announcer: american public television presents the splendors of the world in the life-like reality of high definition television. imbued with myth and mystery and once both melancholy and exuberant this island in the middle of the mediterranean has witnessed thousands of years of human history and one of the greatest civilizations of all time. next up, sicily on smart travels. smart travels is made possible in part by expedia.com: a travel web site that offers travelers a variety of ways to find the trip their looking for, including flights, hotels, and vacation packages. expedia.com: don't just travel, travel right. captioning made possible by u.s. department of education

narrator: smart traveis a grand tour of the old world, the people, places, sights, and distinctly european flavors. our host is travel writer and columnist rudy maxa, public radio's original savvy traveler. now tips, trips, and secret places on smart travels.

maxa: forlorn and desolate... passionate and dramatic... sicily is a land of extremes. from the chaos of its capital to a lonely greek temple, the heart of sicily beats close to the surface-- vulnerable, yet somehow invincible. there's lots to discover in sicily, from the wild west coast to the more populated cities in the east. in-between there are mountains, little villages lost in time, wonderfully preserved ancient ruins, not to mention a volatile volcano. my advice for sicily is rent a car, and take your time. you'll be following in the footsteps of sicily's many conquerors. adrift in the middle of the mediterranean, sicily has attracted invaders since the dawn of time. the phoenicians, greeks, romans,

arabs, normans, spanish, and the italians all have claimed sicily, all have left their mark, but none have entirely conquered the sicilian soul. inured to invasions, sicilians cling tightly to their families, their churches, and their towns. the heritage of sicily's multicultural past lives on in the art, the daily rituals, the myths, and the music of the island. [singing in italian] in search of the legends and legacy of sicily we'll start on the north coast, in palermo. from palermo, we visit ruins at segesta, the travel to the center of sicily at enna.

after a side trip to agrigento, we explore the east coast from mount etna to syracuse. we begin in palermo, sicily's lively, crumbling exotic capital. [woman singing in italian] in the tenth century, palermo flourished as one of the great commercial and cultural cities in the muslim world. the arabs ruled here for more than 200 years, adorning the city with palaces... boosting the economy... and building some 300 mosques. in the 12th century, the normans accomplished a conquest in sicily much as they had earlier in england. the new rulers fused norman and arab architecture into an exotic blend that gives palermo its distinct flavor.

in palermo you're bound to stumble on a festival or neighborhood parade. [people singing] at la magione, a celebrated 12th-century norman church, the neighborhood gathered for baptisms. afterwards, the celebration took to the streets in honor of one of the many saint's days. sicilians passionately celebrate religious, historic, and folk tradition in their many festivals. to experience the most spectacular of these fests visit at easter or during a city's patron saint day. [man yelling] the streets of palermo ring with the cries of merchants in the many markets.

each of the 4 neighborhoods in the historic district hosts a market, and they compete to be the liveliest. [second man yelling] zucchini? it looks more like a walking stick. wherever you travel in palermo, you won't be far from ice cream. sicilians even eat ice cream for breakfast. [speaking italian] and? oh, chocolate. chocolate. oh, my god! the specialty is a gigantic sweet roll, a brioche filled with fruity, creamy, delicious gelato. oh, man! i am never doing oatmeal again. the best gelaterias make their own ice cream. look for signs that say "produzione propia." puppets are another palermo tradition that flourished in the 1800s.

at the museum of the marionette, you'll find the cast of characters who make up the traditional stories of battles in the time of charlemagne. puppeteers traveled across sicily, and entire towns eagerly awaited each installment of the puppet sagas. in addition to romance and chivalry, the stories included elements of the supernatural. when you travel from town to town in sicily, be aware that driving in and out of the big cities can be hair-raising. pack a good map, some patience, and a sense of adventure. once you find your hotel the first time, the second go around is a lot easier. you'll be rewarded when you drive the few miles outside of palermo

to the world famous cathedral of monreale. william ii, the norman king of sicily, claimed the madonna appeared to him in a dream and urged him to build a cathedral equal to the greatest in europe. william admired the byzantine mosaics in constantinople, today's istanbul. he imported artisans skilled in this new style and adorned monreale with brilliant, colorful mosaics. william hoped to secure his power and impress his subjects with the splendor and opulence of the cathedral. worth a visit are the adjacent cloisters, they reflect william's love for islamic art.

long before the normans, another conqueror possessed the island. we head inland now to discover ancient sicily. the greeks colonized sicily around the eighth century b.c. the island, made especially fertile from the lava in the soil, overflowed with abundance. it was in some ways like the young america: a rich, unspoiled paradise. a few hours drive from palermo are the ruins of segesta. the temple from the early 400s b.c. stands alone in a field, one of the best-preserved monuments from antiquity. segesta's original inhabitants, the elymnians, became hellenized, and for a time, allied with athens.

experts disagree as to whether the temple was ever finished. at segesta, you have the rare opportunity to actually walk inside a greek temple and feel the ancient stone beneath your feet. on a hill above the temple, the theater presides overviews across the sicilian plains all the way to the sea. to experience the theater as the ancients did on a timeless summer evening, ask the tourist office in palermo for a schedule of plays and concerts. here in the quiet countryside, ancient sicily, the sicily of legend and myth, feels almost tangible. like ulysses, who came upon sicily in homer's epic poem the odyssey, we have many adventures ahead before we reach home. the town of enna makes a good base

for exploring nearby mountain villages, a remarkable roman villa, and the temples to the southwest. in sicily's interior, you can experience small-town life, virtually untouched by time. the navel of sicily, enna has roots that are prehistoric. high on a wind-swept hill, the town has watched centuries of invaders come and go like the passing seasons. enna and its hilltop neighbor calascibetta seem suspended in time. like so much of sicily, the towns are crumbling, romantic, and full of atmosphere. [singing in italian] [bell tolls] to truly experience small-town sicilian life you need to spend a day or two. in fact, if you only visit during midday, the towns can seem quite deserted.

lunch is the time when shops close and people retreat behind their shuttered windows, and lunch lasts most of the afternoon. it's not until dusk when the heat subsides that the streets spring to life. [man singing in italian] everyone pours outside for the evening stroll or passeggiata. the large proportion of older citizens bespeaks the vast amount of emigration that's occurred here. in the 1950s, 10% of the population left the island in just 3 years. perhaps the best reason for a visit to enna is the nearby villa romana del casale, possibly once the summer residence

of one of the emperors of rome. colorful, festive mosaics give a unique insight into the daily life of the ancient romans, their festivals, rites, and mythology. of all the glorious scenes, the corridor of the great hunt is richest in detail and observation. the ruthless capture of the great beasts that were brought to the games in roman amphitheaters is told with relish. the scope, the drama, and movement of the scene, coupled with details like a tiger seeing its reflection in a crystal ball make these mosaics among the finest ever discovered. known for its depiction of women in bikini-like outfits, this famous mosaic shows athletes exercising in the gymnasium. [woman singing in italian]

mythical, magical sicily-- home to the gods. when the greeks first landed here, the island was uncharted territory. the rough and wild landscape inspired in the ancients tales of monsters, deities, and heroic battles. the myth of demeter and persephone is said to have unfolded just outside of enna. beautiful persephone was gathering flowers when hades, the god of the underworld, swept her off to his dark kingdom. her mother, demeter, the goddess of the earth, let the world grow cold and barren while she searched for her daughter. finally, zeus intervened and a deal was cut. persephone had to remain in the underworld for part of the year, but when she returned to her mother spring arrived. [singing continues]

the cult of demeter flourished in this part of sicily because of the importance of agriculture. when the romans conquered in 200 b.c., they cut down enormous tracts of forest to plant grain. stripped of trees and over-planted, the land eventually grew barren and arid. it was paradise no more. [men speaking italian] the fruits of sicilian farming today can be found at the morning market-- another great reason to stop over in a small town. sardines, sardines, anchovies. and they're packed in salt, yes? like the passeggiata, in the evening the market is as much about meeting and socializing as it is about shopping. for a visitor, it's a chance to see the faces, meet the people,

and however briefly, feel a part of the community. our driving tour turns southwest now, through the rugged landscape. nowhere do the greek gods feel closer than the valley of the temples in argigento along the southern coast of sicily. called akragas in ancient times, this greek city flourished in the fifth century b.c., growing quite wealthy from the abundant crops. the greek poet pindar declared akragas "the loveliest of the cities of mortals." the most stunning and fully preserved temple at agrigento is the temple of concord.

the columns are tapered and slightly curved... so the temple appears straight when seen from a distance. near the reconstructed temple of castor and pollux is a sacrificial altar where all-women fertility rites called the thesmophoria took place. scholars believe the women ate anti-aphrodisiac plants, then camped for 3 days at the temple, fasting and reenacting demeter's grief at her daughter's abduction by hades. the rite ensured fertility and a good crop. on the glorious terrace of the nearby hotel athena, i happened on a performance of the agrigento folk band dioscuri. [upbeat music plays] here, too, there's an exotic flavor, part italian, spanish, and arab.

[singing in italian] just a few miles south of agrigento, waves beat the southern shores of the island. here greek expeditions once landed in search of land to colonize. before setting out, the settlers consulted the oracle at delphi for guidance from the gods. we're headed to the east coast of the island now. the city of catania is a relatively inexpensive base for exploring

the fishing villages to the north, mount etna, and to the south, syracuse. catania, a busy commercial and industrial center, is connected to rome and milan by air. in catania, lava is the theme. the gray lava stone colors the entire city. mount etna has spilled onto the streets, and earthquakes have leveled the town. the highlight of catania is the fish market, where haggling and bargaining is standard business operation. [speaking in italian] merchants and customers lock in a life-and-death struggle over the daily sardine catch. catanians take their fish very seriously. north of catania, along the coast, timeless fishing villages like aci trezza

mingle mythology with modern life. every day the fishing boats of aci trezza wind their way through these rocks, the legendary rocks of the cyclops. in the odyssey, ulysses and his men escape from the one-eyed monster cyclops by blinding him with a spear then clinging to the underbellies of sheep to escape from his cave. the irate monster cursed them, hurling huge boulders at the men. looming over these coastal towns, casting its great shadow is mount etna. europe's largest active volcano, etna has been spouting lava for some 600,000 years, including some 12 times in the last century. it's anybody's guess when the giant will erupt again. the trip up etna takes in a strange lunar landscape, gasping vents, and lava dams that sometimes cradle the lava and spare the villages below.

the ancients knew etna well. the roman poet virgil describes how "ever and anon it discharges at heaven a murky cloud." after heroically battling the volcano, why not indulge in a heavenly treat made with pure mountain water. the granita is a kind of ice sherbet, an elixir from the gods. the ancients mixed fruit juice with snow from etna for a quick cool down on a from the catania area, it's less than two hours by car south to the city of syracuse. in ancient times, the city of syracuse stood among the greatest cities in the world. if sicily was the new world for the ancient greeks, then syracuse was its new york. artist and philosophers like plato came from the mainland lured by the wealth. the population swelled. syracuse soon rivaled athens itself in wealth and power.

the heart of the city lies on the island ortygia, and the most delightful introduction is by sea. for 3,000 years, boats have cruised these waters. it was here that one of the great minds of the ancient world, the scientist and mathematician archimedes, put his wondrous inventions to use. the year was 212 b.c., and the great city was under attack by the romans. according to the roman chronicler plutarch, archimedes devised a huge crane with a claw the scooped up roman ships and tossed the mariners into the sea. the crafty scientist is also credited with devising a system of enormous mirrors to reflect the sun and set roman ships ablaze. unfortunately, the city finally fell, and archimedes was killed as he poured over a math problem in his home. the mile-long island of ortygia

abounds with baroque art and architecture. much of the city was rebuilt in the 17th century after a devastating earthquake. pastry shops pop up on just about every street in ortygia. in times past, nuns created sicilian pastries, and different convents were known for particular sweets. in the back streets and alleys, you'll discover shops selling paper made from the papyrus plant, which grows in sicily. at the galleria bellomo, i caught a demonstration of how papyrus paper is made. the ancient egyptians, and later the greeks and romans, used the papyrus plant to make sails, cloth, mats, and, most importantly, paper. the gallery sells paintings by local artists-- all on papyrus, of course.

the spacious piazza del duomo has been sacred ground since it was crowned with a temple to athena in 530 b.c. inside the cathedral on the piazza, columns from the ancient greek temple remain embedded in the walls. head west from the duomo and you'll arrive at the waterfront. here, the fountain of arethusa spouts water from a fresh water spring that attracted the first greek settlers. inland from ortygia, in the parco archeologico, ancient greek syracuse truly comes to life. here you'll find one of the most impressive greek theaters in existence. carved out of the bedrock in the fifth century b.c., the theater held a crowd of about 16,000.

the celebrated playwright aeschylus premiered several plays here. known as the father of tragedy, aeschylus revolutionized theater, changing it from a solo performer with a chorus to drama played out by multiple actors. mythical... colorful... somber... and lonely-- enigmatic sicily defies definition. the wonder of the ancient world comes miraculously alive here... and the exotic past mingles with the festive, spirited present.

sicily is an adventure. the land... the people... and the past weave a magical spell over all who travel here. so, we've climbed a volcano, battled mythical monsters, and sailed the seas of syracuse. maybe, just maybe, 3,000 years from now tales of these journeys will be told and epic poems written. until out next odyssey, i'm rudy maxa. ciao. announcer: all videos and dvds smart travels are $24.95 each, plus shipping. call 800-866-7425 for the two-episode dvd or video on milan, lake como, and sicily. details of all of our travel videos, dvds, and best guide books are on the web at smarttravels.tv. please have a credit card ready and call and call 800-866-7425, or visit us on the web.

captioning made possible by u.s. department of education captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- smart travels is made possible in part by expedia.com: a travel web site that offers travelers a variety of ways to find the trip they're looking for, including flights, hotels, and vacation packages. expedia.com: don't just travel, travel right.