Aci Trezza

The place where the cyclops from the "Odyssey" lived

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Today we will tell you about a little-known place, but famous all over the world 😉

This oxymoron was made possible in the small fishing village of Aci Trezza in Sicily.

Almost no one knows about the settlement itself, but the events that took place here about 3200-3300 years ago are familiar even to middle school students. And all because Homer in his "Odyssey" settled on a small island near the coast of Aci Trezza the Cyclops Polyphemus, whom Odysseus cunningly defeated with his companions.

We got here from Catania to tell you how easy it is. On the main square of Catania, buy a ticket for a red tourist bus, bargain (they are 5 euros behind on each ticket), and then go to interesting locations in the city and the surrounding area. The Aci Trezza stop is the terminus of the route that runs north along the coast. The bus stops there, rests for half an hour, and then turns around and returns to Catania. We got off at this stop and went along an old street towards the sea.

From the balcony, some Sicilian grandmother in pink followed us with her eyes 😊😊😊

The streets of the village of Aci Trezza in Sicily

The first thing you pay attention to here is an absolutely volcanic coast, which is covered with unpretentious plants, accustomed to such non-nutritious soil.

A little further from the coast, the green cover is lush, the variety of plants becomes so huge that we even met Ceiba, whose second name Horizia is magnificent. She is all covered with thorns, so it is not clear why she is so gorgeous😀

But we are going to see the embankment. Aci Trezza from this side looks like a classic Mediterranean town.

Opposite the embankment, there are a couple of islands, which are the historical magnet that attracts tourists from all over the world.

They are called "Cyclops Islands". One island resembles a sharp mountain peak, and the second is very low, and besides, it is ennobled with buildings and gardens.

It is the second island that is that famous place from the "Odyssey".

I am sure that all of our subscribers have read Homer's Odyssey (and some even in the original) 😉, but still, I will retell this fragment from the famous work in a nutshell:

Returning from the Trojan War, Odysseus and his companions stopped on the island, finding a cave for the night. It turned out that the giant cyclops Polyphemus with one eye lived in it. Returning with the goats from the pasture, Polyphemus closed his cave with a huge stone and saw uninvited guests. Odysseus treated Polyphemus to wine, but the Cyclops turned out to be angry and ate a couple of Odysseus's companions. Then the Cyclops asked the name of Odysseus, and he answered: "My name is Nobody," to which Polyphemus said: "As a sign of my location, I will eat you last," and began to snore. Locked in a cave, the captives of the one-eyed monster could not move the stone at the entrance, and decided to outwit the cyclops by gouging out his only eye. He roared with pain, rolled away the entrance stone, and began to call for help from the nearby caves Cyclops: "My eye is gouged out!", Shouted Polyphemus. The rest of the Cyclops shouted to him: "Who? Who put it out?", And Polyphemus answered: "Nobody."

Amid this noise, Odysseus's companions jumped out of the cave, ran to the ship and sped away.

All the events described above took place on the island, which is located behind me in the next photo.

The rock where the Cyclops Polyphemus lived

A little to the right of the islands, there is a group of rocks, which, according to legend, appeared here after the enraged Polyphemus threw stones at the trail of the floating Odysseus.

The sculptural part of the embankment is represented by both modern and classical art.

Monument on the observation deck in Aci Trezza

Since this coast was created by the Etna volcano, ( read how you can conquer Etna here :) then all the beaches of Aci Trezza are solid, black, volcanic basalt. The comfort of such beaches is "not for everybody", and we did not experiment with sharp stones in the water, but simply photographed the main beach, near expensive hotels.

Despite our skeptical view of the village's beaches, it is likely that they are very popular in the "high season". Confirmation of this was the huge town of paid changing cabins located between the beach and the parking lot. If there was no demand for such a number of cabins, it is unlikely that these buildings would occupy the precious beach area.

Aci Trezza is also remembered for the roads without sidewalks, where the "Zebra" of the passage is laid simply from wall to wall. And small houses with stucco molding, near which there are cars well, just a toy size.

But one of the dreams did not come true, we "did not work out" to fish in Sicily, so I will end this reportage with a photograph of Aci Trezzi guys fishing, opposite one of the Cyclops islands. We will look at this photo and dream that the next time we are in Sicily, we will definitely close this gestalt.