The town of Salemi, photographed, is a gem in western Sicily. Not only does it boast a very cool castle that dates back to Arab times, but, in addition to a remarkable St. Joseph’s Day feast tradition, its civic museum is outstanding. Before I tell you more about that, I must mention the busiate pasta…
Tag: no mafia
52 Reasons to Love Sicily | #33. Human Super Heroes
The blast, which registered on earthquake monitors, was the masterwork of the Sicilian mafia. Falcone was targeted because of his life’s work: arresting, holding accountable, and imprisoning those involved in the plague of organized corruption that had crippled Sicily for decades. Falcone and his fellow prosecutor, Paolo Borsellino, were super heroes, having risked (and subsequently…
Giuseppe “Peppino” Impastato, Organized-Crime Fighter
January 5 is Giuseppe “Peppino” Impastato’s birthday. Impastato was a political activist who vociferously exposed and confronted the mafia in his hometown of Cinisi. After his uncle Cesare Manzella was brutally killed in a car bomb in 1963, when Impastato was 15 years old, his outlook on the Cosa Nostra, of which his father was…
Giovanni Falcone’s Ideas Remain In Sicily
Men pass, but ideas remain. Remain as moral strength that lives on in the strides of future generations. “Gli uomini passano, ma le idee restano. Restano le tensioni morali che continueranno a camminare sulle gambe di altri uomini,” said Giovanni Falcone (pictured left). On May 23, 1992, in Capaci, along Sicily’s autostrada between the Punta…
A Symbolic Sunset In Agrigento, Sicily
May 8th and 9th mark the anniversary of two important moments in Sicilian anti-mafia history. In 1978, Giuseppe “Peppino” Impastato, a political activist who vociferously exposed and confronted the mafia, was murdered by the unscrupulous cell in his hometown of Cinisi. And in 1993, just down the street from this temple, pictured (said to be…
Grazie per Tutto, Remembering Falcone
I pause from the glory of my current adventures in Sicily to recognize the sacrifices of so many who have worked to fight the Sicilian mafia. Specifically today, we recognize Giovanni Falcone on the anniversary of his death by the Cosa Nostra. Sicily is a different place than it was 26 years ago because of…
Be Inspired Intellectually
Our small-group tours of less than 12 people offer travelers special opportunities to interact with locals–even if they only speak Italian and you only speak English. Between our local, English speaking guides and my cultural interpretation (both literally from the Italian language and conceptually, by discussing Sicilian culture with you through an American lens), we…
Power of the People
25 years ago today, on May 23, 1992, at the location pictured left that now features this monument in Capaci, along Sicily’s autostrada between the Punta Raisi airport and Palermo, a half-ton of explosives were detonated under the highway killing anti-mafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone, his wife Francesca Morvillo, and his police detail including Rocco Dicillo,…
Celebrating Being Pizzo Free
In 2004 in Palermo, a group of young men founded Comitato Addiopizzo, a nonpartisan, voluntary movement of merchants and consumers who en masse refuse to pay the “pizzo,” or protection money, to the Mafia. Following the philosophy that “A people that pays the pizzo is a people without dignity,” the cultural movement has swept the…