{"id":67,"date":"2020-09-23T20:27:45","date_gmt":"2020-09-23T19:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/curiositycat.co.uk\/?p=67"},"modified":"2020-09-23T20:27:47","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T19:27:47","slug":"virtual-vacation-sicily-island-of-the-sun-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/curiositycat.co.uk\/index.php\/2020\/09\/23\/virtual-vacation-sicily-island-of-the-sun-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtual Vacation – Sicily – Island of the Sun (1)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Ciao! This week’s virtual vacation takes us to La Isola del Sole<\/em> – the sunny Mediterranean island of Sicily – home of one of the world’s most active volcanoes, makers of Marsala wine and birthplace of that mathematician who did his best thinking in the bath – Archimedes. Eureka!<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Let’s start by getting into a chilled out holiday mood with this relaxing Sicilian music<\/a>, then awaken your taste buds with some of these authentic Sicilian recipes<\/a> and just sit back and enjoy the fruits of your culinary labours. On this virtual trip, we’ll experience a train ride onto a ferry, discover Sicily’s colourful past from occupation to corruption, see the artistic grandeur of its churches in Palermo, watch an historic battle enacted by traditional Sicilian puppets in Syracuse, walk through the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, go on a kite-surfing tour, meander through the beautiful historic town of Taormina and explore the otherworldly terrain of Mount Etna…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Something you can see everywhere in Sicily is its distinctive flag, bearing the region’s symbol – the Trinacria – a slightly bizarre image of a head with three bent running legs. The legs, apparently, represent the three points of the triangular shape of the island and the head is of the gorgon Medusa, a representative of Sicily’s patron goddess, Athena, while the intricately knotted wheat hairdo she’s sporting (a departure from the snaky headgear she’s usually associated with) symbolises the island’s fertility. The flag is split into two colours, yellow for the city of Corleone, and red for the capital, Palermo, where we’ll be heading to first on our trip. But first we have to get there…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Train that goes on a Ferry? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We’re joining funny fellow traveller, Josh Cahill, on the sleeper train<\/a> from Milan’s Central Station to cross the Messina Strait, which separates Sicily from mainland Italy. The train actually goes onto the ferry! How cool is that! The only other place where you can travel track to ship like this is from Sweden to Germany. Once on the island, we’ll stay on the train all the way to Palermo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mafia in Palermo<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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For me, when I hear of Palermo I immediately think of Sicily’s mafia, or cosa nostra<\/em> as it’s otherwise known. They originally started up in the 19th century but to find out what Sicily was like under their control, we’re travelling back to a time when they were at the peak of their diabolical power. The sweetly dark and satirical TV drama ‘La mafia uccide solo d’estate<\/a>‘ (‘Mafia Kills Only in Summer’) follows the story of the young Arturo Giammarresi and his dysfunctional family’s unavoidable entanglements with the organization that everyone tries hard to pretend doesn’t exist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Monreale Cathedral<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Next, we come back to present-day Palermo to visit Il Duomo di Monreale<\/strong>. This impressive cathedral is where many of the mafia’s victims and anti-mafia fighters are remembered and honoured such as Giuseppe Puglisi<\/a>, the Roman Catholic priest who openly opposed the mafia and was killed in 1993. Puglisi was the first anti-mafia priest to be acknowledged as a martyr and a part of this Cathedral is dedicated to his memory. There is also a memorial for all the mafia victims including the judges Giovanni Falcone<\/a> and Paolo Borsellino<\/a>. Let’s take a look inside<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, on our Palermo tour, we take a look inside Il Teatro Massimo<\/strong>. The biggest theatre of its kind in Italy and the third largest in Europe, it was built about 120 years ago but remained closed for 23 years from 1974 to 1997 largely because of mafia corruption. The final scene of Godfather III<\/em> was played out on the theatre steps but you can read here<\/a> how it became an important anti-mafia symbol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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