Etna

The bus groaned as it made hair-pin turns up the active volcano. Carcasses of spewed volcanic ash and stone along the gullies remind us of Etna's power.  I wondered how hot it would be at the top.  Is it possible to fall into the molten rivers that I've seen in so many pictures.  I looked across the aisle and felt reassured by the smiling octogenarians.  They didn't seem worried ; why should I!  I was expecting to see the smokey summit crater at every turn; the one I have been staring at from sea level for days. 

Then without much fanfare we stopped at a clearing.  It was our final destination, a gift shop. We went as far as we could go.  Wait, I want to see the top!  "How can you go shopping at a time like this", I said aloud. So I climbed down into one crater and waved at my fellow bus travelers.  Then I climbed to the rim of another. I grabbed fistfuls of volcanic pebbles and touched what was once the center of the earth.  I marveled at the sprinkling of flowers whose seeds survived the wrath of Zeus.  Climbing even higher, I was able to appreciate the effect of high altitude on pulmonary function.  It reminded me of mountain documentaries and my questions about why climbers walked so slowly when they approached the summit.  I looked at craters in the distance that became even more distant when I noticed the microscopic creatures were actually hikers.

It would take a tram ride and a 4 hr hike to reach a point where one can see the summit crater from a distance. Then I would need a geological permit to go any further.  Too bad, I sighed... the bus was leaving in twenty minutes. 

As we approached the hotel in Naxos I looked out the window.  There it was ; the triangular Etna in all its glory.  I grinned proudly thinking, ....I was there.

Live Etna Webcam Link (remember the time difference is 6 hrs EST)

Sicilian Breakfast

Just imagine walking down a narrow cobblestone street in Monreale, Sicily.  You can hear the church bells in the distance.  The air is crisp and the sun is shining.  As you turn the corner, the smell of fresh baked bread grabs your nostrils as if you were a cartoon character in the sixties.  Next to the bakery there is someone making a breakfast sandwich.  It's a chickpea patty placed in a warm roll.  The textures and buttery flavors blend to make the most wonderful breakfast that is unique to western Sicily (and maybe some areas of Brooklyn). Pane Panelle.
 

Sicily: Our 51st State?

Salvatore Giuliano

FBI, CIA, Lucky Luciano, Salvatore Giuliano and General Patton are all players in this amazing story of how Sicily almost became our 51st State.  It starts at the beginning of WWll, just weeks after Pearl Harbor,  after a suspicious fire in the Brooklyn Navy Yard destroyed a merchant ship.. This spurred an effort to prevent sabotage by German spies who infiltrated the shipyards.  The CIA partnered with Lucky Luciano to investigate shipping personell and monitor suspicious activity.  In 1943, Patton went to Luciano for help with the invasion of Italy. Patton relied on Luciano's connections with Sicilian friends.



Invasion of Sicily

Meanwhile, in Sicily, the leader of the Sicilian Independence Movement, Salvatore Giulano met with CIA and US Government officials to assist the US invasion of Europe from North Africa.  Giuliano, considered a Robin Hood like hero, objected to northern Italian exploitaion of Sicilian resources while Sicilian farmers starved.  In 1943 when the Allied forces invaded at the Gulf of Gela, the Sicilian Independence Movement cleared  roads of snipers and mines that facilitated Patton's take over of Palermo in just 4 days.

To the US, Sicily was a mouth-watering jewel in the Mediterranean.  The Germans had the same idea.  Sicily, was historically the bread basket of the Roman Empire and many empires to follow.  It had many trade and strategic implications that made it attractive.  Many believe thant Luciano, Patton, Guiliano and US officials had plans for Sicily to become a US State.  In fact, a US flag with 51 stars was designed and circulated in Sicily.



51 Stars

In the end, the invasion of Sicily was key the Allied victory in Europe : in part because of direct access to Germany from the south but also because diverted German resouces away from the Russian front.  Five thousand Allied troops lost their lives in this campaign.  Lucky Luciano had his sentence communted by the US courts because of his assistance to General Patton.  Giuliano was assassinated in 1947...maybe ! His death is believed to be staged . He is the subject of books, movies, songs, legends and remains a Sicilian folk hero.

Today, the US has its military bases in Sicily.  Italy dictates what crops are to be grown in Sicily because of EU (German) agreements and the unemployment rate in Sicily is 25%.  Germans summer in Sicily and bathe in beaches not far from the Allied war cemetary.  If you take a plane out of Sicily, announcements are made in Italian and German; not English.  So much for Sicily, USA.

Who ran through the city naked shouting , "Eureka"?

He was a Sicilian of course! This great scientist and mathematician noticed how water displaced  when bathing at the bath house; giving him the answer to a problem he was solving for the King .  So excited about his discovery, he "streaked" through Siracusa shouting "Eureka, Eureka...."

Archimedes (287-212 BC) developed weapon systems that made Syracuse impenetrable, founded the value of pi , invented Archimedes Screw (still used today), Archimedes Principles of buoyancy and displacement, and countless other inventions.  Working on a solution for finding the area in a circle, he established the foundation that would later become calculus. His ideas were adopted by scientist such as DaVince, Galileo, and Newton.

One day, he was interrupted by a Roman soldier in his study.  In an absent minded fashion he berated the soldier.  Not realizing this crazy old man was Archimedes, soldier killed him with his sword.

Read more about Archimedes and his manuscript that sold for $2 million.  Wiki  has excellent summary and references.

Lido a Naxos

Lido a Naxos

By Ciro Attardo
 

Chiurriti i occhi
E sentiti u mare, scumazzata e frizzante,
chi vasa l’rina cauru,
cottu du suli,
comu muddica ncapu brodu azzurru.

 

Sentiti u ventu chi sciuscia,

Passanu capu i ficurrini nta muntata,

Frisculianu canzuni siciliani,

Capiddi sciunnuti e carne arrizzati.

 Sentiti u mare
Tronu luntanu;
l’acqua sbatti capu petri timpuliati,
bianchi cu sale mediterraneu.

 Mettiti i pedi nta l’acqua.

A scumazza furriannu i petruddi

catigghiannu i pedi.

A luci curri nta spina

Mizzica chi friddu.

 

Alternate Ending

 

Chiurriti i occhi
U ventu liscia u corpu
comu una manu friddu ncapu n’ iatta stanca.
Sonnati i navi grechi, antici, rancurannu;
Chini cu fimmini menzu nudi
Chi manciannu racina e vivinu vinu duci .

Poi…

Pla-chi-ti, pla-chi- ti, Pla-chi-ti, Pla-chi-ti.

Ti stuvigghi (ruspigghi)…sannali Tidisci.

Ce una puzza di birra nta l’aria,

Vuci strani, peddi bianchi,  e mutanni nici nici ,

Culi di fora

Grassati cu ogghiu,  si votannu nta rina

comu cutuletti nta muddica.

Translation:

Close your eyes
And feel the sea, foamy and sparkling
That kisses the hot sand,
cooked by the sun,
Like toasted bread crumbs and azure broth.

 Hear the blowing wind,
Passing over prickly pears on the hill,
Whistling Sicilian songs;
Disheveled hair and goose bumped skin.

 Listen to the sea.
Distant thunder;
The water smashed against battered rocks
White with Mediterranean salt

Put your feet in the water.
The foam twirls pebbles
Tickling feet,

Electricity runs through the spine
Wow it’s cold

Close your eyes
The wind smooths your body

Like a cool hand on a tired cat.

Dreams of Greek ships, ancient and groaning
Filled with half naked women
Eating grapes and drinking sweet wine

Then…
Pla-chi-ti, Pla-chi-ti, Pla-chi-ti, Pla-chi-ti.
You awake…German sandals!
There is an odor of beer in the air,
strange voices, white skin, and very small briefs, naked asses
Greased with oil, they turn in the sand
Like cutlets in bread crumbs.

 

Arabic Influence in Sicily

Catedrale

Granita

Cassata

Cappella Pallatina Palermo

San Giovanni

The Arabs occupied Sicily for two centuries (827-1092) and left a deep impact on all aspects of Sicilian culture.  Most people have heard of Marsala; the wine name after the city in western Sicily.  But most don't know "Marsala" means "port of allah" in arabic.  Traveling about Sicily one can see all sorts of Arab artifacts from food to architechure.  Durum wheat was used to make the Arabic dish, "Pasta cu i sardi" long before Marco Polo brought it back from the Orient in the 13th century.  Arancini (rice balls), granite (italian ices), and cassata (ricotta filled cakes) were Arabic in origin.  Arabic tuna fishing, salt and metal mining methods are still used today in Sicily. Even the gesture of turning the finger in the cheek indicating tastiness was Muslim. The examples are endless.


Marsala salt

What's most interesting to me is how the Arab culture was embraced by their Norman conquerers in 1092.  Rather than destroying traces of the Arabic artifacs, King Roger II promoted the arts and sciences by encorporating Arabic works in medicine, astronomy, and mathematics (Algebra).  He developed an enlightened court long before the "Age of Enlightenment" by employing Arabic scholars. The Sicilian School of Poetry, a movement that spread north through the European continent was inspired by Arabic poetry.


Pasta cu sardi
 

 The Catedrale in Palermo, the main church in Sicily, has an insignia on its door which states "Praise Be To Allah".  ....missed by church officials for centuries.



Praise Be To Allah



The Things We Do For Love and the Story of Donna Franca Florio

Franca Florio, the queen of Palermo, was considered one of the most beautiful women in Europe at the end of the 19th century.   Kings,dignitaries, and artists visited her Sicilian villa to meet her.  Ironically, her husband was known to have many extra marital affairs and gave her pearls after each fling to ease his guilt. (see long necklace in photo).   She believed that her olive complexion made her unattractive. (By the way, her husband was not a very attractive man). So she spent months in a Paris clinic to "porcelainize" her face with a series of painful chemical injections that dissolved her natural skin.  

All she had to show for this was more pearls ....but for just a while.  He squandered her wealth and eventually they had to sell the necklace to survive.   

Nespoli Caduti - A Sicilian Poem

Nespoli is a fruit indiginous to Sicily, that resembles a large apricot .... Perhaps one of the best tasting fruit immaginable. Nespoli caduti or Fallen Nespoli was inspired on a trip to the country where I found acres of nespoli rotting on the ground. With an unemployment rate of 25%, This didn't make sense to me. The Nespoli is a metaphor for an older Sicilian culture that is lost or diluted. It is critical of Italian societal influences that have convinced Sicilians to look down their own language and under-value old fashioned concepts that represent basic understanding of the natural order of things. It is a testament to those like our ancestors who understood the law of the land; that is, if you don't work the land it will not bear fruit. And, that this language is inexticably linked to the land. Instead, many young Sicilians would rather live off the government pensions of their elders. Fruit and other Sicilian natural resources rot on the ground because it is economically imprudent to harvest.

Nespoli Caduti / Fallen Nespoli
by Ciro Attardo (Translation below)

Comu si ponnu vidiri i nespuli quannu sunnu caduti n'terra
Scafazzati cu i scarpi superbi
Cupunati cu i robbi Milanese e giornali Romani,
Abbrivirati cu i lagrimi di muntagni
E sputazza asciutta di tutti nonni viddani.

Comu si ponnu vidire a frutta du paradisu,
Muzzicata di Eva,
cu succu….tantu duci
chi scula di la lingua vagniata
n'capu u cori di Sicilia.

Comu si ponnu vidire i nespuli caduti,
Cupunata cu pruvulazzu fattu di machine,
Chi currinnu n'capu la autostata ,
Sciddicannu n'capu suduri e pisciazza di muli
Pi pigghiari la mancia municipali ,
Scurdannu la liggi di la terra,
Moralita di agricultura, e di la vita;
E scurdannu che venaddire esseri Sicilianu.

How can one see the nespoli
When it’s fallen to the ground
Crushed by high class shoes
Covered with Milanese clothes and Roman newspapers
Watered by tears from the mountain
And the dried spit of our peasant grandfathers.
How can one see the fruit of paradise
Bitten by Eve
With juice…so sweet
That drips down her wet tongue
Onto the heart of Sicily
How can one see the fallen nespoli
Covered with dust made by cars
That race on the highway
Sliding on the sweat and piss of mules
To get their municipal handout,
Forgetting the law of the land,
Morality of the farm, and of life;
and forgetting what it means to be Sicilian.

What Is So Special About This Tree!

This olive tree in Agrigento has shaded travelers for about 1000 years. The Greek temple in the background was built in 490 b.c.. Recently, an olive tree in southern Italy was carbon dated at 5000 yrs old.  Its exact location is kept secret. There are eight olive trees on the Mount of Olives in Israel  that existed when Jesus prayed there.  They still produce olives.  There is a black market for old olive trees that can fetch up to 5000 euros.  In the 1940's it became illegal to destroy old olive trees in Italy without permission from the goverment.

Sicily and in particular Ventimiglia (in oil painting below) exports high quality extra virgin olive. When I painted this, it was only appropriate for me to blend in this oil .   ....administering its first and last sacrament.

Mountain of Love and The Cannoli

Mount Erice

According to Sican and Greek legend, Mount Erice, located in western Sicily, was formed when Hercules' castrated genitalia fell to the earth from the grasp of a giant eagle.  The Greeks and Romans built temples to honor Aphrodite's and Venus on top of Mount Erice.  Here, women perfected the art of prostitution throughout centuries to honor the gods .  Many men, including Ulysses, traveled the known world to seek everlasting fertility and virility. Many did not survive the climb and in the 14th century skeletal remains pilgrims were found at the base of sheer cliffs. 

Layers of history were covered with layers of history. The Normans built churches among pagan temples. Today, the town has a medieval complexion.   Surviving un-shouldered hairpin turns, overlooking the earth far beneath, we were rewarded with spectacular views and delightful walks on ancient cobblestone streets. There was something romantic in the air. .....It was Maria's bakery. 

You see, Sicily is where the best cannolis are made. The best cannolis in Sicily are found in Maria's bakery in Erice. Those who survive the treacherous trek up the mountain are rewarded with pure sweet bliss.