a person can be completely covered by water. Before entering the bath, you have to be clean and naked. Ritual baths must take place before all holidays including the Sabbath, and for women also after menstruation and childbirth.

Beautifully carved stairs for access to the water.

When renovating a private house in Siracusa in the 1980’s, the owner came across a vault that was a bit strange. This was opened, and after removing a few hundred loads of sand and gravel, a large mikveh was found 8 meters below ground. The water is clean and clear, and the whole room has been carved directly out of the rock with axes – a very beautiful bathroom with vaults. Awesome!

Our strict guide did not let us take pictures of the Jewish bath under the Hotel Residence alla Giudecca in Siracusa. This picture of the information poster must do. Tobtaheornottobathe saw no reason to even ask for a bath there…

Just outside the hotel, however, you find the sea, so a bath can easily be done. The access made by the municipality was also made in the simplest way – using scaffolding material!

No beauty criterias or decoration, only function. But popular!

When there is a lot of wind, it is easy to hurt yourself if you do not use the stairs. We saved this bath until one day the wind was weak, and we had a very nice swim.

A bath *outside* the Jewish baths in Siracusa is just right.

Archimedes

If there is something Siracusa is proud of, it is Archimedes. A multi-artist in the format of Leonardo da Vinci (or Trondheim’s Johan Daniel Berlin): Mathematician, physicist, engineer and inventor in what at the time (250 BC) was one of the largest and most important cities in the Mediterranean. Among the general public, he is perhaps best known for his ‘EUREKA moment‘, when he figured out how to compare the density of two bodies of different shapes. This happened when he lowered his body into his bath tub, observing that the water rose and overflowed as his body took up volume from the water. Those of us who have taken Physics at secondary school remember years with jokes like this: ‘When a body is submerged in cold water, it comes up again quickly!‘. Of course, this won’t normally apply to Tobatheornottobathe’s bodies…

Piazza Archimede in Syracuse. The fountain in the middle, however, is dedicated to the hunting nymph Arethusa.

The story about Archimedes’ naked jump out of the bath, running through the city shouting: ‘EUREKA!‘ (I’ve found it!) is not as unlikely as you might think. First of all, nudity was more common in ancient Greece (the Olympic Games took place without clothes), and also: Archimedes was widely known to be so busy solving problems that he often forgot to eat, bathe and change his clothes.

There are several different versions of the murder of Archimedes. The most common is that he was so focused on his studies that he did not notice the Roman soldiers who entered his home after Syracuse’s three years of siege. ‘Don’t touch my circles!‘ Archimedes shouted, which excited the soldiers so much that they cut him down right there. This was against the instructions. Marcus Claudius Marcellus led the Roman army and is said to have ordered the kidnapping of Archimedes – they wanted his genius for the benefit of Rome, but that did not happen.

As a mathematician, Archimedes worked on many different problems. He developed a way of writing very large numbers (before the decimal system), as he wanted to prove that the number of grains of sand in the world is not infinite (!), he developed a precursor to calculus using series, he developed a precursor to integral calculus, and last but not least: Archimedes calculated π with 10 digits accuracy.

Hmm. Tobatheornottobathe found π in a roundabout, while Archimedes found π with 10 digits accuracy.

There has been a gradual development in the accuracy of π from ancient times (in the Bible, π is given the value 3 when describing the construction of the ritual bath when they built the temple in Jerusalem), via the value 25/8, which was used in ancient Babylon, to 22/7 , which was widely accepted among the Greeks before Archimedes. Archimedes improved the accuracy by using a circle inscribed and circumscribed by polygons with more and more sides. Not bad at all, considering the tools (number system) available at the time.

π on a random wall. Is Syracuse proud of Archimedes? Yes!

Syracuse was founded around 750 BC by immigrants from Corinth. During the 500 years until the time of Archimedes, the city grew into one of the most important cities in the Mediterranean, and the city was involved in many conflicts. In 214 BC Rome started a siege of Syracuse. The city resisted for 3 years, partly because of Archimedes. To avoid surrender the Romans, Archimedes constructed many interesting devices. The old town of Syracuse is located on an island, Ortigia, and several of the inventions had the aim of sinking hostile ships.

The Archimedes statue is located on an islet between Ortigia and ‘mainland’ Sicily. In his hand he holds a parabolic mirror, also called ‘Archimedes’ burning mirror‘. We don’t know for sure that this was a success, but Archimedes constructed parabolas that was supposed to collect the sun’s rays and send them towards arriving ships to ignite them. This was tested by researcher Ioannis Sakkas in 1973, when he set up 70 copper-coated mirrors with a radius of 1 ½ meters. The experiment took place at the Skaramagas naval base outside Athens, and a tar covered ship model caught fire within seconds (ref 1). Other tests have been done by Mythbusters, who concluded that it is possible, but not very likely, that this weapon has been used in real warfare.

Archimedes is also known for constructing the ‘Manus Ferrea‘ – The Iron Claw. He had already developed multiple hoists for lifting heavy objects (among other things he impressed King Hieron by single-handedly lifting a ship with a hoist). The iron claw could raise the enemy ship from the sea, and by repeated raising/lowering operations, everything on the ship was thrown about and the ship finally went down (tested in ref 2).

Of Archimedes’ quotes, ‘Give me a fixed point and I will move the earth!‘ is perhaps the most famous after Eureka. In reading the Disney version of Montalbano (Topalbano), we found this charming reference by Mickey:

Mickey solves mysteries together with Montalbano/Topalbano (ref 4).

But what does all this have to do with Tobatheornottobathe? We had a swim outside Castello Maniace, the castle at the end of the Ortigia island – precisely where we can imagine that the Iron Claw and the parabolic mirrors could have been used. Most of what we see of masonry here is from the Spanish period (Syracuse came under the House of Aragorn in 1298), but the castle itself has elements from Spanish, Arab, Byzantine, Norman and Greek origins. The whole story basically. The trip started with a boat trip to the caves on the eastern coast.

The captain chickened out and wouldn’t let us take a bath in the caves, just because of some waves.

But at least we got a picture of the Gorilla Rock.

After a nice (but bumpy) boat trip around Ortigia, a bath in front of Castello Maniace is just right. Not much to be seen in the water due to the waves, though. But lovely!

Castello Maniace. Almost the same view as in the last Indiana Jones movie (2024), which is actually about Archimedes.

Ref:
1. Archimedes’ Weapon, Time Magazine, 26 novembre 1973. URL consultato il 12 agosto 2007 (archiviato dall’url originale il 4 febbraio 2011).
2. 1999, BBC, Secrets of the Ancients
3. ‘Archimede di Siracusa‘, Stefano Amato, ISBN 979-12-80638-08-03
4. ‘I gialli del Commissario Topalbano‘, Francesco Artibani, Giorgio Cavazzano, Paolo Mottura, Giampaolo Soldati. ISBN 978-8828758044

Circulusbath in Siracusa

Artwork by Dino Pantano in Syracuse, inspired by a bronze figure dated around 800 BC (before the Greek colonization).

‘The largest Greek city, and the most beautiful of them all!‘ … Cicero wrote around 50 BC. Syracuse was founded by Greeks from Corinth 700 years earlier, when they displaced an Indo-European tribe, the Sicels, from the coast.

The name of the city of Syracuse means ‘surrounded by water‘, and this actually refers to the marshes in the area. However, the old town is located on an island, Ortigia, so the name fits just as well today even though there is no marshland there anymore.

Ortigia. When Zeus made Leto pregnant, Hera is said to have become so jealous that she condemned her to ‘*give birth as painfully as quails do when they lay eggs*‘. Ortigia means quail.

Syracuse has a long and uneven history. Greek dominance ended when the Romans captured the city in 212 BC after 3 years of siege. As the last Sicilian city, it became Arab in the year 878.

The cathedral is located on Ortigia’s highest point, and here the Greeks built a temple for Athena 580 BC. The temple was later converted into a church, then into a mosque and back to church again. And still you can see the pillars from the temple in the walls. Fascinating!

During two hundred years of Muslim rule, the capital functions were moved to Palermo, and Syracuse was never the most important city again, although trade continued. In this period, most of the churches were converted into mosques, but otherwise it was freedom of religion. The Normans took over in 1038, and from 1298 Sicily came under Spanish control.

Most of Syracuse was totally destroyed during the big earthquake of 1693. Something nice came from the bad, though. The reconstruction in the 18th century gave the city a beautiful, baroque style.

In Syracuse (actually it was Ovid), it is told about one day when the beautiful nymph Arethusa, who was in the retinue of the hunting goddess Artemis, wanted to take a bath after the day’s work. Alpheus, the water God, immediately fell in love and wanted her for himself.

Arethusa Fountain in Syracuse. Here, Arethusa gets an eternal bath.

Arethusa was horrified and asked Artemis for help. She blew her to Ortigia and turned her into a spring. However, Alpheus did not give up, but asked his father, Oceanus, for help. The father believed in his son’s love, and opened the Ionian Sea for him so that he could cross Sicily and meet his beloved girl again. This is how Arethusa and Alpheus were united at Ortigia. How he got her even though she was afraid of him, Tobatheornottobathe has not fully figured out. Possibly, no laws of consent applied in ancient Greece?

The Arethusa spring is the eternal embrace between Arethusa and Alpheus in practice. There is a short distance between the source and the sea, so the water is somewhat salty. Wild papyrus grows here, as one of very few places outside of Egypt and Chad.

Just north of the spring there is a small, public beach. Tobatheornottobathe is always looking for places to swim, and Syracuse has plenty of them, as there is sea everywhere. This day, however, the wind was quite strong, and we considered bathing from the rocky parts of the coast as risky because of the waves. Beaches, however! The harbor guard has built a long quay here, and we thought it might be a good idea to jump from the quay and swim to the beach. That turned out to be an interesting task! We were thrown around and around, almost like swimming in a washing machine. But fun! And as the Sicilian water is warm, together with a sandy bottom, it wasn’t dangerous in any way.

Bathing in waves is just right in Syracuse. Great fun!

Gole Alcantara

In the east of Sicily, just north of Etna, there is a valley, Alcantara, where a river has been fighting for space against lava since the dawn of time (well, technically it’s about 8000 years). Tobatheornottobathe had come across a picture of a gill with beautiful basalt columns and splendid bathing opportunities. We wanted to go there!

At first glance, the Alcantara valley did not look very promising. The river, like all the Sicilian rivers we had seen until then, was completely dried out. Later it turned out that this was not a river bed, but an irrigation channel…

The lava had been flowing down from Etna in three stages, and was cooled down just fast enough for basalt columns to be formed. The basalt beams take their shape after the molecular shape of basalt, and create 5-12 sided beams, usually 6. It’s just marvellous!

The name Alcantara comes from Arabic ‘The Bridge‘, and in the middle of the valley there is a gorge which in some places is so narrow that you can jump over to the other side (don’t try, please!). The gill that the river has dug is up to 25 meters deep. Apart from the basalt, this looks quite similar to ‘Mågålaupet‘ at Oppdal in Norway. The basalt, on the other hand, is a bit reminiscent of another basalt pillar gill we have visited, namely ‘Stuðlagil‘ in Iceland.

The gorge is 6 km long, but parts of it are difficult to access.

It turned out that the water in the gill is surprisingly fresh and cold. Absolutely wonderful! There will be some wading on sand and gravel (consider swimming shoes or wet socks if you have sensitive feet).

There is water in the river, and Tobatheornottobathe felt cheerful. But what are all the people looking for in the water?

It was probably the stones in the river they were looking at, or maybe fish, we did see some. Tobatheornottobathe visited the place in October and there were a lot of visitors, but not crowded. In August/September it is probably different, but still we would strongly recommend a bath here. If you want, there are organized trips, for example paddling and canyoning. We felt satisfied with just a bath, and purchased tickets including a lift (!) down and up again.

Nice entrance, almost like it was designed by Gaudi.

The area is well developed, with hiking trails and a park on the southern side. Before the refreshing bath we recommend that you walk the entire route. Almost all the stops are linked to stories about Venus and her love life. An old legend says that the god Vulcano and the goddess Venus used to meet here, but Venus dumped Vulcano in favor of the god Mars. It became a mess! Vulcano, who had let the lava flow this way to heat the water in the river to make it comfortable for Venus, made the water cold instead. This is still the case, and according to legend, the icy water is supposed to increase (!) the virility of the men who bathe here, and the virginity of the ladies. Hmm, mysterious!

A bath in Gole Alcantara is absolutely gorgeous! It wasn’t deep (in October), only wading, but that was ok, since the current was so strong that you couldn’t swim against it anyway. And the temperature? Not above 12 degrees Celsius, i.e. freezing cold according to Italian standards (impossible to swim there in winter, they say…).

Montalbatho

Over many years, we have enjoyed following Andrea Camilleri’s investigator Salvo Montalbano in the TV series of the same name. First with great effort and interpretation problems (many were without subtitles). But even with gaps in understanding, we liked the crime series so much that we watched everything we could find – with or without subtitles.

Camilleri published his first book about Montalbano in 1994, and the last one came out in 2020, the year after the author’s death. Punta Secca has created a small piazza dedicated to him: Piazzetta Andrea Camilleri.

Inspector Montalbano has a big heart for those who are struggling, and little respect for authorities and the mafia. In order to solve the cases, great cleverness and the ability to balance between the necessary investigative steps and the limitations of those in power are needed.

Hunstalbano sono. In almost every episode you can see him taking his morning coffee from exactly this terrasse. And taking a morning swim.

The first episode based on the novels (don’t put too much emphasis on the word episode here, we’re talking about one and a half hour movies…) was broadcasted in 1999 with Luca Zingaretti in the leading role. It was an instant success, and a total of 36 films of varying lengths have been released. We have seen most of them, but we still haven’t been able to get hold of all, so the search continues!

At least one woman tries to seduce Montalbano in every episode, but for the most part he keeps his distance from all beautiful women, including his fiancée Livia, who lives in Genoa, 1,400 km away. Many of the approaches take place in the house (bed), on the terrace or in the bay outside. He lives in an iconic house located in Punta Secca in the south-west of Sicily.

The Montalbano House has now (2024) become somewhat of a pilgrimage destination, and for Badebadebade a natural place to visit – since Montalbano in the TV series swims both often and long.

Idulina sono. Idun has neither Ingrid’s car nor Livia’s temperament, so it had to be a tribute to Adelina, his house maid.

In Camilleri’s books, much of the action takes place in fictional cities in and around his hometown of Agrigento, but in the TV series, many of the recordings are made in and around the cities of Ragusa and Scicli as well as Punta Secca. There are long lists of locations – everyone wants a hand into the tourist industry that has arisen in the series’ wake.

Scicli. The recordings for Montalbano’s police station were made in the town hall.

The scenes in the town hall in Scicli still exist and can be visited for a small fee. The police chief’s office on the floor above is used as a ceremony room, with the same interior as in the films.

Hunstarella struggles with the door, as usual.

Scicli. If you are thinking: Indeed, there are only a few letters that separate the town name Scicli and the island name Sicilia, then you are absolutely right. Both names arrive from the Sicelene, an Indo-European people who lived in Sicily before Greek colonization began around 700 BC. In 1693, the southwestern part of Sicily was hit by a severe earthquake, and many of the towns were completely destroyed. The reconstruction in the 18th century was done in Baroque style, and with building material of light Sicilian sandstone, these UNESCO cities are wonderful places to visit – and also widely used as film sets.

Ragusa Ibla seen from Ragusa Superiore. Follow the Montalbano signs when walking around the city center! It’s no secret that the TV series Montelusa is actually Ragusa.

What was the Montalbano bath like? We had rented the apartment on the ground floor (the first floor is a B&B and was not available to us, nor was the top floor). The house and apartment were nice, some wooden details around the windows and doors are painted white now, not brown as in the series. The access to the sea is as you see in the movies, the lower terrace actually touches the sand. So it was just a matter of strolling down to the sea. The water was a little shallow close to the house, but if you walk a few meters to the side before entering, it’s sand almost all the way. Awesome! We had been strongly warned: The sand is not as nice and golden as in the film, it is too shallow, the water is grey due to sea grass etc. With low expectations, we were happily surprised! We found the beach nice, great for swimming and the water clear.

A bath at the Montalbano beach is wonderful both morning, noon and night. For selfies, you might consider checking where the sun is first.

Living on the ground floor of the Montalbano House is what it is: Living in a pilgrimage destination. There is a steady stream of people coming close up to the terrace taking pictures, they knock on the door and try to look in, absolutely all the time. And by that we mean all the time, now you know.