Next Saturday, Learn to Make Pistachio Pesto, Cavatelli Pasta, and Sicilian Orange Salad online! Pistachio nuts (which are actually seeds) come from a tree that was brought to Italy from Syria during ancient Roman times. The trees, which have the peak production of their fruit at about 20 years of age, like dry climates with…
Tag: sicily_travel
Myths and Mysteries of Sicily: Temple E at Selinunte
Selinunte was a Greek city built on the southwestern coast of Sicily by colonists from the eastern Sicilian Greek outpost of Megara Hyblea. Founded around 651 BCE, it displayed its power by building massive temples dedicated to the gods, like this one pictured, Temple E, which scholars believe was dedicated to Hera. The Doric-style temple…
For Your Comfort And Safety In Sicily, Vaccines Required
Thank you Cheryl Rosen of Travel Research Online for including me in this article, “A Shot in the Arm or a Shot through the Heart? Mandatory Vaccine Arguments Split the Industry.” Yes, my decision may be controversial, but I am looking out for the best interest of my clients. I want that more new friendships…
Commemorating The Tremendous 1693 Earthquake In Sicily
After a magnitude (hypothetical) 6.2 foreshock on January 9, 1693, at 9PM on January 11, 1693 the earth shook in southeastern Sicily like it hasn’t since. Etna was erupting, 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 power according…
Treasures In Plain Sight in Bagheria
Meanwhile, while walking down the Corso Umberto I in Bagheria…. (Yes, this butcher shop is probably owned by a relation to Cinema Paradiso director Giuseppe Tornatore, who grew up in Bagheria. NB Bagheria has a lot of treasures hidden in plain sight!) Photo Credit: Filippo Buttitta
Recognizing Sicily
It’s hard to get something about Sicily past me without me recognizing it right away, so when watching CNN the past couple of days (for obvious reasons/I usually avoid TV news), when I saw the promotional spot for Stanley Tucci’s Searching for Italy show that premiers in February, I said, “Wait, that’s the Mother Church…
La Vucciria Isn’t So Cacophonous Anymore
Oh, how much La Vucciria market in Palermo has changed over the last few years! It gets its name because it used to be a butchery (fish and meat) with vendors singing their sales at the top of their lungs from crowded stalls and carts. Not so much anymore (at least during the day). Now,…
A Peek In Palermo
Inside a Palermo pastry shop (from 2019)
On The Twelth Day Of Christmas
I was fortunate enough two years ago to experience the live nativity scenes presented by the townspeople of Licodia Eubea on January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany. Pictured here, the Three Wise Men (Magi, aka The Three Kings) present their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the “newborn king,” the baby Jesus. They…
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…