It's about 73 miles by road from Palermo to Erice (EH-ree-cheh), but some of it's a hilly winding road so it takes about a couple of hours to drive there. That's long enough to make a rest stop along the…
After two temple-touring days, we left the Greeks behind and made our way to Palermo, the capitol of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The Greeks never conquered Palermo and it only began to…
From the garden behind our hotel in Agrigento, we could see a Greek temple, the Temple of Concordia. This was the first of many temples we would see over the next two days. The Temple of Concordia Valley of the…
We packed our bags. It was time to move on from Siracusa. On our way to the bus we passed a portrait on a fence near the hotel. I had not seen this style of portrait before. The entire image…
Since arriving in Siracusa, we had been fairly busy with field trips to Buscemi and the Neopolis Archeological Park, but we also had ample time to do interesting things on the island of Ortigia during our three-day stay. The view…
In the fifth century BCE, Siracusa was the dominant military and economic power in the Greek world. The last of its remains now lies in the outskirts of modern Siracusa in the Neapolis Archeological Park. This is Siracusa's greatest concentration…
The Italian diaspora of 1880-1920 had a significant impact on the population of Italy. This was driven by poverty and harsh conditions, especially in the south. An estimated four million people left Italy for the United States at that time,…
We packed our bags, tipped our hats to the fine staff at the Excelsior Palace Hotel and bid adieu to Mt. Etna. We were moving to Siracusa. Leaving the Excelsior Palace Hotel and Mt. Etna On my way to the…
Mt. Etna was located due west of our hotel. We knew it was there, but we'd not yet seen it. It was always hidden in the clouds. Finally, one morning as I walked out of the hotel to check out…