The White Lotus Season 2: Stunning Locations in Sunny Sicily
White Lotus Season 2 features gorgeous and mysterious Sicily. Learn more about the amazing hotels and villas in Taormina, Noto, and Palermo where you can stay for the night.
Sicily
Sicily, located across the Strait of Messina from the region of Calabria, is the largest island in the Mediterranean.
The Triumph of Death: Mysterious Plague Painting in Palermo
Throughout the long, lonely months of our modern pandemic, I’ve been thinking about a dark and mysterious painting in Palermo known as “The Triumph of Death.” Known in Italian as Il Trionfo della Morte, the painting hangs in Palazzo Abatellis, a regional gallery in the Kalsa quarter of the Sicilian capital. Measuring 6 m x…
Go For the Gold: The Gorgeous Golden Mosaics of Palermo, Monreale, & Cefalù
Sicily has some of the most gorgeous golden mosaics in the world. Here’s where to see these UNESCO World Heritage sights in Palermo, Monreale, and Cefalù.
The Best Things to Eat in Palermo, Sicily
I Can’t Believe I Ate All of That On Such a Short Trip
Palermo, Sicily: 2018 Italian Capital of Culture
Congratulations to the city of Palermo, which has been awarded the distinction of Italian Capital of Culture for 2018. The Italian Culture Ministry (Ministero di Beni Culturali) awards the prize each year in an effort to promote tourism. Along with the distinction, the winning city receives 1 million euro which is to be used to…
Ancient Aphrodite Sculpture Back in Sicily
On Tuesday, the Museo Archeologico di Morgantina, a small archeological museum in Aidone (Enna), Sicily, held an inauguration for the repatriation of an ancient sculpture of Aphrodite.
A Bribe-Free Holiday in Sicily
The brave work of the anti-mafia organization AddioPizzo.org was recently brought to my attention. “Addio Pizzo” means “Goodbye, Pizzo,” the latter word meaning the protection money that hundreds of businesses throughout Sicily have had to pay to the powerful, omnipresent mafia. AddioPizzo was formed in 2004 after a group of young Sicilian entrepreneurs, afraid that…
Spain Conquers Italy
Large parts of Italy were once united under the Spanish flag, with conquests in Naples and Sicily by the houses of Aragon and Bourbon, among others. Even Milan and Parma were under Spanish rule at one point. I confess that I am not an expert on Spain’s influence on Italy, so you may want to…
From Mafia Villa to Agriturismo
This one comes from the U.K.’s Italy Magazine, which tells us that the Corleone villa of former Mafia boss Salvatore Riina has been turned into farmstay housing, a.k.a., an agriturismo. The Pio La Torre Cooperative, named for a martyred anti-Mafia activist, belonged to Riina before it was seized by the State after his 1993 capture….