The Chronicle, Autumn 2018

34 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

Sicily By Sixth Former Helena Beccle

From left to right Victoria Iliffe, Helena Beccle, Lily Clark, Milly Bracey, Mike Denvir, Ben Courtney-Guy, Benedict Machin and Tom Wright. Above, the ancient theatre of Taormina, built in the third century BC. 22 classicists. 3 teachers. 5 days. 5 towns. 3 hotels. 2 flights. 1,000 photos. Our Classics Trip to Sicily consisted of many things. On the first day, we ventured to the beautiful city of Catania, a highlight of mine, and although we brought the damp English weather with us, the town was still vibrant with its culture. I study Art as one of my IB Higher Levels and I took great interest in the detailed and highly ornate baroque architecture in the Piazza Duomo and the work of Giovanni Battista Vaccarini, a notable 18th-century Italian architect, who created the façade of the cathedral. The next day was utterly stunning with temperatures of over 20 degrees. We took a tour around the archaeological park of Syracuse. It is home to a Greek theatre, a Roman amphitheatre, the altar of Hieron II and much more. The view from the Greek theatre was so picturesque; it was truly incomparable to anything I had yet

seen in Sicily. We then re-joined our tour bus and set off to Ortygia for lunch and had some free time which I used to draw the breathtaking historical buildings. The next day was my favourite day. We explored the Greek theatre in Taormina, which had a backdrop of the coastline and Mount Etna, narrowly beating the one in Syracuse. In the afternoon, we proceeded to the Villa Romana in Piazza Armerina to see the mosaics. The mosaics were highly detailed and most contained a story. The one I

found most interesting was the Great Hunt mosaic because of its amazing detail. The last day of sightseeing was in the Valley of Temples in the archaeological site of Agrigento. The seven temples we saw there were all outstanding examples of Greek architecture in Sicily. We then gathered back at our final hotel in Palermo and rounded off the trip perfectly with an evening walk for some gelato near the seaside and a quiz night before an early start in the morning back to London.