Mosaics, a Market, Marsala, Monasteries, Miei Cugini and Martorana – from Sicily with Love
Dear Reader, This is #3 in our series of travelogues all around Italy, the UK, and Ireland from October 2024 through June 2025. Enjoy! [Post 1 Venice Pilgrimage, Post 2 Southern Italy Pilgrimage]
Hello from our Catania kitchen table! The balcony here has a view of Mt. Etna smoking away! It’s exciting and a bit bizarre to think people live so close to an active lava pot…
When we last wrote, we were embarking on our Sicily pilgrimage via ferry. We stayed for a week in a Palermo suburb, arriving in the dark to our apartment at Casale Orioles (Oriole Hamlet). Upon rising, we opened up the balcony shutters to discover we were surrounded by an olive grove and low stone walls, with small mountains gently sloping in the near distance. Our animal friends included roosters (good morning) and four cats, with one friendly feline taking up residence on the wraparound porch and sometimes in our laps! (Our human neighbors in the next apartment were from Malta, and later we overlapped with a couple from France.) John enjoyed grilling for us on the backyard brick barbeque. The apartment had a full kitchen and shared washing machine – out on the porch! — which we made good use of. The “dryer” is the Sicilian sun. The cost was just 40 euros ($42) a night. That is on the low end of the prices here. “High end” is 70 euros.
We attempted to take the train into Palermo, but no local trains were running. (A group of friendly locals and a train worker helped confirm this.) And so, John had another “terrific” Sicilian driving experience into the city. A huge fluffy fresh glazed donut was a nice diversion as we walked to St. Antonio di Padova church with its fantastic frescoes. Then the real food delights began.
Palermo Street Food
At the crowded 1,000-year-old massive Mercato di Bellarò there is prepared “street food” galore, food vendors (think fresh-caught swordfish being gutted right in front of you, octopi, exotic spices, fresh cheese, olives, etc.) and other vendors of many nationalities selling every ware imaginable. All with motorcycles driving through the knots of pedestrian shoppers negotiating the twists and turns of this massive outdoor market. Sellers often offer samples – like Costco tastings. We liked the chickpea fritters, a specialty here, and grabbed some to eat while walking. When we ordered arancini (fried risotto balls stuffed with everything from spinach to meat ragu), we were whisked over to a table under a tent to enjoy them. It was great to watch the frenetic scene for a moment versus navigating it. The whole experience was accompanied by the stall holders’ unique way of advertising in a loud semi-melodic sing-song-y manner called ‘abbanniate.’ A crazy all-sense experience!
We visited a couple of more beautiful churches including Chiesa di Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio with its monastery museum and bakery (!). Sharing a freshly filled cannolo in the courtyard was a treat.
At nearby Sferracavallo, a fishing village, we walked along the horseshoe-shaped seafront to “Trullilanda”. This is where there are mini-trulli huts are dotted all around a spit of land – a quaint creation for children and adults alike. There was also a tiny remembrance chapel where people had put candles and photos of their deceased loved ones. The craggy high mountains on our right and the stunning sea to our left made for a memorable stroll.
We had seen earlier that there was an international catamaran race going on, just waiting on the right conditions. From afar, as the wind picked up, we spied the teams launching. We raced (as much as you can with one of you in a long dress traversing a rocky ledge!) to a vantage point on the high seawall in time to chant “USA, USA”! Our team acknowledged our cheers. We ate lunch on the water; super cheap, super good. (A toasted cheese and prosciutto sandwich was 2 euros.)
Speaking of food, of course it’s generally excellent, and an American-themed chain here called Old Wild West is no exception. They spared no expense to make this mall restaurant look like something right out of a western film. You can even sit in a teepee or covered wagon booth. It seemed a celebratory place for Italians as a few families appeared to be having birthday dinners.
Palatine Chapel in Palermo
From the slightly ridiculous to the sublime we go. Visiting the Palatine Chapel inside Palazzo Reale (Royal Palace) was our first glimpse of three outstanding Italo-Byzantine mosaics in Sicilian churches. The other two are in Monreale and Cefalu, but that is getting ahead of the story. Back to the Cappella Palatina, it was begun in 1132 under King Roger II to be his royal chapel. As quoted in this informative article, author Guy de Maupassant said it is, “the most beautiful (church) that exists in the world, the most stupendous religious jewel cherished by human thought and executed by a master hand.” Apt description! The luminous detailed mosaics depict saints and Biblical tales, one after the other, covering every space. The muquarnas in the ceiling, the star-patterned inlaid marble floor and the sculptures throughout are glorious works of art in their own rights. As explained here, the chapel was crafted by artisans of three different religious traditions/architectural styles (Byzantine, Islamic and Norman-French) and the accompanying script is in Greek, Arabic and Latin. This site has awesome detailed pics and explanations.
Monreale Cathedral
The next day brought us to Monreale Cathedral where more 850- year-old mosaic marvels awaited us. With good reason. King William II wanted to outdo the Palatine Chapel. It is estimated that they used nearly 5,000 pounds of pure gold and hired Constantinople craftsmen in the glittery attempt. Both churches are awesome aristocratic endeavors.
Santa Rosalia in Palermo
Nobility is also the heritage of someone we sought out on Mount Pelligrino. The Sanctuary of Santa Rosalia (pronounced Ro-sa-LEE-ah) is a unique setting for a unique saint. The patron of Palermo, though a descendant of King Charlemagne, chose to be a hermit. La Santuzza (little saint) as she is called, lived from 1130-1170 and was apparently forgotten until 1624 when the plague was raging in Palermo. The people had prayed to their other patron saints for relief to no avail. Then a man had a vision of Santa Rosalia, and she guided him to her bones (!) in a cave. It is her holy bones that immediately stopped the plague from spreading. The grateful faithful built a sanctuary church right into the side of a cliff at the site. An image of La Santuzza reclining here is portrayed much more elegantly (perhaps one might say gaudily) than how she lived on earth. (More on her later in our adventure.) John surprised Laura with a little hike he had found to a splendid panoramic view out over the Tyrrhenian Sea, followed by a porchetta panino and freshly squeezed pomegranate juice (ruby red deliciousness!).
Continuing with food, one cloudy afternoon we happened upon La Giufa restaurant for pranzo (lunch). Here’s some information on that whimsical name. It was a glass-enclosed place overlooking the sea and also a massive rock we took to calling Half-Dome. Our menu included steak in Nero d’Avola wine sauce and grilled swordfish — guess who had which? Soft rain on canvas roof made lovely meal even lovelier as did the convivial conversations of the large post-baptismal celebration of a family seated nearby.
Segesta Temple
Visiting Segesta to see a well-preserved temple standing stately and proud and the teatro with its panoramic view was a gift, especially in the off-season. Seeing the popular salt pans of Trapani was educational, too. They let the seawater evaporate and the remaining salt is mounded up along the road, reminiscent of dirty piles of snow in February in colder climes. At some point the salt hills are covered with terra cotta tiles to form their particular shape.
Ceiling close-up of Maria SS Annunziata church in Trapani.
Erice Sweets
Traveling to mountaintop Erice involves negotiating crazy winding switchbacks and is well worth it. The Mother Church has a fantastic cream-colored intricate altar, fairy tale decor, and celestial music playing. We climbed the adjacent bell tower (109 steps) for a 360 view. We got to see St. Martin Church before windy rain set in along with fog, the latter is called the kiss of Venus and frequently envelops the town. (If anyone has read the book “Bitter Almonds”, we had a yummy pastry (and took home “Martorana fruit”) from the author’s pasticceria, just before a tour bus filled the premises.)
Back down to Trapani was via a road that SAID it was closed, though we met two other vehicles! You often see a barricade across just half of a road here, and lots of roadwork taking roads down to one lane, so it can be unclear what is meant by “closed.” This time it was more switchbacks with crumbling one-foot-high stone walls were the “barrier” from going over the cliff side! As we got to bottom of mountain, there was another closed sign. Hmmm…
Marsala Wine
In Marsala, of famous fortified wine fame, we saw pink flamingoes in the salt flats! Cool! The name of the city is from the Arab – Marsa Allah (port of Allah) – another indication of how close we are to North Africa here. We visited the Mother Church and then enjoyed local specialties — busiate pasta for Laura and Tunisian-style couscous fish stew for John. Our tour of Cantine Florio Marsala winery with the extremely knowledgeable Frederica as our group’s guide ended with tasting. They poured generous amounts of three of their offerings along with proper “food pairings” (almonds, cheese, and Modica chocolate). The glasses were full such that we did not finish ours. Funny story – one British gentleman on the tour asked Frederica if he could finish her wine (and he did)!
We visited Arab-influenced Mazara del Vallo. The cattedrale has an incredible altar (look closely at who is “holding” the draperies!) and Eucharistic Adoration (!). In the Kasbah area, we found the popular “Porta Blu,” a Mediterranean blue door and a wall which a resident has extravagantly decorated.
Greek Temples of Sicily and Turkish Steps
Brilliant blue was the color of the sky and sea for our trip to the Selinunte ruins. This was the westernmost Greek colony dating from 628 BC. We hiked all around and stayed to take sunset pics. The next day we went to Agrigento, the world-renowned Valle dei Templi (Valley of the Temples). We noted how strange it was to see the modern city of Agrigento all around, “in the background.” Though a bit templed-out at this point (remember we had also visited Segesta), it was a thrill to spy them all, take photos, and eat lunch overlooking the phenomenal valley.
Another phenomenon is a natural one of white marl rock — the Scala dei Turchi (Turkish Steps). They are billowy white sloping cliffs jutting into the Mediterranean, so named in the 1500s because Saracen pirates (whom the locals thought were from Turkey) scaled them to attack. Incidentally, as many of you likely know, Sicily has been attacked and changed hands many times. Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, French, Germans, Spanish, Italians, and others have had their time ruling here over the last 2,500 years!
Sicilian Genealogy
Seeking now only the last 150 or so years of history, we were on to Santo Stefano Quisquina, the 4,000-person village in the Sicani mountains from where Laura’s family hails. We went to the colorful chiesa madre (mother church) first. A man was praying in front of the tabernacle, the only person in the church. When he got up he came directly over to us with warm greetings. He wore a Roman collar, and we assumed he was the parish priest. A moment later he asked us who we were, and we learned he was Laura’s second cousin, once-removed, Ignacio! Only when Laura asked him how they should address him did he reveal that he was a retired Bishop, quickly followed by, “we are family, so you call me my name.” He invited us for coffee. (Later in the trip we had a long Sicilian lunch with the monsignor, his sister Maria (I mean Cousin Maria) and their friends at the Belvedere.) It was a great and surprising start to what turned out to be a successful genealogy and family tree hunt.
Our molto gentile host Giuseppe at Casa Quisquina (our apartment) was instrumental in locating another cousin and his wife – this one had the exact same first and last name of Laura’s grandfather. That meeting was an emotional moment! The trio of friendly and knowledgeable archivists at the municipio (town hall) and dear Sister Aucelia at the church found birth, baptismal and marriage records of Laura’s great grandparents, and another trio of bibliotecari (librarians) located local resources and even gifted us books.
On a walk there, we “happened to meet” visiting Dominican priests here for one of the town’s patrons, Dominican priest and martyr St. Giacinto Giordano Ansalone, on the saint’s feast day. We went to the special Mass and litany for him that evening.
Hermitage of St. Rosalia
One day we drove up the mountain to the famous (in Italy) hermitage of St. Rosalia. Yes, here again is our little saint! You see, she lived primitively in a cave here (her drinking water was what dripped from the ceiling!) in order to be a contemplative, and pilgrims can visit in that holy grotto. Alas, it was closed, and all the doors and gates to the church, monastery and museum were locked or padlocked (yes, we checked each one to make sure!), but you could still walk all around the large hermitage complex nestled in the forest. Being the only souls around, that is what we did.
We followed ancient weed-covered damp stairsteps around one corner of the long building, up another set, and then up behind it and down steeply – was this a way in? Indeed. Now we found ourselves in a dark musty narrow corridor with high stone walls, only gray sky above. At the end, we saw the dim outline of the cave entrance! John got on all fours and climbed in, iphone flashlight blazing, and after a couple turns, he eventually reached the saint’s long-ago home. Mission accomplished. (We didn’t feel too bad for our sly entry, as visiting the grotto is free of charge.)
Santo Stefano Quisquina also boasts the fascinating one-of-a-kind Andromeda open-air theater, where the seats correspond to the Andromeda constellation arrangement. You can check it out here, and scroll through for the best photos.
The night before we left, Laura’s newfound cousins, Salvatore and Rosanna, invited us for pizza, and we got to meet their daughter Jessica. (They thought it a neat coincidence that Laura’s son is named Jesse.) They brought us family photos to keep, and we shared stories using translation apps and Jessica’s English language skills. We hope that they will visit us in Florida someday.
Valledolmo Vistas, Family, and Food
Another family-finding quest, this time on Laura’s grandma’s side, took us to Valledolmo (Valley of the Elms), an even tinier town. Upon entering the door of the municipio, we met the gregarious Anna who immediately walked us over to meet her colleague – Laura’s (distant) Cousin Maria! On the way to the anagrafe (vital records office), we met another cousin named Mariangela. The lovely ladies at that office took the time to locate and certify the birth records of the great grandparents.
Walking Valledolmo’s sharply sloped brick streets was a good workout and an authentic glimpse of the iconic laundry-hanging-over-the-street scene complete with pretty plants and flowers (and always cats!) in doorways. We got to see two gorgeous churches; amazing considering the size and seemingly limited wealth of the agriculture-based town. One called Chiesa di Maria Santissima della Purità had a majestic porcelain-decorated stairway, a nod to the celebrated Sicilian ceramics. Our time here was punctuated by several friendly souls including a group of male pensioners who seemed to delight in hearing about our quest for family connections and even posed for a photo.
It was also marked by delicious – you guessed it — food, such as the lightest tastiest panini bread we ever had, tasty tomatoes grown only here, savory local sausage, aglio e olio spaghetti heaven and cuccidati (fabulous fig bar cookies) not-so-surprisingly quite reminiscent of Laura’s Grandma Sarah’s recipe! On the subject of baked goods, John noticed on a maps app a bakery with the same name as one of the relatives. We tried to locate the panificio, but it is completely unmarked! Knowing we should be on the right street, we observed someone coming out of a doorway with pane in hand, so in we walked. Hardworking owner Antonino (Nino) paused to talk to us, and, with the assistance of another customer, we found we are, in fact, cousins. His broad smile at this news told us what our lack of direct communication could not. (His gift of biscotti was another clue.) It seemed he did not know any family tree branch was in the U.S.!
This brings us back to thoughts of our beloved U. S. of A. and the great holiday of Thanksgiving! (Would you believe they have Black Friday sale signs everywhere here?) We are giving thanks for everyone reading this, and for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. May all these and more be yours!