A Sicilian Summer

Since I visited Sicily, in 2002, I've been fascinated by this Italien region. In the first place because it's an island. As I long as I remember, islands have always had a big attraction to me. They are like oasis in the middle of oceans, seas or lakes. They are planets on their own, surrounded by water. Islands are both open doors to places the sea makes as infinite as our imagination enable it and closed universes bounded by walls made of water. Then, because Sicily is a crossroad and crossroads are always thrilling spaces. By its central position in the Mediterannean Sea, Sicily played a very important role in European history. Many civilizations and cultures met, made wars and traded goods there. This heritage gave Sicily its very particular identity and left many historical ruins as testimony of the past. Sicily wouldn't be Sicily without its volcanos, the most famous being the Etna and the Stromboli. They dominate this island as living gods, giving it very fertile soils, but also menacing it regularly. To see red-orange lava coming from those two giants in the middle of very dark nights was certainly one of the most beautiful and terrifying things I've ever experienced. Creation and destruction. Finally there is this Sicilian food made of fresh fishes, local lemons, pastas and vegetables, eatan during those unforgettable meals that last for hours. In Sicily, more than in any southern countries, the meals are a social acts. Food, wine and family are deeply bounded, creating this unique warm atmosphere we can only experience there. 

The pictures below have been taken during my 3rd trip to Sicily in 2011. On the two first pictures we can see Falcone, a small village in the North where I stayed at a friend's holiday home in which I slept between unforgettable endless meals with her Sicilian familly. The second picture remind us how present is the catholic religion in Italy, especially in the South. Then we are heading to the very center of Sicily. It's Enna, a small town standing on a mountain and its breathtaking view on dry landscape. Our point of arrival is the extreme South with Agrigente and its antic ruins. When we were there, an artist was exposing its wonderful sculptures of human being, creating a bridge between Antics times and modernity.