Greek Pottery
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Hello From Sicily - Italian Studies, A Pottery Lesson and a hike on Mount Etna
For a beautiful morning after a good night's sleep After the cooking lesson last night I woke up at about 6:00 and got out on the balcony of my hotel room. The sun had all Just up and the sky was filled with shades of purple and pink. Distance I could see the outline of a strip of land: the Italian mainland, more precisely the region of Calabria, was visible in that specific day for the first time. The aerial distance between Taormina and the southern tip of Italy is about 40 km, and View the sunrise over the Ionian Sea was simply gorgeous.
I decided to get up early and take a walk through beautiful Taormina, before the bustle of the day would kick in. My hotel, the Hotel Villa Nettuno, is located on the north side of the city on Via Pirandello, outside the gates of the city. I really liked the location because it was quieter and yet a few steps from the busy Corso Humberto surprisingly, the main street of Taormina in a pedestrian area.
After strolling in the north-east Porta di Messina I came to a quiet spot yet in front of the Palazzo Corvaja, seat of the first parliament of Sicily and today the site Taormina tourist office. Some of its inhabitants were already in place, the taxi drivers were preparing for their first rate, while the pedestrian Corso Humberto was still almost entirely devoid of people. I reached the main square of Taormina Piazza IX Aprile, which has a large terrace panoramic face the Mediterranean and Mount Etna. Two churches, San Giorgio and San Giuseppe, decorate this place, and the famous Torre dell 'Orologio ("turn the Clock "), starring the Porta di Mezzo door, and the famous Cafe Wunderbar anchor this public space on its west side. I could even see the volcano today on this day relatively clear. There are no views that compare with the beautiful views that unfold before me from this viewpoint.
My walk on the Corso Umberto continued at the west end of town where I went through the Porta di Catania, the west gate of the city with the arms of the municipality of Taormina. From there I went to a small park that provides another stunning viewpoint facing right towards Etna. After have absorbed this beautiful picture and try to burn permanently into my retina I started making my way back, this time the along the Via Roma, the scenic route in southern outskirts of the city over the coast of the Ionian Sea. No wonder Taormina is a popular tourist destination, physical beauty of this city and its surroundings is beautiful.
Well, after this hour long walk, I doubt deserved my breakfast and spent review a bit of Italian grammar on the beautiful terrace of Hotel Villa Nettuno before I went to the Babilonia Language School. Punctually 9:30 our lesson started and our grammar teacher Carlo has familiarized us with the "preposizioni semplici" - contracted Italian prepositions formed from a combination of actual preposition with the article. Prepositions are always complicated issues in any language, and Carlo patiently and succinctly explained the use of "in" or "by" to express time in different contexts. We have continued with a variety of games to help us remember that the use of prepositions Italian, a fun and effective learning and retention of complicated linguistic concepts.
Just before noon I had the opportunity to complete another interview: Alessandro, director Babilonia, I connected with Donatella Rapisardi, a local artist based in Taormina, which provides part of the decoration of pottery classes for students Babilonia. For millennia, Sicily has been at the confluence of cultures: the Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, Swebians, Spanish and French have all left their marks in this culturally rich region, and pottery was a major occupation in Sicily for several centuries.
I Donatella met at the local Hotel del Corso, right on Corso Umberto, where she offers classes in pottery decoration on the roof terrace with a perfect view Palazzo del Duca Santo Stefano with Mount Etna as a backdrop. The weather was beautiful, the sky was blue: I can not imagine a more scenic painting pottery Retirement on the roof of Donatella.
Donatella Rapisardi is a talented local artist who works in a variety of media. She also heads an organization called the Grupo Artistico Perseo "which organizes various exhibitions and artistic projects throughout the city and the entire region. The group consists of five permanent members artist and a number of other artists affiliated, coordinated by Donatella and her team. In addition to ceramics, Donatella also creates mosaics using marble types and different stones) and manages the restoration of wood.
She explained that the lesson of pottery decoration begins with pieces of clay plain such as vases or tiles on which students apply the concept they want to paint. Two types processes are used for painting pottery, Donatella explained in his machine gun Italian "lavorare a freddo" means that the parts are painted without shoot them, and "a lavorare caldo" refers to parts that are painted pottery fired in a kiln to preserve the paint.
Traditional Sicilian the colors blue, yellow and green are often used in the process of ceramic decoration, even if students are completely free to create their own design and color choices. Donatella guides them, makes suggestions and gives advice to students when they need it. She also explained that the tiles offer an advantage because they are easy to handle and transport and offer a large surface area for landscape images.
The course includes three lessons per week and is particularly popular with students at Babilonia language of Japan and the United States. Donatella said the Japanese students in particular are extremely precise and meticulous and very gifted when it comes to painting decorative pottery. This may have something today with their exposure to the popular tradition of Japanese calligraphy.
Students often become his friends Donatella and invites them in his house and made a culinary exchange: Donatella will create a variety of specialties Sicily, while his students prepare various delicacies their country of origin. She said that to this day, she received emails from some of his Japanese students years ago, and she loves Every time when she receives correspondence from former international students.
After living in Umbria, another beautiful area of Italy, Donatella returned to Taormina several years ago and she really likes it inspires creativity. She also teaches children's art and volunteer for some local schools. She showed me some pieces that were completed by students and three of his own works Art. I said, I would have liked to see his studio to see more of his own works. Maybe next time.
Following this interesting side trip a tour waiting for me punctually at 2:30 PM Eleven people were gathered outside the Babilonia language school, ready to go hiking on Mount Etna, whose top is located at an altitude of over 3200 m. Peppe Celano, Babilonia coordinator of social activities and a language teacher, was ready to give us firsthand the highest mountain of Sicily and an active volcano.
In fact, Etna had erupted just a few days ago, April 30th, but unfortunately I did not see it. The eruption was only a few long hours, and one of my fellow students saw the red lava at night! So today, we would see the biggest volcano in Europe closely.
Peppe had rented a van and a small passenger vehicle to transport all participants. Our drive to the parking lot on the south flank of Mount Etna took about one hour and twenty minutes. We drove through the local towns such as Mount Etna where Zafferana Giarre and Peppe explained that the area near the Arabs used to cultivate saffron, hence the name.
The weather was overcast and rather cool, a windbreaker and a nice sweater was definitely in order. We parked our car in a parking lot not isolated and prepared for our ascent. The lower part of our ascent, we have through a forest area where the leaves were just beginning to emerge. Not surprisingly, nearly 2,000 meters, the plant the growing cycle is a bit slower, even on a subtropical island such as Sicily.
Peppe explained that the local wildlife includes chestnut oak and birch all have existed here since before the last ice age. We walked single file along a narrow steep path which was punctuated with many roots and rocks along a cliff with several lookouts to the famous "Valle del Bove" (Valley of the Ox), site of layers of lava flows.
Our hike continued steep for about an hour and took us from 2000 m to 2400 m in an area with a perfect view in the face of recent lava flows in the Valle del Bove. The uppermost zone of the volcano just extended in front of us. Our region has been designated a top side with a cross and a broad ledge natural that our group used as a place to ask our group photos of our conquest of Mount Etna. We spent about half an hour at the top of the summit side, chatting, snapping pictures and generally enjoying our mountain adventure.
On the way down three ladies, one Swiss, one in Germany and Austria (me) ran up the mountain in about 20 minutes. Going down was a heck of a lot easier than climbing, sprinting and around in this steep mountain path was rather exciting in itself. Once all other mountaineers arrived, we go to visit a local winery. "The Murgo" vineyards have been about 15 minutes located in the fertile foothills of Mount Etna, and many people in our group bought red, white and sparkling wines. A lively discussion followed in the van and by 19 o'clock we had arrived back at school.
After a brief return to refresh the hotel, a group of we met at the local pizzeria called "Trocadero", just next to the Porta di Messina, where we were going to have a good dinner. To some of us this Thursday night was our last night in Taormina, I went Leave tomorrow night to go to Milazzo and another person were to go on excursions to the Aeolian Islands. Most of our group members left Taormina this weekend, and we were all commenting on how that what we were enjoying our experience.
Everyone around the table was a German speaker, we had three people from Germany, two from Switzerland and myself, a native of Austria. Given the differences in the language German speaking countries, we all said that each of us must speak "Hochdeutsch (standard German) to be understood by the rest of the group. Each of us speak dialects strong enough to be essentially incomprehensible to people from other German regions, if we get by, talking about the standard of our language. To me this exposure to other Europeans were really nice. Having lived over 20 years in Canada, I almost never come into contact with German speakers to take advantage of this experience a good meal, talking in my native language, was a treat final.
By 9:30 p.m., I started to get really tired since I've been on a one-hour walk through Taormina before breakfast, followed by another walk through the City to respond to Donatella, the artist decorated pottery, crowned by a short yet strenuous hike on Mount Etna. And tomorrow is after all will be my last day in Taormina, so it was time to rest.
One thing is sure, when you come to Taormina for stays language you certainly do not get bored.
About the Author
Susanne Pacher is the publisher of
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