Travels: U.S-India-Mexico-Italy
27 Apr 2013 Leave a Comment
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Most elegant sun in months, and it appeared for Cecilia’s First Communion
Processional (that’s Kieran cheering as he recognizes his sister)
23 Apr 2013 1 Comment
in 2013, Italy & Sicily
I loved calling Cianciana My Home for awhile:
Certo, la vita è bella a Cianciana
10 Apr 2013 Leave a Comment
in 2013, Italy & Sicily
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We turned right along the Straits of Messina and kept driving until we saw it, the volcano which, even in the past week, has been playfully erupting.
From Taormina — Mt Etna
We’ve now been two days in Catania, with better sightings of Mt. Etna, better photo ops than ever, yet I haven’t bothered. I should begin with full disclosure: I am a sucker for mountains. Anyhow, a couple days ago, as we started the short walk up to chic, bustling Taormina, I saw the great, to me mystical, mountain for the first time (outside of the car ride, when Etna was something of a moving target).It was like seeing the Taj Mahal – those first views erase the cliché and etch the thing itself in the cerebrum, forever. No longer any need for pictures.
And Catania? It seems to be a grimier version of Palermo, and I mean that in the nicest way.
First, there were the Breakfast surprises:
Then, ah! a market to rival any I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying something
08 Apr 2013 1 Comment
in 2013, Italy & Sicily
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Today was to have been a 3-hr, 300 km drive. About 80 km into the missed the A19 exit, I mentioned that I thought we were off course.
A few hours, several mountains, many tunnels, and a long series of adventures later, I tossed aside Lonely Planet and Rough Guide.
Our Fiat is narrow, but the streets of Western Sicily are narrower. Result: large scratch. Today, Guido reduced the scratch to niente.
View from “Sea Palace Gattopardo,” Brolo
We asked a delightful Brolo native if he could help us find a hotel, and now here we are, about 150km away from our day’s intended destination, but in A Room with a View - and WHAT A VIEW.
07 Apr 2013 1 Comment
in 2013, Italy & Sicily
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“OH, NO, Signora, we never run the gondola if it is too windy. Today is wind [sic], but we will run it for you.”
Gondola, on the 750m trip up to Erice. Remember to double-click on this photo, so you can count all the other people who made the trip up and down the mountain with us today. Hint: it’s less than one.
As our gondola climbed the mountain, I pretended to agree with the chipper Peggy Schmidt, as she peered around at all the other – EMPTY – gondolas and crowed, ”See? If it were a sunny day, you know we’d be fighting the crowds.”
The city, even shrouded in mist today, really is spectacular, and its denizens? Lovely.
Erice was founded by a people claiming descent from the Trojans. What remains today is mostly medieval – walled city, narrow streets.
The art of the cell phone
At the end of our visit this afternoon, we visited Sicily’s finest pasticceria, “Maria Grammatico,” where I ran into Maria herself coming out of the kitchen. She was clearly flattered that I recognized her, b/c she smiled [long-sufferingly?] and took my hand.
Maria Grammatico’s
In case anybody wondered, it’s still within the Octave of Easter
06 Apr 2013 Leave a Comment
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Arriving here, we drove along the Tyrrhenian, and to get our bearings in the city, we walked along the Mediterranean. Trapani’s rich history (Virgil’s Anchises, father of Aeneas!) was the initial draw, and the people and views are keeping us a couple more days.
La vita è bella
Fish about as fresh as it gets.
Spring has come to Sicily
Noticed in a religious goods store.
I love that , since Easter, crucifixes in/over so many main altars have been replaced by statues like this one in Trapani’s S.Francesco di Paolo. BTW, I”m quite certain that’s CRYSTAL behind San Salvatore!
30 Mar 2013 Leave a Comment
in 2013, Italy & Sicily
(Click thumbnail photos, to enlarge)
I’d seen photos and a short video Elizabeth had taken of Good Friday in Cianciana: stark, passionate, foreign, familiar — it encapsulated & encompassed all those contradictions. It still does.
At first, it was just great fun. Outside the town’s biggest market, I finally saw the drummer I’d been hearing for a couple weeks. A few locals started lining up, and cars (and the recycling truck) rushed to get down Corso Vittorio Emanuale before everything began in earnest.
I followed the soldiers down to the clocktower, but they disappeared, so I ran back to the piazza, arriving just in time for the “Jesus or Barabbas” scene (below). The townspeople, some in costume, many not, began to get into it, and so did I, as an Observer, although here is the truth: by the time Pilate got his answer from the crowd that third time, I was starting to feel like a guilty bystander.
Later, from the 3rd-floor terrace of Daffodils (“Best seat in town!”), I looked down on robed townspeople (singing a Lamentation), Roman soldiers, 2 thieves, and Jesus.
Jesus carrying his Cross up the stairs, headed towards Monte Calvario
The two other prisoners, following Jesus up to Monte Calvario.
*****************************************************************************
Once up the stairs, it was just a matter of navigating the streets leading to up (way up) to Calvario.
There were moments of comic relief. In one, costumed kids who had been standing around for 30 minutes nearly missed their cue.
Kids, just in time.
Safe, con papa
At the top, we stood and watched, something I don’t have 1,000 words to describe, so will yield again to pictures (that’s Gaetano from Bar S. Antonio)
