ITS25 CAE – Treasure hunt on the island of Ortigia

Another cultural heritage is the Island of Ortigia. Students had the task to find different monuments in a race and take selfies by group in front of them. The final monument was the cathedrale that we visited. Everything was connected with the city of Syracuse by the bridge. The island is the historical place. We visited the Piazza del Duomo, where the cathedral was built. It was a catholic church, later with Arab conquest it was transformed into mosque. Then, with Norman influence it became part of catholic Church again as Norman basilica. It was threatened by earthquake in 1693. It has now a lot of baroque signs inside and outside too and it is a Baroque triumph.. We learned about the legend of Arethusa and Alpheus, when we visited the fountain of Arethusa. It is a fresh  water fountain in the island. St. patron of the city is St. Lucy. The treasure of the city of Syracuse we could see and learn about will help us to understand the importance in the Mediterranean.

The Fountain of Arethusa: it’s a freshwater spring that holds a particular mythological story. It is said, in fact, thatArethusa was a young nymph, in the service of Diana (goddess of hunting and wilderness) and that one day, whilestanding by a river in Arcadia, she attracted the attention of the river god Alphaeus, who fell madly in love with her. The maiden, however, did not like such attentions and, while running away, asked Diana for help, who transformed the nymph into a spring of water. Alphaeus, despite this, never resigned himself until the gods took pity on him and Jupiter turned him into an underground stream that feeds, even today, the Arethusa spring.

The church of Santa Lucia alla Badia is one of the most interesting places of worship in Syracuse. It has a historydating back to the 15th century, although the present building was constructed between 1695 and 1703, after the 1693 earthquake razed the previous construction. The facade represents one of the most interesting Baroque elevations.

The island was the inspiring place for students to learn about greek mythology and about life of people in the past. The time spent here was filled with nice moments and pupils learned a lot about culture and its importance for mankind.

The race around the quarter was a great teambuilding and moment of pleasure by discovering in that way.