Greek Italy – Una Faccia Una Razza
Much of Southern Italy was colonised by Greeks 2500 years ago, and these areas form what we still know today as Magna Grecia (Greater Greece). As a result, Southern Italy became a centre of Greek culture, music, and language for hundreds of years. Greece has in the past also been occupied by Romans and Italians. To this day, we can see the Greek influence in Italy, and Italian influence in Greece, through architecture, music, food and language. Naples, for example, was a city founded by the Greeks, and it’s name derives from the Greek Nea Polis (New City). Naples was also a Greek speaking town until the 9th century BC. It is an ancient Greek city, with a ‘secret abandoned’ underground city, where there are many original city walls, and even a Greek-Roman theatre where the famous Emperor Nero used to perform opera! The underground city can be visited bass guitar scales on guided tours organised by Napoli Sottoteranea -’Napoli Underground’. In Piazza Bellini in the centre, you can also see some Greek ruins of the original city.Agrigento, Sicily, is famous for Valle dei Templi (Valley of Temples), one of the most important archelogical sites in the world, and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. There are many Doric Greek temples just outside the main centre of Agrigento, including Temple of Hercules, Temple of Zeus and Temple of Concord.The Sicilian town of Siracusa was also an ancient Greek town. The Greeks arrived here in 734BC and named the small Island of Ortigia in Siracusa after ‘ortgyia’, the Greek word for ‘quail’, as it was ‘quail shaped’. (how did they know what it looked like from above…?) They also built various temples, such as the Temple of Apollo in the central Piazza Pancali, and the Temple of Athena.