Experience Sicily

Tag: scicli

  • January 1693 Leveled Everything

    I can’t emphasis enough how significant the infamous earthquakes of 1693 were to eastern Sicily. First of all, it wasn’t just one day or one event. “The earthquake” was a series of tremors that started on January 9, 1693 with a hypothetical 6.2 magnitude (there was no Richter Scale at the time) followed by a…

  • Up On The Hill In Scicli

    The ancient church of Saint Matthew (San Matteo) is perched on a high hill overlooking the entire town of Scicli. Now abondoned, the shell of the building was constructed in the 18th century following the devastating 1693 earthquake on top of the ruins of a Norman church and probably (I’ll venture to guess) other sacred…

  • Beautiful Baroque Balcony In Sicily

    Baroque balcony in the UNESCO recognized town of Scicli, Ragusa Province, Sicily

  • Sicily Shook On January 11, 1693

    After a magnitude (hypothetical) 6.2 foreshock on January 9, 1693, at 9PM on January 11, 1693 the earth shook in southeastern Sicily for what historians say was four minutes. Etna erupted, and a tsunami struck the Ionian coasts of eastern Sicily and the Strait of Messina. We don’t know the exact scope of the earthquake’s…

  • Tarantella In Baroque Sicily

    If I could have been anywhere last night, I would have been in the UNESCO town of Scicli (pictured), dancing the pizzica tarantella and tracing out with all the other tarantate at the Taranta Sicily Fest. *sigh* Another time!

  • Celebrating Saint Agatha in Sicily

    Viva Sant’Agata! For the next three days in Catania, Sicily’s second largest city, devotees of Sant’Agata will feverishly celebrate the virgin martyr who is identified by iconography where she is carrying her breasts on a plate. The city’s patroness (pictured as Roman soldiers attempted to burn her at the stake in this painting photographed in…

  • The Day After Christmas in Sicily

    Today, Saint Stephen’s Day, is a national holiday in Italy. Sicilians and Italians spend the day with family and friends visiting presepi di Natale, or nativity scenes, like this one pictured from Chiesa di San Bartolomeo in Scicli. Even more elaborate are ones presented by actors or townspeople dressed as the Holy Family, accompanied by…

  • San Bartolomeo Church in Scicli 

    For some reason, today I have Scicli on my mind. When I think of Scicli, I think of San Bartolomeo Church. Here’s a revisit to a past post, with a new photo. A pearl set in the midst of an ancient gorge, San Bartolomeo Church in Scicli is a sublime example of Sicilian late Baroque.…

  • The Most Awesome Day: Taranta Sicily Fest

    If I could dream up the most awesome day, this would be it: August 20 in Scicli, the The Taranta Sicily Fest: A Tarantella music and dance festival in Sicily!!!! And the headliner is one of my favorite Italian artists and the leader of the Taranta Power movement: Eugenio Bennato. I mean, seriously. My two…