Tag: tours of sicily
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52 Reasons to Love Sicily | #32. Strolls Through Graceful Piazzas
Do an image search on Grammichele to see what this historic center looks like from a bird’s-eye view. It’s pretty neat!
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52 Reasons to Love Sicily | #31. Extraordinary Natural Beauty
Scala dei Turchi will take your breath away, especially early in the morning or during the off-season when she is all yours. When you see the hard-mud material, called marlstone or marl, pouring into the turquoise Mediterranean waters, the contrast of snow-like earth to gem-like sea is phenomenal.
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52 Reasons to Love Sicily | #29. Ancient Surprises
After being sacked by Arab conquerors in 878 and its Norman-era steeple and stone roof collapsing with the historically powerful earthquake of 1693, the current baroque-style cathedral, dedicated to the Navtività di Maria Santissima, was constructed at the beginning of the 18th century. Still today, though caked with layers of architectural history, Siracusans will point…
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52 Reasons to Love Sicily | #27. Island Hopping
Sicily in ancient times was Magna Grecia (Greater Greece), and today at first glance, you might have thought this photo was Greece, but in fact, it’s Levanzo, an island off of western Sicily. Yes, it’s this gorgeous, and so are the other Egadi Islands (Marettimo and Favignana), the Eolian Islands (There are seven of them!),…
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52 Reasons to Love Sicily | #26. Haute Cuisine … No, Bread
This post was supposed to be about how in Sicily you can find outstanding modern, gourmet cuisine. And you can. I have eaten at some of Sicily’s best haute cuisine restaurants like I Pupi in Bagheria, Bye Bye Blues in Mondello, Ristorante Cortile Arabo in Marzamemi, and others. And yes, these are excellent restaurants with eye-popping…
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52 Reasons to Love Sicily | #25. East Meets West in Sicily
Sicily is a bridge where east meets west, especially in Palermo where north African and middle-eastern sensibilities blend with European ones, as illustrated by the Arab-Norman heritage of Palermo. The Arabs were in power in Sicily from roughly 827 to 1061, and many Sicilians will tell you they are proud of the cultural and technological…
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52 Reasons to Love Sicily | #24. The Mother Goddess’ Presence is Everywhere
Demeter, the goddess of the grain, female fertilization, and the harvest, who is the mother of Persephone, represents the great matriarch in ancient Greek mythology. Her power to cultivate the bounties on the Earth’s surface for us are illustrated significantly during the myth of Demeter and Kore/Persephone. Before the Christian era, the Eleusinian Mysteries (as…
