It's Thursday night and we are up in the Madonie Mountains in the amazing hill top village of Polizzi Generosa. This, like other hilltop towns in Sicily, is plopped right on top of a giant rock and must have been a great place to fight off the invading hordes of Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Spaniards or whoever else decided to invade Sicily. It didn't work all that well, as each of these groups over the centuries conquered Sicily. But the result is that this and other towns are drop dead gorgeous. Polizzi is on a huge promontory withe 360 degree views of the surrounding mountains. Being spring, the fields all over this part of Sicily are vibrant green and there are wildflowers everywhere. Sheep and cows are all over the place, munching on the tasty, green grass.
Not the easiest places to drive, however. We left Siracusa Wednesday morning in a wonderful rented car called a Fiat 500. This is a recent reissue of the famous Italian car that had been popular here for decades. It's the Italian version of the Volkswagen Bug. With Amy as my navigator, Michelin map in hand, we set off to explore the interior of Sicily. Hilltop towns like Palazollo Acreide, Caltagirone, Piazza Armeniere, Ariba and now Polizzi. Thank goodness we have such a tiny car (which amazingly doesn't feel all that small when you're in it) because the streets are so narrow that we have squeezed through some streets with an inch to spare.
For lunch we went to the town of Ariba, to the very top of tow to a restaurant with a great view. Kudos to this car for getting us up there (and to Amy for navigating us through the bewildering streets). Once on top of the town we had this incredible view of Mt. Etna. This is Sicily's Mt. Fuji, a 11,000 foot high beautiful volcano. It was about 50 miles away, but still took up much of the landscape. It has been erupting all year and there was a huge plume of smoke blowing out its top. Lucky for us we were up wind. What a great place to watch this as we had a delicious lunch of antipasti (grilled eggplant, roasted peppers, salami, pecorino cheese, grilled mushrooms) and a pasta with a ragu sauce.
We have met some very nice locals here. Yesterday we came into the town of Piazza Armeniere, looking for a BandB called Umberto 33. We were in town to see a procession where they carry a 1000 year old painting of Madonna and child around town. We parked in the tiny town square and a man came over to tell us that we shouldn't leave our car there as this is where the procession wes coming in a couple of hours and the police would tow us. He handed us the card and he happened to be the owner of the BandB we were looking for! After we got settled he invited us to his enoteca, or wine tasting shop, to try the local wine. His name was Giovanni, and like most other folks in this town, was light skinned and blue eyed, the result of the Norman invasion in the 10th Century. We had a great time with him, tasting through some delicious local wines like Nero d'Avola, Cerasuolo da vittoria and Grillo. After a quick dinner of pizza with cheese, potatoes and mushrooms, the procession came through with teenagers carrying the painting on a giant platform (boys in front, girls in back) and the town folk following along with a brass band. They went through the whole town, stopping at various churches on the way, bells ringing everywhere. Eventually they made it way to the top of the town, to the Duomo, where the Padre blessed the painting, the teenagers, the brass band and whoever else was in the vicinity.
In the morning, Giovanni served us a delicious breakfast of rich, dark coffee and these amazing fried dough things stuffed with sweet, creamy ricotta. He also had us try this pistachio spread on our toast. It was sweet and creamy and oh so good! We wanted to get an early start, but ended up talking for an hour with Giovanni about Sicily, California, Hawaii, ukuleles, you name it. He spoke no English, but with some French, Spanish and our tiny bit of Italian, we had no problem communicating.
This evening, here in Polizzi Generosa, we have again lucked out. These towns are hard enough to drive around in when there is nothing going on, but as we came into town there were market stalls, kiddie fun rides, and lots of people. We got what seemed to be the last parking place in town and walked down the street to a little square that had an information office. The man in the information office told us that this was their big day for a procession and that the procession would be coming by in less the an hour!! After a major search, he was able to find us the last room in town. Then here came the procession. Two men with huge drums were followed by about 20 men carrying what was the most tormented looking Christ on the cross I've ever seen, followed by men and women in groups of colored velvet shoulder capes (from the different parishes, I would guess), all looking very somber and pious. The men were in dark beautifully cut immaculate suits the women in blacks and grays. They were followed by a brass band playing what sounded like a John Phillip Souza march with a mafioso flavor. Then the other townsfolk brought up the rear. At times the crowd bunched up as the procession slowed and filled entire piazzas and then some, They also marched through the whole town and eventually at 10:30 pm, fireworks were set off to end the celebration.
Friday we are off to Palermo, into the big city. Don't know when we will be able to post our blogs, as these places we are staying in have no wifi, but hopefully we will post soon.
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