4/20 A train ride for us this morning to the town of Augusta. Only 15-20 minutes away but we wanted to see some of the things Augusta had to offer in the way of history. The old town is an island, made in the 16th century by cutting an isthmus and is connected to the mainland by two bridges. We crossed the older bridge, the Porto Spagnola bridge, to get to the island and the original Augusta.

During World War II Augusta was a hotbed of anti-Mussolini sentiment and anti-fascist sentiment more generally, as was all of Sicily. When British and American forces arrived in Sicily, the Sicilians did not regard them as conquering invaders but rather greeted them as “emancipators come to lift the evil burden of fascism from their shoulders.” All across Sicily the invading forces were greeted with relief and often with unbridled enthusiasm.

It is so easy to travel by train here and you can just sit back and enjoy the scenery and not have to worry about traffic. We got to Augusta about 10:30 or so and the train station was completely locked up so we got ourselves over to the other side so we could head down the street to begin our journey. This was definitely an older town with lots of character.

We ventured down one of the streets to get to the area we were interested in — the old town. The island has a large military presence, including a naval academy, an arsenal, docks for Navy ships and the Coast Guard. Augusta itself hosts two ports, one of which is a huge petroleum off-loading port. Coming in on the train we saw what looked like another Bayonne, NJ or Houston, TX with all the oil refineries.

The first monument we saw memorializes al Caduti del Mare, to the fallen at sea. A second monument we saw a little latter was a memorial to those who lost their lives in World War I.

Along our walk, we discovered several fig trees, none of them with ripe figs, but they are everywhere – this one was in a very small space between a fence and a building. Can you see the one fig on this tree?

La porta spagnola (the Spanish gate). Built in the Seventeenth century, this historic gate is a monument of the Spanish domination in Sicily which existed from 1412 to 1713. On the top of the gate there are two rampant griffins (and some weeds growing out of crevices!)

Field of thistle in bloom. Tons of wild flowers and this was definitely not something to walk around in lest you want stickers in your legs! It was just amazing and pretty, when in bloom.

Castello Svevo is the symbol of the city of Augusta. The Swabian castle is an imposing fortress built in the Thirteenth century to protect the city and a key route into all of Sicily. It is located in the northern part of the island and just across the isthmus from the mainland of Sicily.

Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunto is the Duomo of Augusta. We got there just before they locked it up for the day. Actually, the little old man charged with locking up the cathedral was also locking up other churches as well, following us around but letting us just barely have time to snap a photo or two!

The main altar is beautiful and very different from other churches. A painting of the Ascension sits above the altar in front of the black tapestry.

This shrine to the last supper was just down and right of the sanctuary and it was stunning.

Off to the side was a chapel which is where the host (blessed unleavened bread) is kept until needed at Mass. The flowers sitting on the rail were really pretty. Almost looked like a small sunflower.

Chiesa Madre, another church which was right around the corner from the Duomo. Again we had to leave the church because they were locking it up for the day. Who gets tossed out of church?

Around the corner from the Duomo and the Chiesa Madre, is the San Domenico Convent which is where we decided to send our daughter Michele. Never too old to become a nun; not sure she will agree with this idea! But we can try!

Even in these very old cities in Italy, the population growth leads to the construction of apartment buildings like these. It is nice to see the balconies.

As we ventured further, we came across the naval base docks where we saw two ships armed with missiles. Very impressive.

Now this was a challenge – walking back to the train station we found that not only are there no regular sidewalks and the space marked by the white line, narrowed down such that it was one foot in front of the other and pray the cars did not sideswipe you. It was a bit unnerving but we walked really fast and made it to the gate on the way out.

After crossing the bridge back onto the mainland we came across the Chiesa di Santa Lucia, more modern and not in the Baroche architecture of most of the churches. It was not open so we could not go inside.

As we neared the train station, we came across a border of the Italian version of Muhly grasses which were blowing in the wind. Okay, the grasses are probably all dried out but still pretty along the road.

We waited at the Augusta train station for about 20 minutes before our 30 minute ride home. The station was not open then either.

That was the end of our day out. We walked back to our apartment from the train station in Siracusa. It was a beautiful day with the sun shining. Time to relax, work on the blog with leftovers for dinner. Since we had no main meals out today, there are no yummy photos of food. Okay, not quite the end of our day. We extended the day enough to join the locals for the evening passeggiata. We do have a nice promenade half a block down and adjacent to the harbor.

Ciao until domani!