Visting Mount Etna was an amazing experience despite the high speed gusts of wind. Mount Etna is the home to several classical … [Read More...]
Sicily Trip
Italian 3008 – Latin 3311 – Spring 2018
Professors Barbara Weiden Boyd and Davida Gavioli
la spedizione siciliana
This faculty-led study trip, “Sicily: Mediterranean Pasts, Presents, and Futures,” has guided students to an in-depth understanding of the historical, social, and cultural complexities of the island of Sicily, now a part of the nation of Italy but, in the course of its long history as cultural crossroads, home to several early indigenous peoples of the western Mediterranean as well as colonizing Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Spanish, French, and Arabs over the course of more than 3000 years. Because of its strategic location, long history, and a new appreciation for its cultural riches, Sicily is the perfect vantage-point from which to consider the Mediterranean world as a whole, through both historical and contemporary lenses.
In the spring 2018 semester, two Bowdoin faculty members, Davida Gavioli (Italian) and Barbara Weiden Boyd (Classics), offered upper-level courses focusing of various aspects of Sicilian history and culture. Gavioli’s course, Italian 3008 (Of Gods, Leopards, and ‘Picciotti’: Literary Representations of Sicily Between Reality and Metaphor) was organized around literary texts written by Sicilian writers and/or located in the Sicilian landscape, drawn from 20th and 21st century authors; central themes of the course included issues of cultural identity long a part of Sicilian discourse (e.g., is Sicily “truly” Italian? is Sicily really part of Europe, or should it be considered fundamentally Other? etc.) as well as major contemporary social and political issues (the economy; the Mafia; immigration and asylum; etc.). Boyd’s course, Latin 33 (Sicily in the Roman Imagination), was organized around the literary texts commemorating the appropriation of Sicily first by the Greeks and subsequently by the Romans between the 5th and 1st centuries BC. Students read several significant ancient texts in Latin concerning Rome’s occupation and colonization of Sicily, supplemented by readings in English drawn from the many Greek poets and historians who were active in ancient Sicily.

Etna

Eterno.mp3
By Cesar Varela
Eterno - Giovanni Caccamo (Eterno, 2018) 14 Marzo 2018 "Penso che questo momento rimanga nel tempo, rimane da solo, rimane un … [Read More...]

Erice
By Sarah Austin
On our third day in Sicily, we visited Erice, an important site in Virgil's Aeneid. During the 5th Book of the Aeneid, Aeneas and … [Read More...]

Giorno 1 – Pizzo
By Dean Zucconi
After our walking tour during the first full day in Palermo, I spotted one of the "no pizzo" stickers that our guide had told us … [Read More...]

Ragusa
After the earthquake of 1693 destroyed much of Ragusa, Noto, and Catania (among many other parts of eastern Sicily), these towns … [Read More...]

Piazza Pretoria
This square, known as the square of Shame, hosts a massive fountain that is a focal point for nude statues of various figures and … [Read More...]

Giorno 5 – Maschera di Pirandello
By Dean Zucconi
This small sculpture was at Pirandello's tomb, representing his concept of the mask exiting both in his writing and as a real-life … [Read More...]

Day 4
After spending a night in Erice, we drove to Selinunte to visit the ruins of Ancient temples. The temples were set in a beautiful … [Read More...]

Come amare Il mare
By John Medina
It’s sad that this journey of trying to understand Sicily through the bits of pieces we’ve seen of its history, has come to an … [Read More...]

Villa Romana del Casale
By Sarah Austin
Built in the middle of the 4th Century AD as a hunting lodge/summer palace for a Roman governor, the Villa Romana del Casale is … [Read More...]

Day 6
Towards the end of the 6th day, we visited the small city of Noto. We saw a beautiful example of baroque architecture with the … [Read More...]

Villa Romana del Casale
By Louisa Moore
3/16/18: We left the coast of Sicily and traveled inland to Piazza Armerina for the morning. Located here is Villa Romana del … [Read More...]

How crunk did we get??
By Dean Zucconi

Temples at Agrigento and Pirandello
By Louisa Moore
3/15/18: Today, we visited our third consecutive ancient site, the Valley of the Temples at Agrigento. We saw four temples on a … [Read More...]

Agrigento e Pirandello
By Sofia Trogu
3/15/18 Today, we visited the temples of Agrigento and the house of Luigi Pirandello in Caos in Agrigento. The temples of … [Read More...]

Giorno 4: Peripteral hexastyle
By John Medina
I’ve got to admit, I teared up a bit seeing how beautiful the landscape on the island is. The green, blue, yellow and every other … [Read More...]

Comunque andare.mp3
By Cesar Varela
Comunque andare - Alessandra Amoroso (Vivere a colori, 2016) 17 Marzo 2018 "E allora andare che le spine si fanno sfilare, e se … [Read More...]

Ancient Syracuse
By Louisa Moore
3/17/18: The final ancient site we visited was Syracuse. While ancients certainly inhabited the island of Ortigia, the settlements … [Read More...]
Trip Participants Individual Photo Diaries
- Rachael Allen (9)
- Sarah Austin (8)
- Emily Beaulieu (8)
- Professor Barbara Boyd (1)
- Cooper Hemphill (8)
- John Medina (9)
- Justin Miller (9)
- Louisa Moore (8)
- Eliza Nitzan (1)
- Francesco Pappalardo (12)
- Sofia Trogu (9)
- Cesar Varela (9)
- Dean Zucconi (11)