Tag: Palermo

  • Bust of Demeter from Selinunte

    Terracotta bust of the goddess Demeter from the 4th century B.C.E., from the eastern hill acropolis of Selinunte, now housed in Palermo’s Museo Salinas

  • Even The Floor Is Dazzling

    If the 68,000 square feet of mosaic tiles on the walls of Monreale Cathedral don’t mesmerize you, perhaps the floor-designs will! Created by Byzantine-Arab-Norman craftsmen in the late 12th century, William II’s temple offers endless inspiration. The red stone is called red porphyry. The ancient emperors associated it with power during the Roman Empire. It…

  • Spice It Up

    Palermo’s outdoor markets should be on your itinerary when visiting this historic city. Among the three centers of exotic scents, cacophonous sounds, and vibrant colors: Il Capo, Ballarò, and Vucciria, you’ll find what you are looking for and a few things you didn’t know you needed… Like the spices pictured. Each market has its own…

  • My Lady, I’ll Have Pizza

    The Normans made sure that their castle at Caccamo was impenetrable. With construction dating back to the 11th century, it sits atop a steep mountain overlooking a vast green valley and fresh water lake (a rarity in Sicily). Today, you are welcome to visit the Castello’s museum. The imposing structure also houses an excellent pizzeria,…

  • Tuesday Afternoon At The Market

    Afternoon at the Vucciria market, Palermo

  • The Olive Report, Part 2

    This is Part 2 of your olive report! On Monday, the team at Agriturismo Villa Cefalà was preparing the nets for the olive harvest. A week after the photo for Part 1 was taken, the fruit looked a bit more plump.

  • Simple, Seasonal, and So Good

    For dinner on Tuesday night, my cousins went straight to my heart by treating me to a meal at Trattoria Don Ciccio in Bagheria, one of my top favorites on the island. I enjoyed bucatini pasta with a simple sauce of Romanesco broccoli with pine nuts, olive oil, onions, and breadcrumbs.

  • Selinunte Brought To Life

    Before leaving for the US today, yesterday I found a few minutes to see the artifacts from Selinunte, Europe’s largest archeological park in southwestern Sicily, at the ever-under-renovation Salinas Archeological Museum in Palermo. I was thrilled to see the metopes from the temples, like this one pictured from Temple C. Dated to be from c.…

  • Meet An Artist in Palermo

    I’ve spent a busy couple of days in Palermo seeing cousins, doing some business, and scouting out artists’ shops and workshops for our Experience Sicily clients to consider visiting when they are in Italy’s 2018 Capital of Culture. For example, if you are a knitter, and I know some of you are, you could spend…