Experience Sicily

Category: Architecture

  • The Admiral’s Seven Arches Bridge

    This seven-arched bridge once crossed the Oreto River (now dried up or relegated to flow underground) on the south-east side of Palermo’s historic center. Known as the Ponte dell’Ammiraglio, or Admiral’s Bridge, it was built in 1113 by Roger II’s emir of emirs, George of Antioch. Today, this wonder of Arab-Norman architecture sits in a…

  • In Scicli, Somebody’s Watching You

    It seems everywhere you turn in Scicli, you are being watched by the Baroque faces that grace the sides of buildings and under balconies.

  • A Hillside in Scicli

    The “Late Sicilian Baroque” town of Scicli was rebuilt into the hillsides after the devastating 1693 earthquake.

  • House on Salina Island

    House on Salina, one of the 8 Aeolian Islands. The Aeolian Islands are one of Sicily’s 7 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The islands are volcanic (Stromboli and Vulcano are still active.) and were designated a UNESCO site in 2000. Movie buffs may be familiar with Salina because some scenes for the 1994 film “Il Postino”…

  • Baroque Dancing

    More fantastic statues from Bagheria’s Villa Palagonia. I love the one at the top of the arch. He looks like he’s dancing the tarantella! (Photo Credit: Experience Sicily’s Filippo Buttitta). On Friday, April 1 at 7:30PM, in Teaneck, NJ, USA at Classic Quiche Cafe, my music ensemble Villa Palagonia will be sharing a Sicily-inspired evening…

  • Our May 2016 Tour: Tall, Massive, and Handsome

    The Temple of Heracles (also known as the Temple of Hercules) of Agrigento’s Valley of the Temples possesses eight reconstructed, massive Doric-style columns. Built in the late 6th century BC, it is considered the first temple to have been built of the seven that we know of at the Valley of the Temples. Valley of…

  • Villa Palagonia Inspires Rhythms & Roots

    Villa Palagonia is a Baroque villa located in Bagheria, a town in Sicily, Italy near Palermo. The villa was built to be the country home of the fifth Prince of Palagonia, a baron under the realm of the King of Spain. In 1749, Ferdinando Gravina, the seventh Prince of Palagonia, commissioned over 600 statues of…

  • Today, Celebrate the Women in Your Life

    Madonna and child, Palermo Cathedral.

  • Our May 2016 Tour, Day 8: Polyphemus and Friends

    Sicily is the setting for many of the adventures told in Homer’s Odyssey. And, indeed, some of the stupendous mosaic scenes at the Villa Romana del Casale at Piazza Armerina (Where we’ll be on the morning of Day 8 of our May 2016 Experience Sicily with Melissa Muller tour) illustrate some of the epic poem’s…