Sun. Feb 2. [2 February 1902] Hugo and I got up at 6 and went to the
theatre to see the sun rise. Unfortunately it was scirocco and a very
stormy sun rise with Etna [Etna, Mte] mostly hidden. But for all that it
was a revelation of beauty. The blue sea under the clouds, running
up to Messina and the Calabrian coast, the wonderful Bay of Naxos
with its line of surf, the grey green hills with a mist of almond flowers
hanging on them, high perched Mola and the Castello, and then the
theatre, the perfect theatre, framing sea and town and mountains
through its broken arches and itself the most exquisite warm colours
of brick and stone. We met the sub Custode who warned us of terrible
dangers if the Chief Custode knew he had let us in, but a couple of lire
allayed his fears and made him our friend for life. I subsequently
made the acquaintance of the Chief Custode and earned his esteem
by buying his pamphlet and listening to his stories of Lord Dufferin.
The pamphlet begins: This theatre was constructed by the Ancient.
Back to a leisurely dressing and breakfast. Then we went out into the
town - an entrancing medieval place quite unspoilt. Late Saracenic
Gothic with double ogives over the windows, bad construction but
entrancing workmanship and the slenderest columns in the world
between the pairs of windows; over the doors there is mostly a broad
lintel between the door posts and the arch - fantastic but pretty.
Exquisite use of the black lava on the yellow stone - narrow black
mouldings round the pointed arches like delicate eye brows. A
ruined Badia the best example both of the eyebrows and of the
decorative course of black, either in heavy bands or in lovely dainty
patterns. Also the almond boughs lifted a white mist against its walls.
A charming castle built over a Roman bath near the walls. Another
exquisite house is the Palazzo Corvaio in the main street, with an
exquisite flamboyant sort of door and a bit of carving over the stair
inside. Hugo went to church and Father and I to the theatre where we
met Col. Foster [see also Forster] and Mr Riddell. After lunch I went
photographing - the sun having appeared faintly and then to the
theatre where I attempted to write letters - in vain, for I cd do nothing
but look and look at the clouds shifing across Etna. Father and I
called on the Blackwoods at the Castello a Mare; home to tea after
which Hugo and I ran up to the Castello and watched the wonderful
opalescence of sunset over all the waters and the hills. We were
quite alone for the Castello was closed and we had to scale the walls.
Ran down in the dusk through cloudy almond flowers and discussed
the doctrine of the Trinity! Wrote letters after dinner.