11.16.19
In the time we’ve been traveling we’ve been blessed to have seen some amazing historical places of interest, which always fascinate and intrigue me. When we look back of how long “man” has been around, it’s been millions of years. But when we look at how many “civilizations” there have been, there haven’t been that many by comparison.
We are currently in Sicily, Italy (still) and spent some time in Rome, and yes, there is lots of history there. But there is lots of history here, too.
The other day I went to the Paolo Orsi Museum, and for 8 € the price was easily worth the two plus hours I spent there. Orsi was an Italian archaeologist from the late 1800s to early 1900s and over the course of his 50-year career uncovered many historic temples, necropolises, walls, palaces, coins and other sites in Southern Sicily and wrote 300 papers in his field. Pretty impressive, as is the museum that bears his name.
The Temple of Apollo as it originally looked
I admit I am not a museum junkie and have been in my share that don’t keep me interested. I’ve seen lots of pictures and paintings, but statues and archaeological finds do pique my interest, and this museum has some of the best stuff I’ve seen. Granted, not Smithsonian or New York Museum of Natural History level, which are opulent and in a class by themselves, but still impressive. This museum felt very personal and had more pottery and artifacts than I have ever seen in one place. Pottery that was 12,000-15,000 years old which were found in pieces, yet someone had the patience to piece them together. That takes more patience that I ever had! In town we have the Temple of Apollo from 6000 BC, and in the museum they had scale models that show what it looked like when it was intact. Amazing!
When you think about something simple, like pottery, it’s been around longer than farming!
Today we stayed outside and went to the Archaeological Museum which includes two theaters, one called the Greek Theater, and the other Roman. The Greek Theater is in amazing condition considering it was built in the 5th Century BC, rebuilt 200 years later, and has had to deal with centuries of weathering and warfare. Which is another thing that amazes me. Over thousands of years many of the places have been invaded, destroyed, and rebuilt many times. I can only hope that going forward they will not be impacted by more war.
On our journey, nine months old as of tomorrow, we have traveled tens of thousands of miles and have visited probably 15 countries. I’m glad we started with Roman history, which is one of the newer civilizations, and in a few weeks we will head to Greece, which is even older. Egypt will be forthcoming, older still, but not for a while.
I am writing the second volume of Traveling the World Six Weeks at a Time, and if you have purchased it and read it, your reviews on Amazon are appreciated! I also offered a free webinar on Five Steps to Manifesting your Travel Dreams, which is available on request.
Thank you for following and remember, keep Traveling Younger!
