The three highlight antiquities we’ve seen this trip are the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento (Greece 2400 BCE); the remarkable Roman mosaics (300 CE) at the Villa Romana del Casale in Piazza Armerina, and the rarely open Houses of Augustus and Livia with their delicate wall frescoes in the Read More

Everywhere I look I see someone who reminds me of someone I know in Boston.  Occasionally it seems like the North End of 30 years ago (Boston’s Little Italy) has teleported itself to Sicily.  It’s a testimony to the extent of Italian and Sicilian emigration to the Northeastern US over the past Read More

  Full disclosure – I love churches – the gloomier, darker and more intense, the better.  It must be related to childhood in Montreal and short winter days stomping in and around St. Joseph’s Oratory – the Shrine – with as many bleeding martyrs as you can find, including Brother Andre’s Read More

    The sculpted faces in the glass cases in the archeological museum in Siracusa are a parade of Athenas, Minervas, Madonnas – seamlessly slipping from Greek to Roman to early Christian.  But a significant difference is the proud straight-on view of the Greek and Roman goddess morphing to the Read More