Experience Sicily

Tag: Palermo

  • Artistry and Imagination in Palermo 

    We saw so much today! Palermo is bustling with new bars, cafès, and boutiques, it’s so exciting to be here. So much new, yes, but the traditional still tugs my heart–for example, the performance of the Opera dei Pupi we saw presented by the Argento Family. Wow! What fun to see Orlando and Rolando fighting…

  • Feel Like Royalty 

    On September 25, you could feel like royalty when you step into the world of the Norman kingdom in Palermo. Join me for our 8-day, multi-sensory, small-group Enchanting Sicily tour… We do all of the planning so you can feel like a princess or a prince! Contact me at AllisonScola@ExperienceSicily.com for the full itinerary. 

  • A World of Women’s Voices

    This painting by Ettore De Maria Bergler, hangs in Palermo’s Palazzo dei Normanni, the house of the Sicilian Parliament. Titled, “The Ruins of the Temple of Jupiter in Syracuse,” or “I Ruderi del Tempio di Giove di Siracusa,” it was painted in 1891.  Please join me in Middletown, Connecticut this Saturday, June 10 as part…

  • Monreale’s Back Side

    Not many people venture to the back side of Monreale Cathedral, but more should. The back of the apse, photographed, is a work of art unto itself. The fascinating stone work incorporates designs of inlaid lava stone, a technique called intarsias, which is a signature element of Arab-Norman architecture.  If you have a few minutes…

  • What’s Your Favorite Style? 

    Fans of architecture will love La Martorana church in Palermo. It’s initial construction started in the 1140s, exploiting the Arab-Norman style fostered by Roger II and in this case, his trusted admiral, George of Antioch. Then, over the centuries, it took on Baroque elements and other styles. It has Greek and Albanian influences because of…

  • A Different Kind of Sandwich

    One of my favorite things to eat in Sicily is panelle and cazzilli stuffed in a seasame seed bun (pictured). Panelle are flat chickpea-flour fritters made with fresh parsley, lemon juice, salt, and olive oil. Cazzilli, which is a vulgar way of saying “little penises,” are potato croquettes made with mashed potatoes, fresh parsley (or…

  • 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…

  • Revel in Music in Sicily this Summer

    Music is everywhere in Sicily. Pictured here are Angelo Salvatore Daddelli (guitar and vocals) and Marco Macaluso (accordion) (Sorry! I don’t know the bass player’s name.) performing for the crowds in Palermo’s Piazza Verdi. You too can make music, perform, and rub elbows with musicians in Sicily–What a great way to experience a new culture…