Sicilian Expedition - Paestum and Velia

Two weeks ago, we went to Sicily as part of our coursework at the Centro. On the first 2 days of our "Sicilian Expedition" we journeyed down the boot of Italy and took a ferry from Naples to Sicily. Along the way, we stopped at two sites: Paestum (where we stayed a night) and Velia. The first day in Paestum (the ancient Greek Poseidonia), we visited a museum where we had a number of interesting lectures about ceramics, metopes, and tomb-painting. Above you can see a curious donut-shaped jug. This is one of 3 Doric temples we saw at Paestum. Constructed around 500 BC, this archaic temple (dedicated to Athena) has many innovative features, such as entasis (a slight outward curving of the columns) and the mixing of Doric and Ionic columns. Here we are on Fabio bus, traveling from Paestum to Velia.

Here, you can see a view of some of the ancient city of Velia (founded in 540 BC) and its acropolis in the background.

Machicollations, holes built into the tops of fortifications so that things can be dropped on attackers. This medieval tower was built atop the ancient acropolis.