Page 4 - Italian-American Herald - January 2023

4 ITALIANAMERICANHERALD.COM | JANUARY2023 ITALIAN-AMERICANHERALD TRAVEL
Sicily: A feast for the senses is spread in shadow of Mount Etna
Symbols of Sicilian culture adorn an ancient home in Graniti.
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green everything was and how the flowers were still blooming. Crossing the bridge that led to the village, we took the final windy road that offered a glimpse of the town tucked between the mountains. For the next three weeks our visit centered around the family. In the evening, after dinner, we started a new tradition of playing 500 rummy. This became an almost nightly ritual, often played outside on the third-floor terrace.
I woke in the morning to the church bells and a view of the mountain in front of our house. I listened carefully for the sound of sheep heading up the mountain trail in the morning and coming back down around five in the afternoon. There was no need for checking the time, the rhythms of life here are not always set by a clock.
We spent the first few days walking about the town to see what was new and to revisit what had not changed. We were greeted everywhere with smiles and a chat as though we had never left. My first stop of course was my husband’s cousin’s pasticceria where we scooped up chocolate cornetti (for me) and S-cookies for him. A few days later we drove to the city of Barcelona past Milazzo for a large family dinner. The view from the apartment balcony was spectacular. It was
a cloudless day and several of the Aeolian Islands were visible, strung out like sentinels across the sea. There were about 20 of us around the table, which was laden with all homemade dishes and desserts.
Over the next few days, we began planning day trips to places we had not yet visited on the island. Since the weather was still warm, we headed to the beach near Giardini Naxos, which sits under the beauti- ful city of Taormina. The water was clear and warm, and the beach practically deserted as we swam in the sea and enjoyed the views.
A few days later we headed up to Mount Etna with two family members. We took an exit near Acireale, on the south side of the volcano, passing through the towns of
Linguaglossa and Mareneve before ascending into the forest and traveling over 18 kilome- ters to Piano Provenzanao in the Parco di Etna. It was a beautiful sunny day, but the temperature dropped by about 12 degrees
as we traveled through pine forests along the winding road. We saw different camping areas along the way before we began to pass through the lava fields. Some of them were barren but others sprouted fresh green trees that had grown out of the fertile lava field. We stopped at a few points to take pictures, including one of a lava field with a view of the sea below.
The wind was blowing strongly as we exited the car, and since the ski lift was closed and we couldn’t go further up the volcano,
we spent about 30 minutes wandering through the little gift shop cabins. There were groups of people “trekking” further up the volcano or on their way down. Descending once again, we pulled off the main road to visit one of the many religious grottos dotted throughout the mountain.
Before our next day trip, we walked around Graniti searching for and looking
at murals and artistic works that were on display throughout the small paese. The project is known as the Graniti Murales Artist Residency, which provides an opportunity for national and international artists to break out of their studio, to bring their artistic talent
to this unique rural town in the northern mountains of Sicily. Tour buses now come through here as part of local tourism efforts and two or three times visitors stopped to ask us where they could find the murals. I was also surprised to find the town now had some B&Bs, opened within the past few years.
On steps leading down to the main piazza we found an old bike repainted and hanging on the wall with flowers in the basket, while near the church of San Basilio we found several woodcut designs affixed to old wooden doors of an ancient house. The painted murals are extremely vibrant, two of my favorites depicted both a Vespa, which is a popular modern form of transport and a
There was no need for checking the time, the rhythms of life here are not always set by a clock.