BOUNTY FROM ETNA

What a lovely surprise today when a friend brought me these fruits from the Etna area, where she had been over the weekend.

I knew that the small Etna apples are special, as there is something in the soil that makes them very sweet, and the clementines are delightful too. But the chestnuts - ah, the chestnuts, for therein lies a tale:

My friend told me that on the eastern slope of Mount Etna, a very special chestnut tree can be found. It is called the Castagno dei Cento Cavalli  - "The Hundred Horse Chestnut Tree" and it derives its name from the legend that a certain queen, travelling with her ladies and one hundred knights, took shelter from a storm under the tree's ample branches. (Oh, dear - I hope it wasn't a thunderstorm!) The tree must have provided excellent camouflage, for it is said that the storm lasted all night and the queen was able to lie with several of her lovers among the knights. Who was this queen? For a long time it was thought that she was Giovanna I of Anjou, Queen of Naples, but history proved a bad sport and revealed that she had never visited Sicily. Never mind, then - perhaps it was another queen conveniently named Giovanna, Giovanna of Aragon, also Queen of Naples. But others say it was Isabella of England, third wife of King of Sicily and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. Well, it was a medieval queen, anyhow.

Apart from (possibly) sheltering amorous queens, the tree, first documented in the 16th century, is the oldest in Europe. It has multiple trunks, which is perhaps why there is some dispute over its age, but it seems it is at least 2,500 years old. Both its circumference and height are 22 metres and its crown spreads for over 100 metres, making it also the largest chestnut tree in the world.

The tree is protected as an Italian Heritage Green Site and is in the Etna Regional Park, parts of which, along with Mount Etna itself, enjoy various levels of protection as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

The tree is, of necessity, surrounded by a fence which you cannot go beyond, but my friend assures me the chestnuts come from nearby and have a very distinctive taste.

Late note: Tonight I learned that the Castagno dei Cento Cavalli has won Italy's "Tree of the Year" competition and will be representing Italy in the European competition in February. Well deserved.

REMEMBERING A FLOOD

It has been a particularly rainy day in Modica today and there have been floods in nearby Siracusa. Perhaps this is what has prompted more social media posts than usual marking the anniversary of the devastating flood that happened here on 26th September 1902, leaving 112 dead, heartbreaking damage to both public buildings and homes, crumbled bridges and a lower town that would be changed forever.  

It was in the early hours of that fateful day that the equivalent of six months' normal rainfall plummeted down on Modica and you can see the watermark on the building below.  [I'm sorry the plaque is not clear in the photo.]

After this event, the rivers that flowed into and through Modica were covered up. If you come to Modica, the first thing you'll probably do is take a stroll along the Corso Umberto I in Modica Bassa. You'll be walking where the river flowed until the beginning of the last century.

BOOK REVIEW - "LA FIGLIA DEL PAPA"

La figlia del papa by Dario Fo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am not sure what I think about the current fashion for writing historical fiction in the present tense and using conversation to carry the action forward. In English Philippa Gregory and Hilary Mantel do it superbly, if, in the latter case, rather academically.

However, Italian is a language in which the "vivid present " [the use of the present tense to recount past events] is more common and, as we are in the hands of the dramatist Dario Fo, we must surely expect mostly dialogue.

On the whole I feel he succeeds, though I got lost in some of the early dialogue concerning political intrigues, as I have in other books about the scheming Borgias.

Why did Fo choose to write about Lucrezia? Because, I would guess, there can be no doubt that she is one of the most maligned women in history and because her story of course lends itself to high drama. Fo portrays her as the political pawn that any woman in her position and time would have been but also as intelligent, politically astute, kind and even gentle. In an interview about the book, the Nobel laureate dramatist said that Lucrezia reminded him in some ways of his late wife, Franca Rame, because Franca, too, had taken up unpopular causes, helped the unfortunate and felt the need to intervene for the sake of social justice.

We cannot know to what extent Lucrezia was complicit in the outrageous plotting of her devious father, Pope Alexander VI and notorious brother, Cesare, but that she tried to save at least one of her three husbands from death at their hands is documented. As Duchess of Ferrara she was popular with locals and, at the end of her life, espoused charitable causes and set up a convent. We know that she had an affair with the poet Pietro Bembo and this is touchingly recounted in the book. It is commonly held that she also had an affair with Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantova, but Fo - uniquely, according to him - refutes this, citing the fact that Lucrezia would have known that Francesco had syphilis and would not have risked it.

The book is beautifully illustrated but I find it strange that none of the images - some of which are famous and some of which are, I presume, by Fo himself - are accredited.

As far as I am aware, the book is currently being translated into several other languages so, if you are interested in Lucrezia and get a chance to read it, I suggest that you do so. You may conclude, as I did, that she was a product of her time and class, neither wholly bad nor as good as Fo would have her but, like most of us, somewhere in between.

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This review is also posted on Goodreads.

A NORMAL FRIDAY

The 22nd November 1963 was a normal, grey, drizzly Friday in Bristol, UK.  Aged 13, I went to school as usual, came home just after 4 pm and couldn't get out of my uniform quickly enough. It says something for the significance the day would eventually have that I can remember the clothes I changed into - a burgundy corduroy skirt and pale blue jumper which probably didn't go. After "tea", as we called it then, I settled down to watch my favourite medical soap opera, Emergency - Ward 10, with Desmond Carrington as the handsome young doctor, Chris Anderson.

There had been a lot of talk of war in the preceding months, for the world had held its breath during the Cuban Missile Crisis of only a year before and my parents still talked about World War II. I don't think that people of their generation ever realised how much they scared their children by doing so and maybe it's because of this, and not only the songs of Bob Dylan, that we became the generation of "peace and love". When the programme was interrupted and a picture of President Kennedy was shown on the screen, my immediate thought was that war had been declared and I was terrified. Then came the announcement - the President had been shot in Dallas.

We didn't have live news pictures in Britain at the time and the announcer said that the programme would continue and further news would be brought to us as ITV received it. A few minutes later, the programme was interrupted again and we were told the devastating news that the President had died. Then the announcer said that, in view of the gravity of the news, solemn music would be played for the rest of the evening. There were still no pictures.

We all glanced at each other in shock - my mum, dad, grandpa and me. My great aunt Mabel, who also lived with us, was out at a church meeting and when she came in, my dad gently told her the news. Great aunt Mabel was a widely-read, self-educated woman and I remember she buried her face in her hands, immediately grasping what this meant for the world.

For my generation of Brits President Kennedy represented all that was new and all that we loved about America:  he was handsome, he was a war hero, we could understand his speeches and he was the first young politician we had ever seen. Every girl in my class wanted a "Jackie" fringe and how we loved her pillbox hats and style!  The thought of her screaming, "Oh, no, no!" in the car was too much for us to bear. Of course, none of us knew then that the marriage was far from perfect but I don't think it would have diminished our hero-worship if we had.

Jacqueline Kennedy, much maligned later for the Onassis interlude, was a product of her time and class and admitted as much after Onassis's death:

"I have always lived through men and now I realise that I can't do that any more."

I am glad that she found love, reliability and true companionship in a man towards the end of her life and I am certainly not going to judge a woman who, on that fateful day half a century ago, cradled her murdered husband's head in her arms as their motorcade sped through Dallas to the hospital.

I believe, to this day, that it was hope that was cut down in Dallas on 22nd November 1963 and I don't think it re-emerged until the end of the decade, in the protests and demonstrations that young people held all over the world. Now, 50 years later, in Sicily, Italy, I find myself dealing every day with young people who feel they have no hope and they have no Kennedy figure to inspire it.

It is impossible to know in what ways the history of the world might have been different had President Kennedy survived but I would venture this opinion:  Had he lived, faculties intact, into his nineties, he would have been appalled to see young people in such despair in a crisis brought about largely by people in a position to have known better. He would have known little of the situation in far-away Italy but he would have realised that this was a world-wide failure involving far more than money and he would have spoken out.

Everyone has their favourite Kennedy quote and mine is one of the less famous but I believe it is appropriate for our time and, indeed, for Italy.  It is this:

“If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.”

John Fitzgerald Kennedy:  Address at The American University, Washington D.C.,  

10th June 1963

MANGIARI DI CAVALERI

Tumazzo, pani e pira, è mangiari di cavaleri. 

Mellow cheese, bread and pears are food for knights.

- Sicilian proverb

My thanks go today to a student who works in the food industry and was thoughtful enough to bring me two lovely books about cheese:

  

The one on the left, about Ragusano cheese, has fascinating stories and insights about how this product was and is made, as well as beautiful black and white pictures of the cheese itself, the production process and the Ragusan countryside:  

The book on the right, which is in English, is a comprehensive study of three Sicilian cheeses - Pecorino Siciliano, Piacentinu Ennese and Provola dei Nebrodi. As well as scientific information about the cheeses, the volume contains recipes, serving suggestions, flowcharts of the production processes and a list of historical references to each cheese. I was interested to learn that both Pecorino Siciliano and Piacentinu Ennese are mentioned by Pliny the Elder, whilst the first historical reference to Provola dei Nebrodi was in 1886.

Grazie, studente mio!

AN AFTERNOON IN CEFALÙ

Although I've loved Sicily for over twenty years now and have lived here for eight, I had, until last Sunday, never managed to get to Cefalù. You can see Cefalù as you come down from Gibilmanna and I hadn't realised how close its main buildings are to the sea or what a compact and prettily coloured town it is.

The name Cefalù comes from a Greek word meaning "head" and refers to the massive rock beneath which the town stands. The town dates back to at least Greek times but it was the Normans who rebuilt it nearer the sea and legend has it that King Ruggero 11, having run into a dangerous storm whilst sailing to Palermo in 1131, swore that if he and his ship were spared, he would have a cathedral built where he landed. San Giorgio appeared and guided the ship to safety at Cefalù. Well, I'm going to believe it, anyway!

The narrow, winding streets reminded me of Ligurian towns like Alassio, as did the pleasant, relaxed atmosphere:

The Duomo, begun in 1131 as Ruggero had promised, was restored in 1559:

The Cristo Pantocratore above the altar reminded me of the mosaics in Monreale Cathedral, with which the building is twinned:

We'd had a very early start so decided that we now deserved lunch in the main square. A plate of antipasti  with panelle [chickpea flour fritters] at the back and fried caciotta cheese with orange on the right was just what we needed!

Polpette of beef with pinenuts and sultanas for me

and an entrecôte with more of that orange-flavoured caciotta for my friend:

Time for a wander down to the harbour:

Another view of the bay in the late afternoon light:

Finally, there had to be a stop for a slice of chocolate and coffee semifreddo and I'm happy to be able to tell you that they don't stint on helpings in Cefalù!

BOOK REVIEW - AN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY REBELLION

I have in front of me a little book of 58 pages, 33 of which are filled with reproductions of historical documents.  Yet the story told on these pages is none the less interesting for that.  

In Concetta e Francesca Grimaldi - due donne modicane nel XV111 secolo, Teresa Spadaccino recounts the extraordinary tale of two young Modican noblewomen who, destined to be dowryless, were sent by their father to live out their lives in a convent in 1785.  This was not an uncommon fate for women of their class and circumstances but these two rebelled, first in small ways and later by making a formal request for their freedom, which was granted in 1793 by the Ecclesiastical Court of Siracusa.  The Court found that the ladies had no religious vocation and had been secluded against their will.

As I read the tale, I came to like these two sisters and the ways in which they asserted their independence:  on the night before they were to take their final vows, rather than pretending to enjoy a firework display organised by their father to celebrate the occasion, they hid in their dark room and sobbed.  Afterwards they were more fastidious about their appearance than the other nuns and wore, we are told, cleaner shoes.

Once "released", Concetta and Francesca were the talk of the town for a while.  Later they both married but neither had children;  instead, they became benefactors for their city.

Many women, of course,  were sent to convents "against their will", both before and after the Grimaldi sisters, but few had the courage or determination to contest their fate.  And even if they had, what kind of life would have awaited them outside their convents?  As Teresa Spadaccino points out, it is possible that, by Concetta and Francesca's time, rumours of some of the ideals of the Enlightenment had penetrated even convent walls and it may have been this that encouraged them.

I salute you, brave sisters in every sense, from the twenty-first century and I would like to thank Teresa Spadaccino for telling this tale.

Concetta e Francesca Grimaldi - due donne modicane nel XV111 secolo by Teresa Spadaccino is published by Editore Video Mediterraneo.

SABATO MUSICALE

Something a little different this week and I have my friend Nick to thank for bringing this song to my notice:  it is about soldiers of the 51st (Highland) Infantry Divison leaving Sicily after the Allied invasion of 1943.  The town of Messina was evacuated by the Germans on 17th August 1943 and the Allies finally gained control of the entire island on the same day.

BOOK REVIEW - "THE WOMAN WHO SHOT MUSSOLINI"

The Woman Who Shot Mussolini by Frances Stonor Saunders

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Very occasionally, I come across a book that is so interesting that I read it in one sitting and this is one of these. The subject matter is a virtually forgotten incident which occurred in 1926 and its protagonists are Violet Gibson, an aristocratic British spinster and Benito Mussolini, the fascist leader of Italy. If events that morning had gone just a little differently, the whole course of twentieth century history might have been very different.

On that long ago Wednesday Violet Gibson had set out from the convent where she was staying in Rome carrying a pistol, a stone and a scrap of newspaper on which she had written "Palazzo del Littorio", the address of the Fascist Party headquarters where she intended to carry out her deed in the afternoon. But instead she stopped at the Campodoglio where a crowd had gathered because of Mussolini's presence and, seeing him emerge from the Palazzo dei Conservatori, she shot him at point blank range, injuring the tip of his nose. Violet Gibson got as close to her target as Jack Ruby got to Lee Harvey Oswald 37 years later, murder, as the author of this book points out, sometimes being " a very intimate business".

At this point you may well be asking yourselves, as I did, why you have not heard of this incident before and the answer seems to be because it suited both the British and Italian governments to hush it up. It made the newspapers in both countries, of course, and Mussolini's supporters bayed for Violet's blood but both sets of diplomats were only too happy for Violet's family to take her back to Britain and have her quietly shut away. That is what happened and Violet remained in what we would now call a "private mental health facility" for the rest of her life.

Two questions remain about Violet: why did she do it and was she mad? The first has never been definitively answered, as Violet always implied that there were others involved, though no evidence of this was ever found. If she was mad , she was an "intelligent lunatic" who read the papers and analysed political events. She was also born at a time when women of her class were brought up to be ornaments. It is possible, then, that she was looking for a cause and she seems to have thought that she was acting on some sort of divine command.

For years, Violet led investigators and her doctors a dance, at one point asserting,

"What I say can't be believed because I am mad"

and she hardly helped her own cause. Despite her numerous, cogent pleas to the highest in the land, she was never set free or even allowed to reside in a Catholic hospital as she requested and her family became exasperated and more than a little concerned about costs. At this point the book becomes a kind of chronicle of the way in which the well-off mentally ill were treated in the first half of the twentieth century and it is none the less fascinating for that.

The book, however, is as much Benito Mussolini's story as it is Violet's and its early part poses a third question: was Mussolini mad? I'll leave you to make up your own minds on that one!

Meanwhile, back to our mysterious "heroine": When Violet Gibson died in 1956 no public announcement was made and no friend or relative attended her funeral. She remains, in death as in life, an enigma.

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ITALY MAGAZINE ROUND-UP - 12

Casa Natale di Luigi Pirandello

Here is my personal pick of last week's Italy Magazine articles:

Let's kick off with a story that Simi liked, about the dog lifeguards that patrol Italy's beaches.  She wants to learn to jump from a helicopter!  Still at the sea, how would you feel if you went bathing and found a Roman cargo boat? 

Interior Minister Roberto Maroni caused much outrage last week when he promised that Italy would be even tougher than the French on the Roma.  ["Roma" is a term often used by the Italian media and politicians to refer to Romanians as well as to the nomadic peoples of Europe.]  The issue is still being hotly debated.

I decided I would like to see this festival but no way would I take part!

For my personal Patti Chiari column, I continued the story of how books brought me to Sicily.

I hope you enjoy these stories.

ITALY MAGAZINE ROUND-UP - 11

Here is my pick of last week's Italy Magazine articles:

If you are going to be in Abruzzo between tomorrow and 5th September, there is a fascinating, traditional festival in Lanciano.

Still in Abruzzo, Nick Calvano told us the touching story of how he traced more members of his family in Vasto.

Then we went to Tuscany for our summer film, Stealing Beauty.  Staying with film, a famous friend of Italy is shortly to return.

I had to laugh at this story, though I don't suppose I would have been amused had I been one of the passengers! One of the saddest stories of the week was this tale of our times and it was also the week in which Italy said goodbye to former President Cossiga.

For my personal Patti Chiari column, I wrote about how books led me, in a way, to Sicily.  This is to be continued.

I hope you enjoy these stories.

ITALY MAGAZINE ROUND-UP - 6

Here is my personal pick of last week's Italy Magazine articles:

The magazine is running a summer series about romantic films set in Italy and we feature a "golden oldie" and a newer film on alternate weeks.  Last week was "golden oldie" week and I had the pleasure of being able to write about one of my own all-time favourites, Roman Holiday - the one in which Audrey Hepburn famously gets her hair cut "all off" by an initially reluctant Roman hairdresser and in which Gregory Peck falls for her but remains the perfect gentleman.  [Sigh - where did they all go?]

For "blog of the week" we featured When I Was Your Age - A Memoir, Rosaria D'Ambrosio Williams's blog about her journey, as a young woman,  from Italy to America and the people she left behind.  Regular commenters here will know Rosaria as "lakeviewer".

One of the first Italian cookbooks I ever bought was Valentina Harris's Italian Regional Cookery and I still use it often so I was delighted when Valentina shared her delicious recipe for peaches in white wine with ice cream with Italy Magazine's readers.  I'll definitely be making this soon!

For my "Patti Chiari" column I had fun putting together some of the idioms and turns of phrase in Sicilian dialect that I have learned since coming to live here.  I hope you enjoy them, too.

Since starting to write for the mag, I've done a lot of research into the tragic Meredith Kercher case and have become interested in it.  On Friday I summarised Amanda Knox's Oggi interview for our readers.

I've always been interested in the Medici so this was one of my favourite news stories of the week and this tale of a "wild goose chase" has to be the other.

Happy reading.

MAFIA - THE VIEW FROM RAGUSA

Well, here is the post some of you have been awaiting for the past [almost] four years! Why have I got around to it now? Because a new commenter of mine, Andrew Scott, who has an interesting blog, asked me a few weeks ago whether it is true that Sicily is entirely controlled by the Mafia and I decided that he deserves an answer:

First of all, let me make it clear that I am talking about Sicilian Mafia here, not Calabrian 'Ndrangheta or Neopolitan Camorra. I cannot tell you that the Sicilian Mafia does not exist because of course it does. Nor can I tell you that it is not extremely nasty, for we all know that it is. I am no apologist for the organisation but I will say that there are criminal organisations in all countries. The trouble is that in Sicily every crime is attributed to the Mafia.

The Mafia differs from other crime associations in its "swearing in" and so-called "family" structure. But surely every nation's criminal organisations reflect or mock the society that allows them to flourish?

Does the Mafia impinge upon the everyday life of ordinary, hardworking Sicilians, then? Indirectly, in some areas of Sicily, probably yes, in that it can affect the type of politicians who gain power and thereby the kind of services the populations of certain comuni receive. But politicians in a number of countries not so far from Italy also have unorthodox ways of acquiring funding, power and influence.

Whilst we are talking politics, let us not forget just who helped reestablish the Mafia's power after World War II, for it wasn't the Sicilians and it wasn't the Italian government. Whether accidentally or not, the Allied liberators of Sicily handed the Mafia local power on a plate and this has been well documented.

In Midnight in Sicily, published in 1996, Peter Robb describes a Palermo which falls silent at night, its citizens just melting into the shadows, for

"Nobody wanted to be a witness. You might as well be the victim."

Things are very different now, however, and Palermo is lively and happy at night, just like other Italian centres of art and culture. The Mafia was for a long time an attitude of mind, existing because it was allowed to, but this mentality is changing. These changes were prompted by two events above all others: the sickening murders of the anti-Mafia magistrates Giovanni Falcone and later Paolo Borsellino in 1992.

In 1997 the director Roberta Torre made Tano da Morire, a film which makes fun of the Mafia. Such a project in Italy would have been unthinkable during the previous decade. Confindustria, the Italian Employers' Federation, has threatened to expel members who pay the pizzo - the word comes from Arabic jizia - or protection money, to the Mafia and shops stocking only "pizzo free" goods have sprung up in cities like Catania. Small steps, you may think, but they are significant.

Modica is in the Province of Ragusa, which is known as the safest in Sicily and it is said that no one pays the pizzo in this area. Indeed, there is said to be no Mafia activity at all in the Province. All I can tell you is that people live normal, happy, family lives here and that I have never felt threatened in any way.

Sicily is not the Mafia, any more than the London of the 1960s was the Kray brothers. The Mafia is entwined in the island's history, yet it is but a thread in a rich and complex tapestry.

Simm'a Mafia from Tano da Morire

A BEAUTIFUL HOUSE AND A HISTORY LESSON

This article of mine was published in Italy Magazine on Thursday. It was so interesting to meet Marilena and her husband and I thought all of you would like to meet them, too:

ARISTOCRATIC HOME FOR HOLIDAY RENTAL IN SICILY

Meeting Marilena Lorefice and her husband Fabrizio Poidomani is both a pleasure and an opportunity for a fascinating lesson in the history of the Sicilian nobility, for Marilena belongs to one of the oldest families in Sicily. Her thirteenth century ancestor, Sigismundo, fought in the Holy Land and, following a victory in 1263, was rewarded by the Pope with extensive estates in Sicily. The family, originally from Naples, transferred its seat to the island and their name derives from their coat of arms in which the lion carries bay – Latin “laurea” and Italian “alloro” – as a symbol of victory and Latin “fero” – to bear.

Many male Lorefice of past generations are buried in the Co-Cathedral of St John on Malta , having become Knights of Malta because of an unusual tradition devised and followed by aristocratic Sicilian families: if a mother had borne several sons, only two were allowed to marry so as not to divide the family; the others would become celibate Knights of Malta.

Fabrizio’s family is a noble one, too, having arrived in Sicily from Spain in the seventeenth century. The two families have been connected by marriage for several generations.

Marilena inherited the historic Lorefice house, originally a sixteenth century farmhouse, and its adjoining watchtower, the Torre del Cozzoverro. “Cozzo” refers to the location of the house on a hill and “verro” to the Roman magistrate and governor of Sicily, Verres. Cozzoverro functioned as a look-out tower and below it was another tower, the Torre di Commaldo [1300], which is still family property. When the look-outs at the Torre di Cozzoverro espied the Turkish enemy approaching from the sea, the 2,000 inhabitants from nearby dwellings would rush to the Torre di Commaldo to hide.

Now Marilena and Fabrizio have lovingly restored the house and watchtower, together known as the Torre del Cozzoverro. They live there themselves at Christmas and for one month in the summer and rent the property out at other times of the year. Surrounded by meadows, wheatfields and a carefully tended garden, the house has external sloping walls dating from 1700. The house has a living room, dining room, kitchen and downstairs bathroom plus a loft with: 1 double bedroom + 2 single beds , 1 triple bedroom + 1 double bed, 1 double bedroom and 3 bathrooms. The tower has a living room, study and kitchen plus 1 double bedroom, 1 twin bedroom and 1 bathroom on the first floor. The property has 2 swimming pools with a changing room and 2 bathrooms near them plus 2 external showers. Lucia the chef is available on request to prepare traditional local food such as gli arancini di Montalbano [Montalbano’s riceballs] and focaccia for guests.

The Torre del Cozzoverro is ideally located for visits to the nearby Baroque towns of Modica, Ragusa and Noto, the unspoilt countryside of the Cava d’Ispica and the beaches of the Marina di Modica and Vendicari.

Further information and rental costs can be obtained from Di Casa in Sicilia and from CV Travel in the UK.

Pictures of the house appear here with the kind permission of Di Casa in Sicilia.

Today Marilena and Fabrizio run a business, bring up their child and study English. Marilena also paints.

Marilena with one of her paintings.

MOUNTAINGIRL'S PHOTO CHALLENGE - "HOME"

I'm a little late with this but it's still Friday in some places in the world, isn't it? Friday is the day for mountaingirl's Photo Challenge and this week's theme is "home".



If you are in the vicinity of the Church of Santa Maria di Betlemme in Modica's historic centre and happen to look up, you might see these caves [above the houses]. These were people's homes within living memory, inhabited until at least the 1950s. Most of the inhabitants just slammed a door on them and made the best of things. You can read more about this here. I haven't personally seen any caves that are still inhabited, as suggested in the article, but I have seen some that are used for storage. I hope the inhabitants of yesteryear were at least reasonably comfortable!

SICILY QUIZ - 12

An historical theme, tonight:

S - - - - - - - - - - , the first Neolithic culture in Sicily.

T - - - - - - - , ruler of Siracusa from 343 BC. He brought stability to the whole of Sicily.

E The - - - - - - - - settled in Siracusa and Segesta, building the temple at Segesta.

N The - - - - - - - conquered Sicily in 1061.

T - - - - - - [there is an extra letter in Italian], an illegitimate grandson of Roger 11, was crowned King of Sicily in 1189.

I In World War 11, the - - - - - - - Campaign was launched by the Sicily Landings.

N - - - - - was created Duke of Bronte in 1799.

E When - - - - erupted in 1669, much of Catania was destroyed.

L - - - - - , island off Sicily first inhabited in the 5th millennium BC.

L - - - - - - , where Frederick 11 's falconer , Iacopo [to give his surname would be to give you the answer!] was born. Dante credits him with the invention of the sonnet form.

O - - - - - -, historic island of Siracusa.

Highlight below for answers:

Stentinello; Timoleon; Elymians; Normans; Tancred / Tancredi; Italian; Nelson; Etna; Lipari; Lentini [Iacopo da Lentini]; Ortigia / Ortygia.

WHERE IN SICILY?

- And double marks if you can work out what it is!

Answers on tomorrow's post.

ANOTHER NOVEL ABOUT SICILY

When I popped over to Britain in October 2006, mainly for the Cheltenham Literature Festival , I attended a talk by Barry Unsworth about his historical novel set in Sicily, The Ruby in her Navel. I was fascinated by what he had to say, as he spoke of a time in twelfth-century Palermo when Christians, Muslims and Jews lived in harmony and appreciated each other’s skills.

Thurstan, a young Norman at the court of King Roger 11, where Muslims are entrusted with very high office, is the main character. He is the Purveyor of Pleasures and Shows but works for the Diwan of Control, or Financial Department. His ambition is to become a knight. In love with his childhood sweetheart, who has reappeared in his life, our would-be knight is also drawn to the exotic dancer, Nesrin, whom he brings to the court along with her troupe.

The vibrant atmosphere of Palermo in this era is well evoked and we are taken on a journey that encompasses not only daily life under the Norman king, but the Royal Chapel during the crafting of its magnificent mosaics, the silk workshop of the tiraz and the sumptuous surroundings and lifestyle of the royal court as they hunt at Favara [Agrigento]. We are also provided with an insight as to the character of Roger himself and one of the best descriptions of how he may have looked that I have ever read.

Yet times were already changing in Palermo and a sort of Christian fundamentalism sets in: thus Thurstan finds himself caught up in an episode of betrayal that leads to tragedy and there is an ingenious plot twist at the end of this tale.

I recommend this book to all who are interested in the history of Sicily for, as Unsworth has said, the story certainly has resonances for our time.