Experience Sicily

Tag: architecture

  • An Inspired Mix of Styles

    Balcony, Palermo.

  • Villa Rammacca’s Red Carpet

    When I walked up these stairs, I felt like a princess; I just needed the glass slippers. Imagine in the 18th century when Villa Rammacca was built, pulling up in your horse-drawn coach to meet Bernardo Gravina Prince of Rammacca? Today, you can come pretty close if attend a wedding party here, as I did…

  • La Martorana Tower, Up Close

    The bell tower of Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio, or “La Martorana,” in Palermo.

  • Palermo’s San Giovanni degli Eremiti

    The cloister and red domes of Palermo’s San Giovanni degli Eremiti were built by Arab-Norman craftsmen and laborers in 1132 under that command of King Roger II. Its flowering gardens, reminiscent of what one might have encountered in ancient cities along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, are a sanctuary in the midst of the city’s…

  • Selinunte’s Massive Columns

    The ancient columns of Temple A (480-470 BC) at Selinunte are massive. Do you see the photographer?

  • Blue door, Porticello

    Blue door, Porticello.

  • Cloisters in Noto

    Known as a “stone garden” because of the white rock used to construct its principal buildings, the city of Noto was rebuilt after a devastating earthquake in 1693. The 18th century noble families built beautiful Baroque churchs and convents (for their daughters) like San Francesco (on the right) and Salvatore (on the left). Note the…

  • Solunto, an Ancient Phoenician City

    I like to believe that I could trace my roots to Solunto, one of the first settlements by the Phoenicians that was established between the 8th and 7th centuries BC. The ruins of Solunto, of which these three reconstructed columns are a part, may be visited in Santa Flavia atop Mount Catalfano, overlooking Porticello where…

  • Mosaic Designs at Monreale

    Mosaic tiles design, Cathedral of Monreale.