Experience Sicily

Tag: Bagheria

  • Finish It Off

    Because one can never have enough gelato on a stick.

  • Villa Palagonia at Villa Palagonia

    Villa Palagonia in Bagheria continues to inspire me. Today my cousin, Experience Sicily’s Filippo Buttitta, graciously took photos of Joe Ravo and I for our music duo Villa Palagonia at Villa Palagonia! Our debut album of music inspired by our Italian-American roots and Sicily is almost finished. We look forward to getting it out to…

  • Arancina: I Shouldn’t Have, But I Did

    Last week, I featured the Catania-style arancino. Well, this evening upon returning to Bagheria, since I had yet to have a Palermo-style arancina on this trip, I indulged. Here you can see that an arancina is truly shaped and sized like an orange, but isn’t one! Hence the name… arancina. It’s not an orange, but…

  • Take the Long Way Around

    I took “the long way around” today when I arrived in Sicily to see this view at Mongerbino. I have been to Sicily I think more than a dozen times (what’s the point of counting, anyway?). As I took in today’s gorgeous weather, moments with my family and friends, tastes and smells of the local…

  • A Kid in a Pastry Shop

    A kid in a pastry shop–better than a candy story, I think. A little nostalgia for today: my dad’s birthday–and in anticipation of Father’s Day (US) on Sunday. Here’s my father Peter at 8 years old in Bagheria at my great uncle’s pasticerria Bar Aurora. Written on the back of the photograph, my uncle Stefano…

  • Mirella Pipia Does it Again

    Ceramic vase by Bagheria’s Mirella Pipia.

  • Here Comes the Cassata

    There is much debate about the origins of cassata cake, but one thing is clear: it is as elaborate as the Baroque architecture one finds throughout Sicily–and it is as decadent. So much so, that until the mid-20th century, cassata was only eaten by the masses on Easter Sunday. Cassata is made up of sponge…

  • Guttuso Captured Humanity

    Sicilian artist Renato Guttuso (1912-1987) portrayed images of humanity in action. This 1953 painting, “Donne di zolfatari” or “Women of the Sulfur Minors,” captures the anguish and urgency women felt as their husbands and sons worked in the dangerous and arduous mining industry of Caltanisetta and Girgenti. Guttuso, who was from Bagheria, conveyed social issues…

  • Nothing Less Than 500

    A beloved Fiat 500 or Cinquecento in Bagheria.