Travel Woes

I haven't updated in the past few days for 2 reasons.  First, the internet has been especially questionable, and I haven't had much opportunity to get online for more than a minute or 2 until today.  And second, thanks to some problems with train and bus connections, I haven't really had the chance to do much of anything.

As I mentioned in my previous post about Brindisi (at least I think I mentioned it here...it may have only been on Facebook.  Either way, not important), I was having a lot of trouble sleeping because of the heat.  When Sunday rolled around I headed to Lecce, with the intention of going to Otranto for the day.  My exhaustion, coupled with the difficulty of getting to Otranto on a Sunday (it's not on the main state rail line, so you have to rely on regional buses and trains), caused me to decide to just take the day off.  I wandered around Lecce for a bit, but I don't do much of anything worth noting.

After Lecce was Taranto.  I intended to spend a full day there, but unfortunately my train from Lecce ran about 20 minutes late, causing me to miss my connection and forcing me to sit around in the train station for a few hours for the next one.  As a result I made it to Taranto, but I had a lot less time than I would have liked there.  The old city still feels more medieval than just about anywhere else I've been thus far.  It was a lot of fun to wander around; I really wish I'd had more time.  I saw two churches while I was there, San Domenico and the Duomo.

San Domenico is a church originally built in 5th century, while the current structure dates to the early 14th.

The original structure is supposedly visible beneath the church, but I couldn't find any way to access it.  There were a number of strange squares on the ground that looked like they may have granted access, but they were clearly shut.  Fairly disappointing, but c'est la vie.

The Duomo was more encouraging.  This church was built in the 11th century and, although updated over the years, is still essentially the same Byzantine-Norman structure.

Greek style cupola, rather than the western dome

On the left side you'll see two peacocks, early Christian symbols of eternal life, and on the right an eagle with outstretched wings

Notice how different all the columns are; I'm not certain, but I'm pretty confident when I say that these are collected from the ancient monuments of the city.  Taranto is extremely ancient; in fact, it's mentioned in the Odyssey.  Those floor mosaics date to the Norman period, and there were a few patches scattered around the cathedral.

Even better than the church itself was the crypt.  This dates to the Byzantine period, and once again it appears that the columns were collected from around the city.  I ran into the same problem as in Brindisi (no lights), but this time I remembered that my phone has an excellent flashlight built in.

Notice the lack of bases on these columns; I expect that originally this structure was much deeper, and when the current church was built on top it became a crypt.  Just a hunch though.

I wasn't using a flash to take these pictures, but rather just the light on my cell phone.  So, that about wraps it up for Taranto.  Nice city though; I'd certainly consider coming back.

I writing this from Catanzaro, where I'll be until Friday morning.  Getting here was hell (missed trains, long waits at the station, trains crammed with people and no AC, etc.), but Catanzaro is quit nice.  I'll be headed to Reggio on Friday, and then Palermo Saturday.  One week, and then it's back to Baltimore!

Also, the internet here in Catanzaro is good enough that I've started to upload all my photos to a Photobucket album, in case you'd like to see any more of any particular place.  Here is the link: http://s1049.photobucket.com/albums/s390/byzinitaly/

I'm getting them up there little by little, but as I'm writing this all of Istanbul is done.  If there are problems, please let me know!