Sicily — The Pink and the Green of it

Recently I spent 10 days in Sicily.

Of course the weather in January would be tentative, variable, irascible, volatile. That can be very exciting when you are on an island. The sunrises and the sunsets are dramatic and the seas lap, romp or gallivant according to their very own interesting rhythms as they play with the wind and the rains. One moment they sparkle like diamonds on the surface; the next, they maneuver over the waves like a man taking a stance with arms crossed, forging ashore. Sometimes they come with pounding feet and drums as if in a war dance with the confines of the land. I did a lot of nature-watching while there.

Both ferry crossings were calm and having a car with us was a real blessing as we drove on our path from Palermo to Trapani and Erice in Northwestern Sicily. Trapani is on a promontory that is curved like a sickle and thus its name (Greek for sickle is drepane). It is on the salt marshes with 2 windmills and they were used for draining water from the salt basins. Trapani is known for its shipyards and tuna fishing. Erice, a small medieval town with ancient beginnings, was named for the goddess of fertility, Venus Erice. It dates back to the Phoenicians.

Next we drove to Agrigento — first on an inland road and then from Sciacca, we followed the coast road to our destination which was the Valley of the Temples. These temples are dedicated to: Olympian Zeus, Castor and Pollux, Hera, Heracles and Concord (which is the best preserved). The day we were there was springlike. The peace of the place was immediately felt and that there were so many sanctuaries there was not surprising. Clearly it has always been a sacred location. Agrigento, an important port, was founded by the Greeks in 581 BC; it was conquered by the Romans in 210 BC. All the temples have the Doric columns. Still today, the Valley of the Temples is almost a nature park with its vast expanse of almond and olive groves.

Meandering there was like being in our next season, already in Spring. The sunlight was very restorative that day. This was the pink and the green of it — those pink almond blossoms and those green, silver-undersided olive leaves — and it reminded me of JoCoCo’s effort to contribute to the Deanna Favre 4 Hope Foundation for breast cancer patient’s aid with our pink line. It reminded me also of our dedication to the environment: The Nature Conservancy’s Plant a Billion Trees program which our green line promotes.

The silver underside of those olive trees puts me in mind to follow a silver thread to the next part of my Sicilian adventure via Mount Etna, that silver Volcano…

Ciao! Sally Fougerousse