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Finding Inspiration and Art in the Gardens of Palermo, Sicily MARCH COMES IN LIKE A LION, and in Sicily torrents of rain, high winds, and snow proved the proverbial nostrum to be true. Fred and I arrived in Rome, rented a car, and headed to Naples to take the ferryboat overnight from Naples to Palermo, Sicily. That evening we boarded a huge ferry loaded with tractor-trailer rigs and found our snug cabin. The full moon of February lit our way across the Tyrrhenian Sea, and morning found us in the “calla,” or old harbor, of Palermo. We found our hotel, the Mondello Palace in a quiet old seaside town of the same name, Mondello, some four miles out of the bustle of Palermo. We had come to Sicily anticipating seeing the remains of once-thriving Greek settlements dating from the sixth century b.c. Our first visit was to Selinunte on the Mediterranean Sea on the southwest coast of Sicily. We observed fallen columns, solitary foundations, dismantled towers, and wall remnants, with an incredible Doric temple still standing. All around were the remains of a proud and prosperous Greek community founded around 570 b.c. More than two hundred thousand inhabitants lived here until the city was razed in a siege by the Carthaginians in 409 b.c. The yellow limestone columns took on a peachy glow as the sun appeared by magic, turning the sea a green-blue aqua. Another day we ventured out to Segesta, a jewel of a Greek town that thrived in northwest Sicily in the fourth century b.c. We drove across rolling lands green with wheat, vineyards, and olive orchards. Standing alone against a vast grand canyon was an exquisite Doric temple which towered over the countryside. Black ravens flew and cawed among the ruins. Thucydides reported that after the Trojan War the exiled Phrygians came to Sicily and founded Segesta. It was even thought that the Trojan hero Aeneas arrived in Segesta. As evening fell, we sat in the Greek theater, which snuggled back into the mountainside and looked outward to a vast expanse of snowcapped mountains with the Tyrrhenian Sea in the distance. Sicily has seen many rulers. The Greeks were successively replaced by the Romans , who were followed by the Byzantines, the Muslims, and the Norman French. We visited three ancient Norman churches, each a Romanesque jewel. The interiors glowed with golden mosaics telling the stories of the Bible. The apse of the Palatine Chapel, built in 1129, was dominated by a figure of Christ with outstretched arms. His red and gold tunic was the color of the ethereal God, while his blue mantle signified the cloak of man. This dramatic and dominating image of Christ was visible again in the Cathedral of Monreale built in 1174, high on a hill 18 Italian Gardens over Palermo, and in the Norman Church of Cefalù built in 1131. The fourteencarat gold mosaics fill each of these churches with an iridescent shimmering light. The Norman French conquerd Sicily in 1063, thereby ending more than two hundred years of Islamic rule. Cefalù had been under Byzantine domination prior to its conquest by Muslims in 858. The Byzantine culture in Sicily was not extinguished by two centuries of Islamic and then Norman French governance. Therefore Cefalù Cathedral, begun in about 1131 by Roger II, brother of William the Conqueror, although Norman or Romanesque in architectural style, contains mosaics from about 1148 that are fine examples of early Byzantine art, especially the large Panocrator mosaic in the apse of royal blue on a field of real gold. We journeyed to the interior town of Corleone, made famous by the Godfather films. The town sits on a fertile farming plateau, once isolated in the interior of Sicily. An impressive highway with tunnels and arched bridges now brings this farming center closer to civilized Sicilian life. The classic red wine of this region, Nero d’Avola, is characterized by its intense ruby color and a flavor of aromatic herbs. The dry and fruity white wines were served at the winery where we stopped for lunch. We were served delicious antipasti including eggplant, mushrooms, and sweet red peppers, followed by tomato glazed crostini, fried cheese, and a frittata of vegetables and onions, followed by grilled sausages and potatoes swimming in butter. Palermo is majestic in its eighteenth- and nineteenth-century “old town” that fronts a superb natural harbor. Headlands rising to rocky promontories protect each flank, Mt. Pellegrino...

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