Sicily Scene

  Above: cassatelle di ricotta and traditional lamb pies, made by a friend's mother Let's not forget it's doggy Easter too, so ...

Young people I talk to often ask what my favourite cities are and I always reply that in Italy, they are Agrigento and Florence because both...

Here I am, almost a week late in posting about the 73rd Sanremo Festival of Italian Song , life and a storm (of which more below) having int...

I write this the day after the eighth anniversary of the death of my beloved dog, Simi, whom some of you may remember from posts of yesterye...

I received this beautiful gift of oranges and mandarins from a friend's garden, presented in a traditional, hand-made Sicilian basket, y...

 BLOG4PEACE - NO FREEDOM, NO PEACE On New Year's Eve 1999 I was having dinner with friends back in Cardiff, Wales. When the clocks struc...

Like so many all over the world, I devoted Monday to watching, on television, the ritual that accompanied the end of an era in London. I am ...

  O, to be in England Now that April 's there, And whoever wakes in England Sees, some morning, unaware,  ... wrote Robert Browning in H...

 You are lucky to be able to capture a twilight image in Italy, as it does not fall slowly, as in Britain. Here, one moment it is there but ...

I'm not a "Rise and shine, sing in the morning" type of person. I'm more, "Light, go away!" first thing. Nor do ...

It is mid-August and once again it is the Feast of St Lawrence, followed by la notte di San Lorenzo, the night on which young Italians ofte...

This is the hottest summer I can remember in Sicily and it seems to be wearing us all down because the extreme heat started early, in May, a...

 Just a few photos of where I live, in Modica, a Unesco World Heritage Site, from its highest point, the Pizzo . And what Saturday night is ...

On the occasion of Her Majesty The Queen's Platinum Jubilee, I'm going to begin with another extract from my memoir, A Place Called...

 It was a great pleasure, on Saturday, to be able to visit the Infiorata di Noto (carpet of flowers) again in person, as it has not been h...

This Easter traditional processions are back and Modicans, yesterday, were able to enjoy their beloved Madonna Vasa Vasa , the Easter Sunday...

A lovely day on Sunday with friends who are both book lovers and dog lovers and what could be better after a long and delicious lunch than a...

  This evening, Michelle and I will do what I know every parent in America will do, which is hug our children a little tighter, said Preside...

March 8th, La festa della donna,  is widely celebrated in Italy and you see mimosa blossom everywhere. Here's why it is a symbol of thi...