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Sicily
and Vermont

Calendar rock at S. Ciparello, Palermo Province

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 
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1500 immigrants saved at sea in one day

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 
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Votive altar at night

This votive altar was in the Albergheria quarter. A the end of this street are five steps down and you are right in front of the gated entrance to the cathedral. I loved the lights strung on in vertical stripes.
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Ex votos

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 
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1944 Sunday dinner under the grape arbor

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 
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Realmonte: Scala dei Turchi

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mafia wins one

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 
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LaRosa Works Offers Drawing Tour of Southeast Sicily

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."
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The Temple at Segesta



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 
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Stealing light

From today's La Repubblica Palermo edition:

Hundreds of people reduced their electric bill to zero with a single jack in a distribution box and people lined up out the door of a hacker nicknamed the Magician of the Computer to pay 300 euros to have their meter's software modified so as not to register usage.  Read More 
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Sperlinga casa caverna. Sweet!

Via Pannetiere 3. My neighbor, but no one was home. A friend of mine let me sleep in her guest cave for a couple of nights, a couple of times. By the second time, she had inherited a different one which her youngest son used as a kid's club house. Comes with a view of the  Read More 
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