From today's La Repubblica: A boat full of immigrants capsized 80 miles off the coast of Libya and nine people drowned trying to get to Europe. The Italian coast guard saved the 144 shipwreck survivors and put them on a military boat bound for Sicily while Coast Guard members stayed to look for more survivors or Read More
Sicily
and Vermont
IMMIGRANTS: one dead, a thousand rescued
April 11, 2015
They were taken to Porto Empedocle, near Agrigento, Sicily. Read it in today's La Repubblica.
Calendar rock at S. Ciparello, Palermo Province
April 8, 2015
Archeologist Alberto Scuderi, geoarcheologist Francesca Mercadante and her husband and co-explorer Dr. Pippo Lo Cascio have discovered that a seven-foot high rock with a hole carved out of it on a hilltop in Palermo province was actually a second-millenium B.C. megalithic structure that celebrates the winter solstice. On December 22 the first rays of Read More
1500 immigrants saved at sea in one day
April 5, 2015
Five overloaded, unseaworthy ex-fishing boats loaded with would-be immigrants were saved from danger near the Libyan shores . The Italian Navy had received a distress call via satellite phone warning that three boats were in need of rescue. The ships sent found five boats full of people and rescued all of them, taking them to Lampedusa and Porto Empedocle in Sicily. Read More
Votive altar at night
April 3, 2015
Ex votos
April 1, 2015
It is a tradition all over southern Italy to promise a thing of value to a saint in exchange for a "grazia ricevuta", a favor received, often a cure. Those who could afford it often bought silver miniature bas relief replicas of the body part which received the grace. They pin them to the Read More
1944 Sunday dinner under the grape arbor
March 25, 2015
I remember these Sundays as something fun. The food and the fun on the lawn would go on into evening when I would catch fireflies and put them in a jar with holes punched in the cap for air. We little kids had a tin tub for a pool and a garden hose draped Read More
mafia wins one
March 23, 2015
From La Repubblica/Palermo edition of 22 March 2015.
A restaurant owner has given up and decided to move out of the Vucciria market area and night life hub of Palermo after a bonfire on the Eve of Saint Joseph's Feast (March 19) practically destroyed his business and put his customers and staff in danger. Read More
A restaurant owner has given up and decided to move out of the Vucciria market area and night life hub of Palermo after a bonfire on the Eve of Saint Joseph's Feast (March 19) practically destroyed his business and put his customers and staff in danger. Read More
LaRosa Works Offers Drawing Tour of Southeast Sicily
March 20, 2015
From New York-based Karen La Rosa of LaRosaWorks.com:
"Draw each day with instruction, guidance, and handouts to deepen your understanding of drawing skills, your understanding of Sicily, and your own creative process, all done with an eye towards fun, exploration and discovery."
"Draw each day with instruction, guidance, and handouts to deepen your understanding of drawing skills, your understanding of Sicily, and your own creative process, all done with an eye towards fun, exploration and discovery."
The Temple at Segesta
March 19, 2015
In 2006 I invited my sisters and a couple of close friends to join me in my Bue Marino rental house in a tufa mine on Favignana for the 20th anniversary Read More