Sicily's seductive beaches & strange symbol

Castellamare del Golfo, Sicily.

The trinacria, symbol of Sicily, Italy.

More than 2,000 years ago, Greek sailors sailing the Mediterranean around Sicily gazed upon its golden shores and likened them to the alluring legs of a woman. They called the island Trinakria, or three pointed, identifying it with the Thrinacia mentioned in Homer's Odyssey.
I love to wander Sicily's beaches in the off season when it's easy to imagine ancient scenes on deserted shores.
The trinacria is still the symbol of Sicily, appearing on everything including the region's flag, though in that case the snakes coming from gorgon Medusa's head have been updated to less-threatening wheat sheaves.
I don't mind the snakes.  To me, they perfectly represent all the old mountain roads that wind all over this beautiful island.

Paradiso nature preserve is on Sicily's south coast, not far from the Greek temples at Selinunte.

Scarab beetles scurry over the dunes at Paradiso nature preserve.

Alcamo Marina, in Western Sicily.

The old tonnara (tuna fishery) at Scopello.

The popular beach town of San Vito lo Capo, Sicily, hosts an annual Cous Cous Festival.

Strait of Messina, Italy: myth, magic & a much-needed bridge

Hello, Sicily.

When Odysseus sailed the Strait of Messina he had a tough decision to make.  Sailing too close to Calabria would mean passing Scylla, a sailor-snatching sea-nymph with a body composed of ravening dogs.  Too close to Sicily and the huge whirlpool mouth of Charybdis could suck down the entire ship.

Ultramarine.

Navigating the water between mainland Italy and Sicily has always meant being caught between a rock and a hard place.  The water is turbulent here where the Ionian Sea (to the south) meets the Tyrrhenian Sea (to the north).  Also making trouble for mariners of old, a rare atmospheric phenomenon called the Fata Morgana after Morgan Le Fay of Arthurian legend (you know, Camelot).  The sorceress was said to lure sailors to their death here by producing a mirage of land, castles and all. Though no longer attributed to witchcraft, the optical illusion is still occasionally observed today.

Waiting for the ferry.

Causing much more trouble for travellers these days is 21st-century traffic.  Cars jockey for position to get onto the ferry that crosses the Strait, then pour off like racing pigs at a state fair.  On the Messina side this year, frustration reigned as we found all ferry signage on the highways approaching Messina had been removed.
In Calabria, the A3 highway - a major route at high elevation through the mountains - was reduced at points to one narrow lane clogged by heavy equipment, hurtling trucks and construction preparing for the new bridge across the Strait.  For Pat and I, a familiar route had become nerve wracking and confusing.  Drivers who've never been down this way could find current conditions paralyzing and dangerous.

The idea of a bridge over the Strait of Messina has been around since Roman times and revived many times since.  Under Silvio Berlusconi, completion was projected for 2016.  Now that he's resigned?  Who knows.
Personally, I'm not happy to see an ancient vista altered forever but look forward to a new wonder of the world.  Until the bridge is built, I'll be approaching the Strait in a train, not a rental car.

Myth and water around Lamezia Terme, Calabria, Italy

Dense forests harbor wild boar.

Free bathing at roadside spring at Caronte.

We've been using Calabria as a back door to Sicily for a few years, preferring direct flights to Lamezia Terme to non-direct flights to Palermo.  Car rental is a lot easier at Lamezia, too.
This time we stayed in the area for a few days to decompress and explore.  Our first stop is always the quiet train station mensa to eat, then La Mimosa on the Caronte mountain just outside town.  La Mimosa's rooms are modest but everything works, the staff are accommodating and the food a favorite with locals including the police.

La Mimosa hotel, ristorante & pizzeria.

 This time we took a short walk up the hill to get our flight kinks blissfully pummelled out with scented hydromassage at Terme Caronte.  Now a big modern spa authorized by the government to provide health services, Terme Caronte has been offering water cures since 1716.

The spa's symbol is Caronte (or Charon) himself, the boatman of Greek myth who ferries the dead across the Styx.  There are free spots to soak alongside the road just opposite the spa and here, near the source, it is easy to imagine Charon poling his way across the Hades-hot, underground river.

Unofficial soaking spot closer to the source.

If you'd like to jump in the ocean, the big bay of the Golfo di S. Eufemia is not far. Hotels and restaurants adorn the Gizzeria and Falerna lidos but clues to the area's hardscrabble past are not hard to find.

Between Calabria and Sicily.  Between a rock and a hard place.  The Straits of Messina have an ancient myth of their own but that's a tale for my next post.

Scilla, Calabria, with the Straits and Sicily beyond.

Investing in beauty: The European Fine Art Fair, Holland

TEFAF is the place to learn about art and the global art market.

If TEFAF Maastricht is the mother of all commercial art fairs, she is a gracious hostess with a salon full of fresh flowers and the best-informed minds of the international art world.
Often described as an incredible once-a-year museum in which everything is for sale, TEFAF this year hosted 260 of the world's top art and antiques dealers showing everything from classical antiquities to crave-worthy jewellery by Lalique and Cartier to masterworks by names straight out of art history textbooks: Canaletto, Breughel, Rembrandt, Renoir, Rodin, Matisse, Koons, Warhol, Bacon, to name just a few.

TEFAF's Haute Joaillerie section dazzles.

Over 150 private jets landed in Maastricht, Netherlands, between March 17 and 27.  I arrived by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines via Amsterdam as part of a North American press group invited by Visit Holland to experience the world's most important art and antiques fair firsthand.  We checked into the whimsical Hotel Mabi in Maastricht's historic heart, then it was on to the fair.
With a stint in commercial gallery sales in my past, I had some idea what to expect on the business end of things.  And with prices for many items in the multimillions, big business was definitely, quietly, afoot.  What I didn't expect was the convivial, festive ambience that makes TEFAF such a pleasure: fresh flowers by the thousands, excellent dining options, individually-designed gallery spaces providing intimate viewing areas, experts to learn from, an informed and passionate crowd.

A fairy-filled work by J.A. Fitzgerald (1823-1906).

Why attend TEFAF Maastricht if you don't have a few million Euro to spend?  The enchantment and emotion of seeing so much fragile beauty and history in one place.  To be in the company of--and learn from--people who have dedicated their working lives to art and those who choose to invest their money in the robust economy of culture and and tangible objects that are so much more than an asset.

A rare 7,000 year-old Greek idol.

Whether investing in art or just in your own pleasure, TEFAF Maastricht offers a brief window in time in which to glimpse rare and precious pieces before they pass from one private collection to another.
Celebrating its 25th anniversary next year, TEFAF Maastricht 2012 promises to be even more extraordinary.

Changing Sicily

A wedding near Marsala.

Greek temple at Segesta.

Having married into a Sicilian family and visiting the island often enough to consider it my second home, I still succumb to Stendhal syndrome within an hour or two of arrival, a willing victim of its beauty and exoticism.
At the crossroads of the Mediterranean but on the fringe of Europe (it's closer to Africa than Rome), Sicily's history is a mosaic of light and shadow, complex patterns of repeated invasion, dark violence and dazzling cultural brilliance.
Highlights this year: taking the funicular at sunset up to cloud-bound Erice, watching scarab beetles stitch their way across the dunes at Paradiso nature preserve, visiting Segesta in the rain, staring in awe at the Byzantine mosaics (c. 1140 AD) of the Cappella Palatina in Palermo, exploring the Etna Coast and the baroque town of Acireale.
High above the ocean on the eastern side of the island, Acireale makes a great base for exploring this area which features large in Greek mythology as the home of the cyclops Polyphemus who, blinded by Ulysses, hurled rocks after his departing ship. Huge "monster" with a single, red-gushing eye...gee, sounds like a volcano! Mt. Etna's lava has reached the sea many times and the Riviera dei Ciclopi's dramatic coastline of contorted rocks and black sand makes it a popular resort area. The Etna Coast CVB has a great website with many accommodation links. We stayed at the Santa Tecla Palace and savored its saltwater infinity pool and delicious buffets. A great pick in the centre of town is the Michelin-starred Hotel Maugeri; their restaurant specializes in traditional Sicilian dishes featuring local seafood. You don't have to be staying there to eat there, but if it's Carnival season (Feb/Mar) you'll want to. The Maugeri is right on the procession route.

Papier mache carnival float elements begin with clay sculpture.

From traditional puppet theatre to exuberant Carnevale celebrations that draw 800,000 visitors every year, I'll be writing about Acireale's attractions on Examiner.com over the winter. Visiting the carnival float workshops - meeting the artists and seeing how they create the massive floats from not much more than wire, clay and papier mache - was one of my top travel experiences ever.
Despite touring pleasures and joy on the family front (a wedding, a new baby), I was in tears several times by changes evident on the island since my last visit. More bare hillsides, their vineyards torn out (the government is paying people not to produce), increased signage (some for road safety, much of it for advertising) interfering with classic vistas in some spots, protective fences around monuments (a good thing and necessary, as are admission fees for their upkeep, but it wasn't that long ago we could wander in as freely as Goethe did). Big box stores and shopping complexes like the new Poseidon center outside Palermo, more than one McDonalds...some see uglification, most see much-needed jobs. Prosperity has been long in coming and, to tell the truth, many of the new amenities (like the availability of EEC-mandated public washrooms) make life a lot easier for travellers as well as locals.
For all the development, Sicily is still one of the easiest places on the planet to incur Stendhal Syndrome. Change is accelerating, though, so I say again as I always do: the time to see Sicily is now.

View of the saltwater infinity pool at the Santa Tecla Palace hotel, Acireale, Sicily, Italy.

Got a question? Email me and I'll try to help.