Hello friend, I'm gradually working through your travel questions about Sicily. It's taking me a while, but I'm loving it. Be sure to send any of your general questions to: sicilyinsideandout@gmail.com Don't expect detailed travel itineraries; let's keep it general. I'm happy to point you in the right direction if you are planning a trip.…
Continue reading ➞ Travel advice: Taormina, Palermo and Catania
Hello friend, I'm gradually working through your travel questions about Sicily. It's taking me a while, but I'm loving it. Be sure to send any of your general questions to: sicilyinsideandout@gmail.com Don't expect detailed travel itineraries; let's keep it general. I'm happy to point you in the right direction if you are planning a trip.…
Continue reading ➞ Travel Advice: Santa Ninfia and the province of Trapani
This is the first free travel advice post dedicated to answering your questions about travelling to Italy and Sicily. Send me your queries and I’ll try to help with a weekly post.
Randazzo sits under the feet of Mount Etna; a gigantic menacing shadow is constantly over the city. It is a place born out of the volcano and at its mercy. The wide lava streets of Randazzo create a sense of ancientness, the shades of grey sketching out the city in the deep depressing tones of…
Continue reading ➞ Randazzo: at the feet of Mongibello
I'm raising my child to speak English in Italy, not just anywhere in Italy but precisely in a small town in Sicily. Unlike the major cities on the peninsula like Rome, Milan, or even Palermo, with large ex-pat communities and English international schools, I'm the only English speaker in my local community. This is great…
Continue reading ➞ The trials of raising a bilingual child in small-town Italy
Sometimes, well, Italy is an awkward fit for me. Actually most times, which is ok, as I am generally self-conscious in everyday life. It is strange to think that someone genetically 100% Italian would find life in Italy to be uncomfortable. I would be a sought-after show pony if there were a pedigree for Italian-ness.…
Continue reading ➞ Fashionable English
I love taking photos of walls and signage; they have the same quality as an old postcard, like a memory of an ancient time. I took a photo of a fragment from a poem on a wall at Monreale. I liked the dirty paint, the lettering seemed like something from the Fascist period, and I…
Continue reading ➞ Sicilian details: signs
What is Sicily to me? There are hundreds of Sicilies. An island of hundred faces. like the tale of Medusa who becomes more elaborate at every retelling. Singing like Rosa Balistreri with an emotional strength pouring out the tears in an overflowing stream. A song of Sicily’s poverty, her beauty, with her insatiable energy, the…
Continue reading ➞ My Sicily: a poem
I sometimes feel as if I am a modern Persephone, abducted by my husband to live in the underworld. An underworld in the classical sense, the ancient Greeks' afterlife, the place where Hades, the ruler of the spirit realm, abides and where mythology finds its home. I wasn't kidnapped but somewhat constrained by my love…
Continue reading ➞ Life in the classical underworld
Sicily at the end of August is a fiery ball of heat, humidity, mosquitoes and desert winds whipping up from Africa. We arrive in Sicily in the final month of Summer; my husband decides to take a couple more weeks off work; to rest and get over jet lag. Italy shuts down at this time…
Continue reading ➞ The end of summer
In my search to understand the character of Sicily, I discover the work of the Sicilian writer Giuseppe di Lampedusa. His novel, The Leopard, is set in the period of the Risorgimento when Italy violently transformed itself from a collection of principalities into a unified country. This masterpiece is filled with insightful observations on the…
Continue reading ➞ Sicilian Status Quo
Since coming to Sicily, I’ve become more acquainted with death. In Sicily, mortality isn’t hidden in funeral homes or polite obituaries printed in newspapers. The end of life is part of every day, and the rites associated with mortality become tinged with a mixture of superstition and religion. The ceremony of death in Sicily makes…
Continue reading ➞ Making friends with death
My father-in-law looks like the classical Sicilian Mafioso. When I first met him, I found him intimidating, with his mumbling voice, imposing figure and well-kept moustache. As I spent more time with my new family, I discovered a doting grandfather. He helps his family in any way possible. He has a commanding presence over his…
Continue reading ➞ My Father in law and his lawyer
Life at the in-laws is slow-paced but pleasant. Their house is a few kilometres out of Sinagra, following the river inland. Taking a left turn up from the road parallel to the seasonal river bed brings you to a steep climb where the road turns left again abruptly on a terrifying hairpin curve. The steering…
Continue reading ➞ Slow paced but dangerous
There are no skeletons in the closet in small-town Sicily, as the broader population identifies every individual member with distinct soprannome or nicknames. These simple and often coarse caricatures have existed for generations and can pinpoint members of a particular family, or are earned after a significant event, distinctive physical feature or personality trait. A…
Continue reading ➞ Earning a nickname
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