Palermo, Sicily

I took a week of vacation and went south to Sicily. I learned quite a few things, for one Sicily only became part of Italy in 1860 or 150 years ago. To this day people in Sicily have their own language and speak of Italy as the other country next door. Sicily originally was part of greater Greece and populated by Greeks, legend says that many came after the fall of the City of Troy. Then other groups arrived, the North Africans from Carthage (Tunis), the Romans, the Arabs and then the Normand's with King Roger and his son William the Conqueror who invaded England in 1066. The Germans with Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen (1194 –1250) shaped the politics of Europe in his time, the French with Charles of Anjou and then the Spanish Bourbon, Lord Nelson had an Estate in Sicily, finally the Italians arrived with Garibaldi in 1860 to liberate the Island, the population did not have much of a choice. All this makes for a colorful history and wonderful culture.

Sicily being a volcanic island like Hawaii, has incredibly rich soil and produces a great variety of vegetables and fruits. It also has many exotic flora and fauna, not exactly the distorted picture Hollywood loves to present of a dirt poor desert like wind swept island, think of the Godfather movie trilogy.
The people are very nice and hospitable, the cuisine is imaginative and delicious, lots of fresh fish and seafood, they have a deep red tuna found just off the coast of Sicily which is wonderful. Palermo has the second largest Opera house, Teatro Massimo, after Paris built between 1875-97, with its mahogany panelling and hand painted water silk ceiling. It was closed for 25 years for repairs and re-opened in 1997. It still needs a lot of maintenance.
With so many great rulers having made of the island their centre of power, there are lots of monuments, churches and palaces. The Franciscans, the Dominicans and Benedictines all had great monasteries. The 3 greatest cathedrals of the middle-ages where built in Sicily, the first one in Cefalu by King Roger II in 1150, the second by his son William the Conqueror in Monreale in 1184 and the famous jewel like Capella Palatina (1130) in the Royal Normand Palace in Palermo, all in the Byzantine style. They chose this style of architecture to indicate that culturally and politically they followed Constantinople-Byzantium and not the Pope in Rome with whom they were in conflict. The mosaics are marvelous considering that the 3 buildings are 1000 year old, all kept in pristine conditions. Both the Cathedral in Cefalu and in Monreale where the great Normand rulers are buried in imposing red porphyry mausoleums are in use to this day. How these great buildings came to be built and where did the funds come from is a mystery to this day. The Cathedral of Monreale has 2 tons of solid gold in the mosaic covering the ceiling and walls.
A friend of mine had arranged for a special visit of 3 oratories in Palermo decorated by Giacomo Serpotta who in the 18th century developed a style of decoration which became associated with Sicily and all made of stucco, which is a composite of marble dust and other ingredients which turns into a paste and can be modeled like clay. His statues and putti are a meeting of the secular and the profane. I had a professor of art history who explained the history and style and how various artists were asked to contribute, Caravaggio was one but also painters of the Flemish school like Van Dyck came to Sicily to work.
Suddenly an Island best known today for the Godfather movies and the mafia appears under a totally different light, rich in European history, an important military post in the Mediterranean and producing great art and food, a centre for humanity.
I really fell in love with Sicily, a wonderful place, well worth a visit and so much on offer.