FIRST OF ALL, WHICH SICILY? For there is a classical Sicily with theatres and numerous temples, a baroque one with spirals of tufa stone and stuccoes resembling whipped cream, a Sicily of castles that here have a somehow less menacing air than those in northern Europe; and then there’s the refined Sicily of Verga, Pirandello, Sciascia, and Quasimodo, the dramatic Sicily with its sulphur mines, the Bourbon Sicily of the Viceroys and the aristocrats of old, the luxuriant Sicily with coasts redolent of lemon blossom and jasmine, and a middle eastern Sicily imbued with all the soft comforts of the Arab-Norman world. To put it in a nutshell, there is a Sicily to suit all tastes. Let’s say it’s rather like an ice-cream cone: you just pick your favourite flavour and start wandering around. As if in a dream. People also come to Sicily because they have fallen in love with certain places, having read a book or seen a film, or heard the tales of others who have already been here. Or simply on the basis of some intuitive understanding, full of significance yet hard to put into words. On this raft floating in the middle of the Mediterranean there are certain localities and towns that remain etched in your memory, or your imagination, thanks to certain colours, perfumes, and happenings. Because of playful tricks of memory. Or of the imagination. Which is why it is best to make inquiries before you land here. Because you don’t just go to Sicily. You arrive here by sea or by air. As in a dream. READ WHAT? WELL, IT DEPENDS. The Odyssey, for instance, if you want to enjoy the evocative coast stretching from Mount Etna to the mythical straits of Scylla and Charybdis, or if you wish to feel the winds of the Aeolian Islands, which change every hour, depending on the whim of their lord King Aeolus. Or the fifth book of the Aeneid, if you would rather relive the emotions of Aeneas landing near Trapani and the games in honour of his father Anchises. But it also helps to have read Pirandello, in order to understand Agrigento, its inhabitants, and their healthy follies. And Verga, to see into the heart of Lola or Santuzza in the Cavalleria Rusticana. And Rosso di San Secondo before visiting Caltanissetta, which has two s’s, despite the way many people spell it - but probably not everyone has read these books. And you may even be struck with the same Angst as Mallarmé, who exclaimed in dismay, “J’ai lu tous les livres, hélas!” Because all the people who have visited the island and written about it have taken away with them their ideas, their prejudices, and their certainties. And maybe even residues of memories. a museum of art and culture between sun and sea. the sea and the islands. itineraries of faith and folklore. Sicilian foods and crafts. 1) Filicudi (ME) 2) Enna, the Cathedral 3) Messina, the Cathedral 4) Pelagie - Linosa (AG) 1 2 3 4 ART AND CULTURE BETWEEN SUN AND SEA. The identity of a land born of the waves. What is the identity of this land We use the hand gestures of the ancient born of the waves? Phoenician merchants, we are as crafty You may find yourself asking this question after as the Greeks, as captious as the Byzantines, your first encounter. Indeed it may well happen. and as blasé as the knights of Andalusia, For it is not easy to grasp the meaning and we still show great respect for the dead of this island, which is itself a continent. and for the necropolises of all those But don’t despair - that’s how it always is: who died on the island. at first sight you may well not fully understand. In our language, behaviour, food, and religion we carry fragments of Greek culture, It is not easy to understand Sicily. but also Roman, Byzantine, Muslim, Norman, Just like a beautiful woman, Sicily needs Angevin, Aragonese, Catalan… a certain type of approach Each of these has left a mark, architectural traces, and cannot be easily won. masterpieces of art, transforming the island All you can do is to let yourself be seduced. into a unique open-air museum. Just as the first Mycenaeans were seduced when they came this way to buy obsidian Sicily offers pleasure and joy and pumice-stone in the Aeolian Islands, to each and every one of its visitors. when nothing else was known for cutting And to think that in the Middle Ages Sicily and polishing. Just like the Phoenicians, was described as being “seared and riven by lava who along these very coasts set up their trading and sun, like a hell on earth, inhabited by people stations and left them in the charge of people more devil-like than human”. taken on in every corner of the Mediterranean, At the other extreme is the “invention” people who lived in peace, trading with Siculs, of the Sicily described by Stendhal, Sicans, and Elymians. whose Duchesse de Palliano declares, “… as I travelled through Sicily, my purpose was Why were they called Elymians? Ex limen, not just to observe the natural phenomena of Etna in Latin means refugee, driven from home. or to clarify to my own mind and to that This gives an immediate picture of the ancient of others what the ancient Greek authors island civilization. said of Sicily. Everyone was always welcome. Above all I sought the pleasure of the eye, Just like the Greeks, seeking somewhere which in this singular land is truly great.” to live in peace, and hosts of others. As happens today to many other unfortunates who escape to these shores, fleeing from poverty, war, famine, and oppression. Sicily welcomes everyone. In civil fashion, and has always done so. And one and all become Sicilians. For you don’t have to be born here. Hermocrates of Syracuse made this point way back in 424 BC, when he said, “We are neither Ionians nor Dorians, we are Sicilians.” 1) Selinunte (TP), Acropolis 2) Morgantina (CL), archaeological site 3) Piazza Armerina (EN), Villa del Casale 4) Eraclea Minoa (AG), Greek theatre 1 2 3 4 > CLASSICAL CULTURE. The footprints of the gods in the land of myth. “Of all the imaginable forms of dissolution, travelling Here the gods have passed their way. Their myths is the greatest I know; it is what one invents when one are the myths of the prehistoric world, folk is tired of other people... One may sometimes get angry, legends linked to the sea, the volcanoes, the rivers. but at least one amuses oneself, and immensely so.” They are the basis of the literary tradition Thus spoke Gustave Flaubert. And, reading of this island, which for tens of centuries between the lines, this reveals the supreme and has been the commercial and cultural centre sublime voluptuousness of a journey of discovery. of confluence of all those who braved the sea. Sicilian architectural remains are amongst the finest People of all races, speaking different tongues, of all antiquity. It is not easy to resist who together with their wares brought a cargo the charm of works whose beauty has conquered of culture and experience. And also religious rites, visitors of every epoch. Particularly the cultured which - we should not forget - for centuries were travellers completing their “Grand Tour”. the only rules of conduct in human communities. The greatest of these, the “Traveller” par excellence, is beyond any doubt Wolfgang Goethe. The choice is yours. A pilot to guide your way Even if his Italienische Reise has been criticized or a good guide to help you plunge deep into time. by many for its omissions, inaccuracies, From Syracuse, skirting the southern coast, and trivialities. How can that be? It is simply that without missing the enchanting Punta Braccetto, his is a journey to the end of history, the end of time; before finding yourself in the gulf of Gela. that great journey that each of us would like And then straight on to Porto Empedocle, to make into the heart of human nature. the loading port near Agrigento. Perhaps we can find Aleph in this island, the place The Valley of the Temples, seen from the sea, where all places meet, the history that contains all inspires a thousand desires. Even to pray. histories. An initiation to mystery rites, a descent The towers that occasionally rise along the coast to the Underworld: from the prodigy of Segesta, are all that remains of an ancient system with its temple that is not a temple, of coastal defence designed in the late sixteenth to Villa Palagonia at Bagheria, the negation of the century by the architect Camillo Camilliani. traditional scene of aristocratic delights. They were supposed to be a deterrent, Or the city of the dead at Pantalica, which becomes but they didn’t deter anyone. a charming place to live in. Especially not the pirates who plagued these coasts. And then Sciacca with its enticing cuisine And there lies the clue to it all - Goethe did not and the mystery isle of Ferdinandea, which every write a Baedeker. And neither do these few pages once in a while rises from the depths of the sea, claim to be one. We are just at the invitation stage. in a cloud of smoke and vapours, amidst explosions We would like you to come to Sicily, to see, and columns of fire, like a show of magic. to learn, to enjoy, to savour what has enchanted From Selinunte to Motya, with the colourful all those who have come here in the past enchantment of the Egadi Islands, and the landfall four thousand years.