Ciao

  My OmniaCom Italia prepaid Internet connection stopped working this morning.  I bought it to download some video for my sister and to finish writing these Palermo emails.  We still have time on our dongle but that means sharing and you know how that sometimes goes.  The prepaid card was for a week.  It worked just fine Friday when I bought it and Saturday too.  Today nothing.  Maria in the office checked and the system seems to be down.  Apparently the ItaliaCom office is closed Sunday so no help there.  So it goes and back to sharing.

Ru

   Palermo Cathedral and the Gesu

We hadn’t planned to visit the Palermo Cathedral; but it happened to be on our way to the Cappella Palatina so we paid our 1 Euro entrance fee and went in.  Most churches were 1 or 2 Euro.

“The Duomo (Cathedral) of Palermo, Sicily, is an impressive 12th-century cathedral encompassing a wide variety of architectural styles.

     In 1184, during Sicily’s Norman period, Archbishop of Palermo Gualtiero Offamiglio founded the cathedral on the site of a Muslim mosque, which had itself been built over an early Christian basilica.

The archbishop’s main aim was to surpass the glory of the magnificent cathedral of nearby Monreale, and the Palermo Duomo became an architectural battleground for "The Battle of the Two Cathedrals." For most visitors, Monreale Duomo remains the winner, but Palermo’s cathedral is still well worth a visit.

     Many additions were made to the original Norman structure over the years. The exterior was "Gothicized" in the 13th and 14th centuries, and the Spaniards made their mark in the 15th century.

But if anyone could be called the culprit for the cathedral’s playground of styles, it is the Neapolitan architect Ferdinando Fuga, who went with the mood of his day and in 1771 and 1809 gave both the exterior and the interior of the Duomo a sweeping Neoclassical style. The only section that the restorers didn’t touch were the apses, which still retain their impressive Geometric decoration.

     As is to be expected given its history, the most prominent characteristic of the Duomo is its many architectural styles. The exterior shows the development of the Gothic style from the 13th to 14th centuries.

The south porch (1453) is a masterpiece of the Catalan style, and at the apse end, sturdy Norman work can be seen through a decorative Islamic-inspired overlay.

The facade is closed between two soaring towers with double lancet windows. The middle portal, dating from the 15th century, is enhanced by a double lancet with the Aragonese coat-of-arms.

The four impressive campaniles (bell towers) date from the 14th century, the south and north porches from the 15th and 16th centuries, and the dome from the 18th-century.

Inside, the Duomo is a royal pantheon, sheltering many tombs of Sicily’s kings. The first chapel on the right contains six of the most impressive tombs, including that of Roger II, the first king of Sicily (d. 1154). He was crowned in the Duomo in 1130.

     Squeezed into an enclosure by the south porch are the remains of Roger’s daughter Constance (d. 1198) and her husband, Henry VI (d. 1197). Henry VI was emperor of Germany and the son of Frederick Barbarossa. Also buried here is their son, Frederick II (d. 1250), also emperor of Germany and king of Sicily, and his wife, Constance of Aragón (d. 1222). The last royal burial here, of Peter II, king of Sicily, was in 1342.

Accessed from the south transept, the Treasury (Tesoro) is a repository of rich vestments, silverware, chalices, holy vessels, altar cloths, and ivory engravings of Sicilian art of the 17th century.

A highlight of the Treasury’s collection is the 12th-century cap-like crown of Constance of Aragon, which was removed from her head when her tomb was opened in the 18th century. Other precious objects removed from the royal tombs are also on display here.

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/italy/palermo-duomo

Ciao

   Our first morning in Palermo we saw the Central Library and the Cappella Palatina.   I had the literary traveler tour and Linda and Frank had an actual Sicily tour book with a very useful map, so between us we saw quite a bit.

Ru

Biblioteca Centrale della Regione  &  Cappella Palatina 

Ciao,

  Well today is our last day in Sicily though one could stay in Sicily for a month and have lots to see.  We have actually been here 10 days longer than we’d planned thanks to the strong winds and seas.  Tomorrow’s weather is looking good and there will be several boats leaving early in the morning to make good use of it.  We should be in Tunisia Tuesday midday in Hammamet at the Yasmine Marina.  I don’t know much at all about Tunisia but when I linked it with watercolor I got lots of Internet hits.  Apparently Tunisia had a huge impact on Paul Klee among others.  Not much was available on Kindle but I did download Fountains in the Sand: Rambles Among the Oases of Tunisia by Douglas Norman who died in 1952 so I imagine some things have changed. It will be interesting to read his chapter on Hammamet.

   I will try to get off maybe one or two final emails about our days in Palermo, but some of it and some images of Licata will have to wait until we’re settled in Tunisia.

Ru

Palermo with Linda and Frank Szerdahelyi 

     I sort of wanted to visit Palermo because our Sicily book made some of the sights look quite  spectacular.  And it was like, “how can we go to Sicily and not visit Palermo?”  As I wrote in an earlier email,  our attempt to drive there was a total failure.  Before leaving on our road trip we’d met cruisers Linda and Frank Szerdahelyi here to visit Linda’s Sicilian relatives and to see Sicily on their way to crossing the Atlantic.  They too were still here waiting for good weather when we returned so invited them to come for Randal’s attempt at clam pasta. (Very good!)  During dinner they mentioned they were going on a 2 night trip to Palermo and I said, “Oh, maybe we’ll catch the same bus as you.”  Well that turned into a lovely visit to Palermo with Linda and Frank.  We booked into the same hotel Linda had found on Via Roma just near all the sights we’d want to see.  Randal and I had planned to stay just one night but added another as we were having such a good time and there was so much to see. 

We all met on the marina dock 6:30 am Tuesday for the 15 minute walk to the bus station and caught the 7 am bus which would arrive in Palermo about 10:15.  By car it would probably take half that time, but we made stops in small towns and once so a man could retrieve his sun glasses from his luggage in the bus storage compartment.  We also made a “comfort stop.” 

     The Palermo bus station was just a 15 minute walk from our hotel.  We were too early for check-in but left our bits of luggage and tortoises Olive and Oliver (more later on that) and off we went for snack and then some sights. 

     Linda and Frank had some specific things they wanted to see as did I.  As in Etna I had a walking tour from the book Desiring Italy.   Cahill’s Literary Traveler suggestions made me especially want to see the Gesu, the Baroque church of the Casa Professa with its “incredible wild display of marble and sculptural decoration” and the surrounding streets full of vendors; and also the Quattro Canti “an operatic crossroads with four facades bearing fountains and statues of the 4 seasons, 4 Spanish kings of Sicily, and the 4 patronesses of Palermo.”  My Sicily Art History Culture and Folklore book had a 15th century  painting of Mary that caught my eye.  The book seems to imply that the painting is located in the Capella Palatina, another fantastic place which we visited looking for the painting.  The painting isn’t there; it’s in the Palazzo Abattelis; so it was also added to our list.  Super unfortunately for Linda and Frank, the archeological museum, a main attraction for them, was closed for renovation.  One could spend days and days in Palermo studying each beautiful church or fountain or building.  We saw what we could in two and had great fun.

Buona note,

  I’ve written about our road trip, not how it happened, but writing first about my favorites. Enna, then S. Stefano di Camastra, Villa Romana and Piazza Armerina  and finally Mt. Etna.  Of them all my least favorite destination was Mt. Etna.  If you want to see Etna you have to plan at least a full day to do some hiking.  Or better go at night with a guide to see what apparently can be quite a show.  You can also spend a bunch of money for the cable car to avoid half of the hike.   We didn’t really want or have the time to do any of those things.  So we drove to Etna, walked around a bit, collected a rock souvenir, bought a 2 Euro bottle of water ( a small bottle) and drove off.  The drive each way was quite worth it taking us from the south coast, over the mountains, and then down through some valleys on our way to the north coast and S. Stefano di Camastra.  Here are a few photos from that day.

   Our final excursion here on Sicily was to Palermo for 2 nights with newest cruising pals Linda and Frank on SV Interlude.  Much more sensibly we took the public bus.   I hope to write that up before we leave Monday for Tunisia.  At least that’s the plan as of today.  The wind is howling outside this evening, but is supposed to calm down by Monday. 

Ru

“Mount Etna is Europe’s tallest active volcano and is located in Sicily, Italy. Like many other dangerous volcanoes such as Mount St Helens and Mount Vesuvius, Etna is a composite volcano. It has been created by the Earth’s active tectonic plate system – the African plate is moving below the Eurasian plate. As the Eurasian plate moves down into the Earth, it melts. Rising magma erupts at the surface as lava and ash and builds Etna in the process.

    Etna has erupted many times during recorded history and is still very active.

There are towns and villages surrounding the mountain, including Catania. In the past, the Italian authorities have used explosives, concrete dams, and ditches to divert lava flows away from these settlements”.   http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/earth/collections/mount_etna

Our first night was spent in Acireale on the south coast rather than in Enna, but you already know that story.   And you saw this photo of us at the lovely waterfront restaurant with “brother John.” 

Buona sera,

   So, it looks as if we might get a weather break and be heading off for Tunisia on Monday.  We do need to be on our way, but there’s really so much to see here in Sicily that one could spend much more time here.  We spent just returned from several days in Palermo with our friends Linda and Frank and had a great time.  What seems like a confusing mess from the autostrada made much more sense when you take the bus to the central terminal just near the old/central part of Palermo.  Lots of fun; too much food!

   This email returns to our car trip, the first and last mornings actually; Villa Romana del Casale and Piazza Armerina.

Ru

Piazza Armerina & Villa Romana del Casale

  Villa Romana del Casale was the first stop of our Sicily road trip.  The actual town of Piazza Armerina was our final stop the last day.  We found driving to our destinations was fairly easy.  But the closer you got, the more difficult as signs seemed to point in contradictory ways or disappear altogether. (Which reminds me of the joke: the food was terrible and there was so little of it.) Ultimately we found our way and most of the countryside and tiny towns with steep narrow streets were worth the occasional backtracking.  

   Randal has developed a fascination with Roman floor mosaics.  His main reason for seeing Sicily was to visit Villa Romana del Casale famous for its extensive floor mosaics.  We parked in the huge, mostly empty lot, as we’d gotten an early start that morning.  Good thing as the lot was full when we left and the sun quite hot.  We did stop for a snack at one of the stands near the entrance allowing several busloads of folks to arrive turning the place quite crowded.  At the ticket booth are all of the “Do Not” signs including one with a camera indicating “no photos”.  We were both really disappointed until we saw the entire tour group ahead of us clicking away as their guide watched.  So we also ignored the sign but I have to say, none of our photos came out all that well.   And it was hard to take in so much all at one time especially as it got even more crowed and quite hot.  But we did “buy the souvenir book” so now can go back and read in leisure.

“Roman exploitation of the countryside is symbolized by the Villa Romana del Casale (in Sicily), the centre of the large estate upon which the rural economy of the Western Empire was based. The villa is one of the most luxurious of its kind. It is especially noteworthy for the richness and quality of the mosaics which decorate almost every room; they are the finest mosaics in situ anywhere in the Roman world.”  http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/832

This link includes a video explaining the Unesco World Heritage site.

“These extraordinarily vivid mosaics, probably produced by North African artisans, deal with numerous subjects, ranging from Homeric escapades and mythological scenes to portrayals of daily life, including the famous tableau of girls exercising in their “bikinis”.

   The Villa was built in four main sections: the main entrance with its thermal baths, a peristyle with living area and guest rooms, the private rooms of the owner, complete with basilica (public hall) and a triclinium (dining area) and elliptical courtyard.

   Almost completely covered by a landslide in the 12th Century, the Villa was partly rediscovered in the 19th Century. However, not until the 20th Century, with the excavations of Paolo Orsi, Giuseppe Culrera and Gino Vinicio Gentile did the magnitude and magnificence of Villa Romana del Casale come to light. It is now a UNESCO Heritage site.” http://www.thinksicily.com/guide-to-sicily/towns-and-cities-in-sicily/piazza-armerina.aspx

http://sites.davidson.edu/csa/more-than-mosaics-villa-romana-del-casale-a-piazza-armerina-site-report-3/  is a really good description of the Villa Romana from the school’s Classics Abroad program

Buona Sera,

  Ru

The buildings of Santo Stefano are pleasant but undistinguished. What is remarkable is the flood of bright colors that pours out of store fronts on the Palermo-Messina road. The hills around the town are a source of excellent clay which has made Santo Stefano the ceramics capital of Sicily. The main street is lined with merchants and manufacturers displaying all manner of beautiful and useful objects, from traditional to modern designs, from small plates to giant urns. The prices are some of the best to be found anywhere, clearly lower than those in more touristy destinations like Taormina, and only a fraction of those charged in the ritzy establishments of Florence or Siena. Shopkeepers in Santo Stefano are also glad to negotiate and offer substantial discounts for large purchases. When you barter, you are likely to be talking to the actual artisan who made the pieces. Pride of workmanship is apparent. No particular ceramics shop stands out above the others. There are a few which feature more modern pieces. The traditionalists have lots to choose from. Just remember to enjoy the views as you walk from shop to shop.  http://www.initaly.com/regions/hilltowns/sims.htm

http://sicilia.indettaglio.it/  more info about Sicilian ceramics

http://www.italyworldclub.com/

http://www.thejuicesqueezer.com/

Santo Stefano di Camastra

Buona Sera,

   The wind is fierce just now and has been all day; here in the marina!  Our schedule has never been so impacted by weather as it has been here in the Mediterranean.  It will be days before we can leave so we’ve signed up for the Linda Szerdahelyi Palermo tour.  Linda is another cruiser we met recently.  She and her husband Frank were planning a 2 day tour to Palermo and we’ve joined with them, sort of.  We’ll meet them 6:30 am tomorrow morning to go catch the 7 am bus to Palermo.  We’ve booked a room at the Moderno Hotel which Linda had found.  They have their vague plans and we our vague but it will be fun traveling together.  Linda and I walked this morning visiting a lovely church, the local fort and the huge cemetery.  Linda’s mother and father are from Sicily so she was actually hunting for possible relatives.  We especially had fun with the castle staff and some of the cemetery workers as Linda chatted with them in Italian about her family.  Much more sensible to visit Palermo by bus than by car.

Ru

S. Stefano Di Camastra

“The buildings of Santo Stefano are pleasant but undistinguished. What is remarkable is the flood of bright colors that pours out of store fronts on the Palermo-Messina road.”

http://www.initaly.com

    At 55 Euro ( $72 U.S.) per day renting a car in Licata isn’t  cheap. (Mr. Din junkers on Langkawi cost 40 ringgit for the basic junker and 50 for the one that had most parts working. $15.61 tops!   In Turkey it was 50 Lira which was about $27 off season and $40 in high season. )  Amazing to us, there’s actually no rental car company in Licata so it has to be brought here and that also adds to the cost.  The price of gasoline is typical for what you find in Turkey, Greece, Europe :  1.79 Euros per litre = $8.50 per gallon back home.   So Randal and I were pretty choosy as to where we would go and how long we’d keep the car.  And we hoped to only be in Sicily for about a week or 10 days tops; we only have so many Schengen days.   We’d both seen enough Greek and Roman ruins in N. Cyprus, Turkey, and Israel so skipped places famous for those sites.  Ours was a very personal tour of Sicily.  Randal wanted to see the mosaics in the Villa Romana del Casale just outside Piazza Armenia and also Mt. Etna.  I wanted to see Enna and also S. Stefano Di Camastra for its ceramics.  Palermo was actually an afterthought so the fact that we didn’t see it; well maybe if we ever come here again.  Palermo has a Jewish past and tours are offered. 

    S. Stafano was full of ceramic shops and I did find my souvenir 3 legged Madusa fairly similar to the one I’d seen in Siracusa, but it took a lot of hunting to find it.  We also became fascinated with the trash collection system they have.  Like I said, it was a personal interest tour of Sicily.

     I’d actually gotten the idea to visit S. Stafano from the Sicily book we’d bought in Siracusa.

Buona Sera,

  We visited Enna the first afternoon of our road trip and the last evening and morning or our road trip.  It’s a place I wish I could click my heels and return to for a morning or evening stroll.  A winter visit would be interesting too to see the season so different from the first day of summer. Where according to mythology, the winter months came to be.  To me it seems a very livable city, walkable city.

Ru

Enna Part 3  Narrow Streets

I was trying to explain to myself what it was about Enna that attracted me.  I think it was the same thing that attracted me in Siracusa,  S. Stephano di Camastra and later in Piazza Armerina’s Duomo neighborhoods.  It’s the narrow streets and neighborhoods mixed with small shops and cafes.   Sometime in college I’d read about the development of suburbs, away from commerce with streets wide enough for parked cars on both sides.    The Levittowners: Life and Politics in a New Suburban Community by Herbert Gans  published in 1967 was one of my assigned readings. 

Gans defends Levittown to the critics of suburbia…

     "The critics have argued that long commutation by the father is helping to create a suburban matriarchy with deleterious effects on the children, and that homogeneity, social hyperactivity, and the absence of urban stimuli create depression, boredom, loneliness, and ultimately mental illness. The findings from Levittown suggest just the opposite – that suburban life has produced more family cohesion and a significant boost in morale through the reduction of boredom and loneliness." (220)

And

"They (the critics) also look at suburbia as outsiders, who approach the community with a ‘tourist’ perspective. The tourist wants visual interest, cultural diversity, entertainment, esthetic pleasure, variety (preferably exotic), and emotional stimulation. The resident, on the other hand, wants a comfortable, convenient, and socially satisfying place to live…" (186)  (How can these be mutually exclusive?)

and

"The disappearance of farmland near the big cities is irrelevant now that food is produced on huge industrialized farms, and the destruction of raw land and private upper class golf courses seems a small price to pay for extending the benefits of suburban life to more people." (423) (The countryside around Enna was just beautiful.)

http://geography.about.com/

I find myself definitely agreeing with the critics. 

I also found this information while searching about narrow streets and neighborhoods.

“The things making that corner of the Maeser neighborhood unique are not difficult to understand. The homes are small and well-built; the smaller blocks have alleyways for access, garbage removal etc.; everyone lives close to amenities like parks and grocery stores; there are no big garage doors facing the street.

But I think the best part of all — and perhaps what makes everything else possible — are the smaller streets.

I wrote about this idea back in March while reporting on a post about the difference between the car-centric streets of Atlanta and the narrow lanes of Florence, Italy. And during my recent trip to Europe, I saw plenty of others streets that also emphasized the superiority of smaller lanes:”

http://provocationutah.wordpress.com/

http://www.strongtowns.org  another site devoted to urban planning with narrow streets.

So this email is about Enna streets seen from our room and the room itself; and of course some food photos.

Buongiorno,

   No castle has caught my imagination like our first visit to Kyrenia Castle in North Cyprus.  Perhaps the motorbike ride up the mountain taking us there added to the drama of the setting.  So Castle Lombardo wasn’t my favorite attraction in Enna but it was on my list and Randal does like castles, so we went.  I saw lots of folks walking there the first evening I visited.  As for the Rock of Ceres, I wanted to see it and we did!  Did I feel the spirit of Demeter?  No, can’t say that I did.  But it was a lovely setting and she was the goddess of nature, so who can say.  You can certainly see what may have inspired the myths, stories once used to explain the world to ourselves before we had science.  Now the myths add to our reasons for travel to see where they were created and the landscape that inspired them.

Ru

Castello di Lombardi

Enna’s main attraction is the Lombard Castle, built by Frederick II in the early part of the 13th century. Many historians, however, agree that the castle was erected upon the ruins of an earlier fortification, possibly Arab or Byzantine.  That older fortress could have been built on the remnants of an even earlier structure dating to the Roman period. http://www.bestofsicily.com/enna.html

Situated on East most point of Enna, the site has been fortified since earliest times because of its strategic position. Under Norman dominion, the castle was reinforced. It was made habitable by Frederick II Aragon, who added a number of rooms that rendered it suitable. It was here that He was crowned King of Trinacria and in 1324, convocated the Sicilian parliament. The name of the castle dates back to the same period linked to the presence of a garrison of Lombard soldiers posted there to defend it. The ground plan is of pentagonal which follows the lay of the land. Of the 20 towers only 6 remain. The most interesting and complete tower is called La Pisana or Torre delle Aquile (The Pisan Tower or of the Eagles).

Under the Spanish control in the 16th and 17th century, Enna strategic importance was diminished and the castle was used a prison. It fell in a bad state of despair, in the 20th century, archaeologist Paolo Orsi began excavation and restoration work.  

http://www.sicilianexperience.com/history.php?codice=enna

     “Today, the typical young Sicilian woman stands about five feet five inches. If not a goddess, she’s shapely but not overweight, perhaps rather stylish, and spends most of July and August at the beach. She finds her first employment of any kind at around twenty-six, following an interrupted year or two of specialized higher education. In a sexist society, she’s slightly left of center politically and opposes the death penalty (which anyway doesn’t exist in Italy). Having studied in Italy’s schools, she believes that an Italian named Meucci invented the telephone. A non-practicing Catholic, she nevertheless marries in a lavish religious ceremony at thirty-two after a lengthy courtship.

      Persephone’s courtship, by comparison, was a last minute affair, though she had little need for religious ceremonies.  In mythology, she was the beautiful daughter of Zeus, king of the gods, and Demeter (Ceres), goddess of agriculture and fertility. While gathering flowers in the Valley of Enna, Persephone, who is also known as Kore (Greek for "maiden") was abducted by Hades and taken to the underworld.  Having lost her daughter to this dark realm, Demeter descended into sorrow, losing interest in the mortals and their agriculture, and Zeus had to intervene to bring an end to the famine that resulted from this abandonment. This he did by ordering Hades to release Kore, but not before the maiden had consumed a pomegranate seed as a sign of fidelity to Hades. That meant that she had to spend at least four months of every year with Hades, by whom she had a son, Plutus.

     Kore became the goddess of grain (wheat), and her annual absence was meant to account for the barren winter fields. Her cult was widespread, particularly at Enna, and Lake Pergusa is sometimes identified as the place where she was abducted or raped by Hades. She appears in several Greek myths and was worshipped at Eleusis in Attica.

     The allegory of Persephone is timeless. Grain sprouts to life from the earth to be harvested by man in the same way that a nubile girl is taken from her parents and her virginity lost to bring forth new life. Persephone’s case may have been rather extreme, but the principle is unchanged. Her story dates at least from 700 BC, when the first Greek colonies were established in Sicily. Enna is a very old city, and a temple to Demeter stood on the rocky mount near its Lombard Castle, overlooking the plains and mountains below. In his Hymn to Demeter, Homer recounts the story of Persephone. It is much embellished over time, with local versions featuring details unknown to the ancients.

     Persephone’s renewal is not unlike nature’s, and through the myth, human life is said to imitate nature itself. The imagery and message are purely Greek, but the earliest legend may have been Sicilian. It has been suggested that Persephassa, an earlier name for Persephone, indicates a pre-Hellenistic origin, and possibly a Sicanian or Sicel one. This may explain the early existence of a cult to this goddess in east-central Sicily coinciding with the Greeks’ first incursions into the region and their gradual amalgamation with the native peoples.

     To the Romans, she was Prosperina, and that is how she is known to Italians. Her Latin name shares the root of the word meaning "to prosper."

About the Author: Palermo native Vincenzo Salerno has written biographies of several famous Sicilians, including Frederick II and Giuseppe di Lampedusa.

http://www.bestofsicily.com/mag/art45.htm

First Day of Summer

Buona Sera

  We returned late yesterday afternoon from our road trip and will be here several more days until the weather forecast for our passage to Tunisia improves.  Hopefully I can catch up with these emils.  I took so many photos of Enna from our hotel room window that I can’t choose which so send so might just send them all.  I could have stood there for hours watching the light change and spying on folks down below with my zoom lens.  I loved Enna so though it wasn’t the first place we visited, I’m writing about it first.  As for the photos, I am trying different settings on the camera and don’t think they did just a great job.  So much bright light here too. 

Ru

     Enna  Listening to Church Bells

We went to Enna twice; the first time not very successfully as we at first couldn’t find any place to stay; and then when we did, they didn’t appeal to Randal. (Long story that no longer matters.)  But as Enna was # 1 on my list, Randal suggested we make a second attempt.   Touring around Turkey with no reservation worked just fine.  Greece, not so fine as we had to break out of our room to actually leave our “hotel.”  But Sicily, wow! Way other story.  Especially in less touristy places like Enna and S.Stephano di Camastra.  We discovered that many B&Bs are locked up tight; you must call on your mobile phone the number posted at the door.  We have no Sicilian phone card, (our stay here will be so short) so calling the number was not an option. You can press a button similar to a doorbell and speak to their mobile phone or house phone, but only if someone actually answers.   The one hotel we finally found that was not locked up, was more than we normally spend when we travel.  I should have put my foot down and said; “too bad I want to stay here.”  But I didn’t which was ironic as we were in the place where Demeter / Ceres  had her temple and we know what a tough lady she was.  We have 6 months of winter thanks to her fury at the abduction of her daughter Persephone by Pluto/Hades, the god of the Underworld.  (While in Hades Persephone ate 6 pomegranate seeds so we have 6 months of winter.)   My reasons for wanting to visit Enna?  In the Netsel Marina library, I’d found the book, Desiring Italy : Women Writers Celebrate the Passions of a Country and Culture.   There was an excerpt from On Persephone’s Island : A Sicilian Journal by Mary Taylor Simeti about Enna with a “literary tour” plan.  Plus I heard whispers of what I thought I remember from Sue Monk Kidd’s Traveling with Pomegranates about Demeter    So I really only had lots of vague reasons for wanting to visit Enna.  The consolation prize after our failed first attempt  was that lovely dinner by the waterfront in Acireale  where we spent the night instead.  When we did actually return to Enna to the “splurge” hotel it was lovely and in the perfect location on via Roma just near the Duomo within walking distance of everything I’d come to see.   Using the Simeti excerpt and the included “Literary Traveler” guide by anthology Editor Susan Cahill, I found my way along Via Roma from our hotel to the Duomo to Lombardi Castle to the Rocca di Ceres (Rock of Ceres.)

http://www.arcojournal.unipa.it/pdf/mazzara_24_11_03.pdf  talks more in depth about mythology and the myth of Demeter and Persephone.

http://www.timesofsicily.com/ennas-mythical-past/

     On a clear day, the elevated city of Enna is visible from much of central Sicily.  However, winter mists often shroud its ancient secrets.  Described as the island’s navel, Enna lies at its geographical heart and at the core of one of its most enduring myths: the story of Demeter and Persephone. The fabled origins of Sicily’s fruitful abundance is wrapped up in this tale which has inspired poets and writers for centuries, and within the story’s many twists and turns there is a dark metaphor for our modern age.

     Demeter, otherwise known as Ceres, was the sister of Zeus.  She had a daughter, Persephone, or Proserpine to the Romans, who was the maiden of Spring.  The fertility of the primavera siciliana owed its spectacular profusion to their kindly attentions; but an unseen threat lay in wait in the guise of Pluto, god of the underworld.

     Pluto lusted after Persephone, the very embodiment of lightness and floral beauty.  His brooding obsession compelled him to drag her down to the stygian gloom of his realm.  Demeter searched in vain for her lost daughter, eventually abandoning herself to disillusion and pain.  Her reproach to the cruel world was to withhold the bounties of the harvest.   Directed by the Syracusan, Arethusa, from her underground stream, Demeter discovered the whereabouts of her daughter and pleaded with Zeus for her safe return.  Persephone’s release was on the condition that she had refrained from eating.  Sadly, she had already consumed the pulp of a pomegranate seed. (Many versions of this story mention 6 pomegranate seeds.  RJ)  This led to a good old-fashioned compromise: she would spend half the year in the sunlit uplands and half in the kingdom of Hades, during which time the still peeved Demeter would continue to withhold the fruits of the soil.  So runs the legend… but what traces remain in the earth of modern Sicily, and what impact did it have for the art and literature of future generations?

     Today, approaching Enna from the Catania – Palermo autostrada, it’s easy to see how it commands a striking view of the surrounding countryside.  The motorway slip road directs you to a weaving mountainside helter-skelter which ascends the outcrop in short bursts.  Enna’s maze of twisting streets will eventually lead you to the impressive Castello Lombardia at the pinnacle, where the nearby Rocca di Cerere surveys its fertile dominion.  Adherents worshipped Demeter (Ceres) for centuries on this very spot.  Little of the classical architecture is left, but that is perhaps fitting for a goddess of nature: the view to Etna and beyond represents her heritage.  But it is a fragile Eden as the myth itself suggests.

     The light imprint of Persephone’s footsteps can also be found in the neighbouring town of Pergusa.  Lake Pergusa is Sicily’s only remaining natural lake and was the location for her disappearance.   Part of the area is a protected nature reserve and part given over to the more earthly pursuits of motor racing.  The archaeological zone, Cozzo Matrice, has a collection of ruins dating from the period including a temple dedicated to Demeter.  Diodorus Siculus, the classical Greco-Sicilian historian, even mentions it as the site where Pluto’s chariot emerged from the underworld.

     The myth has haunted the imagination of many, Sicilians and foreigners alike.  Italians even drink a Ceres beer!   The story had an inevitable attraction for the Romantic poets of 18th and 19th century England.  The Italianophile, Percy Bysshe Shelley, was drawn to it like a moth to a flame.  His lines ‘Sacred Goddess, Mother Earth / Thou from whose immortal bosom / Gods, and men, and beasts have birth…’ amply reflects its elemental quality.  Coleridge, who spent time in Messina and Syracuse, was more taken with the Arethusan aspect of the legend.  In one of the most famous poems in the English language, seemingly set in far off Cathay, he can’t resist a reference to her underground waters.  ‘In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome decree / Where Alph, the sacred river, ran / Through caverns measureless to man…’  (This was a favorite poem of my mother’s.  RJ)

      Virgil, Ovid, Thomas Moore, John Milton… the list of devotees is endless.  One of the more interesting modern references was made by the Sicilian-American writer, Gioia Timpanelli.  In her book, Sometimes the Soul, one of her characters, Costanza, conjures up images of Enna’s flower-covered fields.  Artists have been no less reticent in their depictions.  From Bernini to the Anglo-Italian, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Demeter and her daughter have continued to inspire.

     All over the world, we are so reliant on the good intentions of Demeter, that the potential of her permanent withdrawal still causes us anxiety.  In part, we seem intent on causing this to happen.  Maybe we are the pestilential Pluto, blindly dragging our fragile Persephone to the depths with little thought for the consequences.  Yet we also have the capacity to be Zeus, capricious but capable of arbitration, leaving Demeter to spread the universal joys of the primavera siciliana.

http://www.timesofsicily.com/ennas-mythical-past/

The Cathedral – Enna

The Cathedral of Maria SS. is the Mother Church of the Visitation of Enna, 16 May 2008, was declared a UNESCO “Monument of Peace” and is one of the greatest expressions of art in the province of Enna. The Cathedral is located in the historical centre of the city near the Lombardia Castle and faces Mazzini square, which occupies the entire north side. The cathedral was erected in 1307 on the ruins of the Temple of Proserpine, by order of Eleanor of Anjou, wife of Frederick III of Aragon, for the birth of their son Peter, but in1446 a major fire destroyed all except an apse and part of the right side, and in 1447 Pope Eugene IV proclaimed a Jubilee duration of 7 years to raise the necessary funds for the reconstruction of the important place of worship. Due to a lack of money collected, King Alfonso of Aragon sold various lands and with the proceeds, in the sixteenth century, was able to rebuild the church. At the end of 1574 was completed by the famous builder of the city of Messina, Jacopino Salemi, the elegant portal of St. Martin, enhanced by slender columns culminating in original capitals, which is located in the right side of the church, where at the transept opens the “Holy Door”.  Built on a plateau cut on the rock of tufa yellow,  its bell tower, overlooking the wide valley that divides the nearby Enna from Calascibetta. The building is surrounded by large steps in which there are access doors and porch, which, with its exterior forms the facade. The Cathedral is made up of eight pillars supporting the tower, adjacent to the north wall of the building is a space where once stood a cemetery behind the apse there is a small garden where once there ‘was the old Gothic sacristy of which remain today only a bow and a shelf. The front of the Cathedral Church looks very majestic and impressive, as realized following fees anomalous dimensions in the trends of the time: a long flight of steps to reach a portico with three portals, encircled by six columns, and above the base develop other two levels of the bell tower, with two round-headed windows full of ornaments, decorations, human faces, pilasters and columns in Doric and Corinthian. Remarkable is the Door of the Jubilee, which is reminiscent of the Jubilee proclaimed in 1447 by Pope Eugene IV, and  now walled up, on the right side, which is an excellent example of Sicilian Gothic style, with 6 columns and capitals decorated with a beautiful arch surmounted by the statue of Madonna and Child surrounded by a round arch and friezes zigzag alternating with leaf motifs. On the other side door is the  Sottana Door, dating 1447, bearing two pairs of Corinthian columns surmounted by a pediment crowning and a beautiful marble bas-relief depicting the late Renaissance “Saint Martin and the poor” who divides his cloak with the poor. The interior of the cathedral is a Latin cross, with three naves divided by pointed arches, supported by columns of black basalt, with capitals decorated with leaves, scrolls and reliefs of animals and saints. The wooden ceiling of the nave is a caisson and rosettes of walnut with winged heads grotesque and beautiful decorations, the work of Guido Di Scipio. In the left aisle we see the pulpit of the seventeenth century. a polygonal shape with side ladder, canopy friezes, angels and cherubs, marble white and coloured. Behind the high altar depicting scenes from the Old and New Testament. Very beautiful are the wooden works such as the cabinet where the sacristy are scenes from the life of Jesus Of great value is the chapel with the statue of Our Lady of the Visitation embellished with diamonds and coloured gemstones. Inside, we find of great importance: the font, the rich portal with a bas-relief illustrating San Martino del Gagini, the frontal, numerous paintings by various authors.  http://www.sicilia360.it/en/provincia/enna-en/