These lovers will greet you on Saturday, Feb. 16 during our Experience Sicily Valentine’s Sicilian Style in New York City event. Just like in Sicily, where ceramic planters featuring the heads of queens and kings seem ever present, your table this weekend will be graced with such icons, so you’ll feel like you’re in Sicily!…
Category: Ceramics
With Each Pump of Lu Sapuni
This beautiful soap dispenser was made for me by ceramic artist Angelo Varsallona, based in Caltagirone. It sits at my kitchen sink in the New York area. I think of Sicily with every pump! Bonus: lu sapuni is how one would say soap in Sicilian. Extra bonus: lu lumiuni or la lumia is how one…
Packed With Punch in Cefalù
Some of the most extraordinary treasures can be found in tiny museums in Sicily, so don’t overlook them! An example is this crater featuring an illustration of a tuna fisherman/fishmonger from 370 to 380 A.D., found in the Mandralisca museum in Cefalù.
Ancient Sicilian Devotion
As we prepare for our annual Feast of Santa Lucia on Sunday, Dec. 9 in NYC at Cacio e Vino (Details and register at https://experiencesicily.com/events/festa-di-santa-lucia/), we must first start long before Lucia’s time, in the 7th century B.C.E. During this ancient Greek era, women devotees prayed to the goddesses Persephone and Demeter for healthful fertility…
Peace Dove in Mazara Del Vallo, Sicily
Tile on the a wall in the kasbah of Mazara del Vallo (Photo Credit: Peter DiGeronimo)
Custom for the Customer
This is my new soap dispenser, made for me by ceramic artist Angelo Varsallona, who is based in Caltagirone. In May, I went hunting along the famous stairs of the baroque town seeking two different dispensers for our new apartment. When I couldn’t find what I was looking for, Angelo offered to make them for…
Bringing Sicily Home
When your clients come home from their Sicily tour and create a Sicilian-inspired dinner on a summer night in Massachusetts and send you the photos … Joy!
Ascending Into A Different Realm
Today, walking up and down Caltagirone’s Staircase of Santa Maria del Monte felt magical. There is something ethereal about connecting the “upper and lower” parts of town via this 1609 staircase–here with spring flowers decorating it! It’s as if you are ascending into a different realm using the 142 steps that have unique, colorful majolica…
A Serving of Sicilian Ceramics from Santo Stefano di Camastra
Ceramic plate photographed at Santo Stefano di Camastra
Burgio: A Souvenir And A Story
Bringing home a unique handcrafted piece of pottery for yourself or your loved ones is a fantastic souvenir. Sicily has many centers of ceramics, perhaps the most famous are Caltagirone, Santo Stefano di Camastra, and Sciacca. Burgio, where I photographed this image, is also well-known for its earthenware. For an off-the-beaten path stop, it’s a…