I expect to be somewhere else in a few weeks,but for now it’s great to be in the Twin Cities, which even HuffPost recognizes as amazing.
And look how these Cronin boys love the leaves —
My bags are packed…
23 Apr 2013 1 Comment
in 2013, Italy & Sicily
I loved calling Cianciana My Home for awhile:
Certo, la vita è bella a Cianciana
Amazing stuff
Studio Sicilia – a favorite corner
My first glimpse of the hills just north of Cianciana, driving in from Palermo in early March.
Cianciana from the Museo Civico
Before anyone asks, I’ll tell you: yes, ubiquitous.
A gathering place
Davvero, una bella città
2nd glimpse of the hills – IN Cianciana
The village’s Museo Civico has ancient pottery, a tiny, recently excavated Aphrodite, and memorabilia of the miners’ hard, often dangerous, lives.
Odysseus, The Cyclops, Aeneas (& Anchises): All Present & Accounted for, and…What’s THAT???
10 Apr 2013 Leave a comment
in 2013, Italy & Sicily
(click thumbnails to enlarge)
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:
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- Blood Oranges + Kiwi in the breakfast buffet
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- Almond milk
Then, ah! a market to rival any I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying something
LOST in Sicily
08 Apr 2013 1 Comment
in 2013, Italy & Sicily
(click thumbnails to enlarge)
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.
On the Road: Palermo ––>Trapani
06 Apr 2013 Leave a comment
(click thumbnails to enlarge)
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!
Cianciana Webcams
25 Mar 2013 3 Comments
The Webcams capture sites and sights just around the corner and down the street from Elizabeth’s studio (MacFlip4 required).
It’s been pouring for an hour, and either neighbors are slamming their doors in unison, or it’s thundering, too. Absent Kare 11 TV Weather, I flipped on the village’s webcams to see if it were worth going out. I found my answer: YES, but I can expect my umbrella to be whipped inside out.
The Cameras capture sites and sights just around the corner and down the street ( Flip4Mac may be required).
Anyhow, today is a far cry from recent days — (gallery below is a random sample from those sunnier moments!)
La Mia Vita Glamour in Sicilia:
21 Mar 2013 1 Comment
…a number of you have written to say how enviably glamorous is my life in Sicily. I love it, but full of glam, it is not, and this post is meant to set the record straight.
Let’s consider a morning – THIS morning – for example…
Once I’ve had the courage to push off the heat-holding duvet, and the presence of mind to hit the red button, count to 15, while turning the dial once-twice-three times (highest flame power), The Bombola becomes my dear friend.
My day really begins with breakfast in front of the windows: except for the pigeons in the rooftiles outside, it’s quiet this time of day.
Within an hour, the garbage truck arrives (no picture, b/c even I won’t hang over the balcony to snap a photo of that). Today being Thursday, it was the “humid” waste (coffee grounds, banana skins — compostable, I think – hope! – this means). Tomorrow it will be “undifferentiated”, and as examples, the instructions suggest “old shoes…nappies…toys”
Today’s “humid” trash, tied up and ready for pickup.
The earliest Mass in town is at S. Antonio (“Il Convento”), and it’s not until 10 o’clock. I love Sicily!
Besides a statue of Padre Pio (who is actually everywhere, and I mean EVERYwhere: street signs, restaurants, side altars of every church), there is this one, which is San Calogero, patron saint of this area (Agrigento) of Sicily.
It’s now 10:30a.m. in my day, and I will leave you here, but not before sending along the men I see this morning and every morning, standing outside a bar up the street from Il Convento
Baroque Revisited
16 Mar 2013 Leave a comment
in 2013, 2013, Italy & Sicily
In Italian Days, Barbara Grizzuti-Harrison says that one doesn’t have to appreciate ruins to appreciate Rome, but the Baroque? She insists that there’s no loving Rome without loving this fluid, over-the-top period in Church and art history: “otherwise you will think Rome is florid and vulgar and recoil from its extravagance.”
In Trastevere, I visited the Baroque for Ceci —
Around the corner from the Pantheon, I posed before Bernini’s elephant on Tommy’s birthday, and made some poor Englishman take my picture —
After that, I ran over to the Contarelli Chapel in S. Luigi dei Francesi to see this Caravaggio for Matthew:
Callinf of Matthew, SLuigiFrancese
However, it probably wasn’t until yesterday in Palermo that knew I was a convert — in the way I think Charles Ryder means, when he describes Brideshead as his “conversion to the Baroque.”
From this, and this…to this other
11 Mar 2013 1 Comment
St Paul can be beautiful in winter
There is, though, nothing quite like a Tulip Tree in Northern CA this time of year (thanks for the Drive-by, Jans)
The conclave begins tomorrow, so as soon as I checked in at my convent, I took the #89 down to Piazza S. Pietro to see how things were getting on. Nobody seemed to need my help, so I settled for watching the scrambling and setting-up, the [loud] dropping of pieces of scaffolding…
The piazza is as full of jumbotrons as it is of pilgrims this afternoon, and inside the basilica, cameras and chairs are going up.
Some of the papers here are saying that if there is white smoke by Wednesday,it’s an INsider; if the smoke doesn’t turn white until Thursday or later, it will be an OUTsider. On RAI 1, I just heard “Scola then Dolan.” In Montreal, the media today suggests that it could be Oeullet, because he would be the compromise candidate. Who knows? As they say,”HE WHO ENTERS THE CONCLAVE AS POPE, LEAVES AS CARDINAL”
mebtravelling 