Tag: enna
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Carry That Weight
The various confraternities of the city of Enna participate in the Good Friday procession with much fervor. Photo credit: Filippo Buttitta (2017)
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Sicilian Skyscraper
Enna’s Castello di Lombardia has existed in various forms since pre-Greek times. Its foundation is built over what once was a temple to Demeter, the goddess of the grain and the harvest. Photo credit: Filippo Buttitta
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The Belly Button of Sicily
Considered the “belly button of Sicily,” the small city of Enna holds court in the center of the island region. It has been strategically important since the Sicanian era (the population before the Greeks and Romans). The citizens of Enna are very proud of their medieval heritage, and especially proud of their castle, the Castello…
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Holy Week in Sicily: Enna
Holy week, the week between Palm Sunday (this coming Sunday) and Easter, is a solemn, yet exciting time in Sicily. Last year, I featured the events in Trapani for “I Misteri,” the city’s magnificent Good Friday procession. This year, I’m going to feature photos taken in Enna by my cousin Filippo Buttitta, like this one…
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Way Up Over the Rainbow
A rainbow with Mount Etna in the background, taken today, by Experience Sicily guide Sebastiano Garifo, from the town of Centurpide in Enna province, Sicily, Italy
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One Ostrich, Two Ostrich
The corridor of the Ambulatory of the Big Game Hunt at the Roman Villa del Casale in Piazza Armerina has been called a “map of the world,” by some scholars. Capped by two floor lunettes on either side, one representing Mauritania, a country in Africa, and the other India, the extraordinary mosaic scenes along the…
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‘Tis His Season
The current grape harvest season makes me think of Dionysus (The Romans called the God of wine Bacchus.). This is a terracotta bowl fragment featuring a relief of Dionysus, god of wine, vegetation, theater, and ecstasy, from Morgantina, an ancient Greek town in Sicily (3rd to 1st century B.C.E.).
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Beach Volleyball in Ancient Rome
You might think these women are at the beach… Not exactly. However, they are athletes competing in a sporting event as depicted by a mosaic floor at the UNESCO recognized Villa Romana del Casale in Piazza Armerina, Sicily. The “Chamber of the Ten Maidens” does offer scholars of fashion a reference point for the history…
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The First Time Ever I Saw Your Vase
The detail of the face painted on this terracotta jar that is associated with weddings (called lebes gamikos) is extraordinary, considering it is from the 3rd century B.C. It is from the ancient town of Centuripe in Enna province, which was, at one time, one of Sicily’s biggest producers of ceramic objects. This vase illustrates…