Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
On Sicily’s northwestern corner, Erice sits atop a very steep hill, 750 metres above the Mediterranean.
Highly picturesque and spectacularly-located, it is essentially-medieval, but this village’s history extends very much further – Erice was conquered rather than created by ancient Greeks.
As the photo illustrates, some 21st century visitors to Erice find it difficult to recognise exactly what they are looking at…
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As will be more clear if you zoom in on/enlarge the featured image, it shows a very fine set of Indonesian “shadow” puppets, of the Wayang Kulit kind.
Italy abounds with museums and galleries.
Not a few of them are excellent.
Some are truly singular, albeit highly likely to be crowded.
Often, they are an “embarrassment of riches” – altogether too much to be comprehended/appreciated properly in the space of a single visit.
Our nicest museum surprise in 2023 was Palermo’s Antonio Pasqualino International Puppet Museum.
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#16 in this series celebrated a happy surprise; this episode documents a nasty one.
Italy has many attractive, spectacularly located, historically rich hilltop villages.
Sicily’s Motta Camastra is one such; it feels quite “remote”, but is in fact not far from Messina, and even closer to Taormina.
Taormina overlooks the Ionian Sea and is gorgeous…but hugely over-touristed/touristy, and chock with “luxe” boutiques et al. (all those aspects will be evident in future, multi-image posts)
Inland, and closer to Mt Etna, Motta Camastra is still resolutely real, rural.
It is noted for the excellence of its local produce, most especially nuts.
Our day trip coincided with its annual festa della noce, which proved good clean tasty fun.
The nut festival attracted many welcome/d visitors…plus one “toxic nut”/ conman.
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As the featured image “clearly shows”, when in Palermo, ape-men enjoy exclusive use of special, clearly-signposted, simian-friendly taxis.
The photo (copyright Doug Spencer, taken in Sicily’s capital city at 12.32 pm on 23 September 2023) has not been “doctored” – it contains no “fake news”.
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I am almost entirely sure that – for everyone who looks at today’s featured image – your answer to the question posed in this post’s headline would be a resounding “no”.
I am equally sure that almost all of you have seen the face of this particular Sicilian villager, albeit as it was in 1971… a little more than 52 years before I photographed her, in the very same village, on the morning of 1 October, 2023.
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This post’s subtitle reads like it had been written by Spike Milligan for The Goon Show.
Its every word, however, is literally true.
Most humans – even those who do not like to drink coffee – enjoy coffee aromas.
Most insects detest them.
As an insect repellent, coffee is most effectively deployed, as illustrated – as an “incense”, most especially when the igniting flame is applied to unused coffee grounds.
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Italy’s largest lagoon is offshore from Trapani, running down to Marsala, on Sicily’s west coast.
”White gold” – salt – has been commercially produced here for literally thousands of years.
As well as its salt-extraction pans, the lagoon has open waters; shallow, flat, and reliably windy, they have become Europe’s premier destination for exponents of a sport/activity that only began in the last quarter of the 20th century.
The lagoon is also a globally significant waterbird refuge; a substantial chunk of it is RAMSAR- listed, and protected by the WWF since 1996.
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