Sicily: The Leopard to Serpotta

Sicily was ruled by Spain’s Bourbon dynasty. The Spanish lost this kingdom when The Leopard leaped.

Sicily was once ruled by the Bourbons, who held the Spanish throne. The country the Bourbons ruled came to be called The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Why two? It was formed when the Bourbons united two kingdoms both called Sicily. The northern half, formally called the Kingdom of Naples but commonly referred to as the Kingdom of Sicily, ranged from Naples all the way south on mainland Italy. This area today is called the Mezzogiorno. In 1816 this Kingdom of Naples merged with the Kingdom of Sicily (the island) under the Bourbons forming the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

Leaping Leopards!

In 1957 Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa wrote The Leopard, a novel about the unification of Sicily with the then recently established country we now call Italy. Tomasi was the last in a line of minor princes. The main character of the book is his great-grandfather, Don Giulio Fabrizio Tomasi, the Prince of Lampedusa. Lampedusa is an island. Tomasi died before the book was published. The Leopard became the top selling novel in Italian history, while winning prestigious awards. In 1959 it was made into a movie, and there is now a series on Netflix.

Before the unification (the Risorgimento), Italy was divided into city states. The Pope, for example, ruled Rome and the area around it and south to Naples. The Leopard is about how Sicily became part of the new country with the “invasion” of Garibaldi, leading a mere 1000 soldiers. Clearly there wasn’t much resistance.

The Circle Trip

So here I am now in modern Sicily formed by the Leaping Leopard. And what did I come to see yet again? Ancient Sicily, and there’s a lot of it. You land in Palermo or Catania, join a tour or rent a car and do your own, as I do. Driving is not too difficult if you don’t mind sharing the road with the Italians, who have a rather aggressive driving style.

I started in Catania. There is a neat old Basilica Cattedrale Sant’Agata (1078 though rebuilt after earthquakes), the nearby Roman amphitheater, the Monastero dei Benedettini (16th c), and Ursino Castle from the 13th century, which houses the Civic Museum of Catania. Il Museo Arte Contemporanea Sicilia is small but worth a visit. A walk through the old town displays its ancient character. While Catania is generally unkempt and unattractive, it’s better in the old center.

Mt Etna smokes just an hour’s drive uphill. As usual in Italy there will be some Mario Andretti on your behind, until he finds a bit of a stretch so he can zoom past. Etna is no joke. She erupted again on June 2, just two days after we drove to the southern peak. You’d appreciate the fast drivers if the eruption occurred while you were up there.

From Catania you can go south along the coast to Siracusa (Syracuse in English). It was founded by Greeks circa 733 BCE, becoming the most important city of Magna Grecia, the area comprising southern Italy . There are two main reasons for going to Siracusa. The island of Ortigia is one. The oldest part of the city, it contains the Cattedrale Metropolitana della Natività di Maria Santissima, a UNESCO site. The stately Cathedral dates from the 7th century, with Roman era columns still holding up the roof. Further along through ancient narrow streets and allies there’s the old castle guarding the harbor.

The second main attraction is https://parchiarcheologici.regione.sicilia.it/en/parco-archeologico-di-siracusa-eloro-villa-del-tellaro-e-akrai/ It has a Greek and Roman amphitheater and some mighty big caves. Somewhere I read that the caves were used by the local oracles to deliver their vague premonitions. There are ancient bronze statues (copies) here and there on the expansive grounds There are catacombs nearby.

Sicily has more Greek temples than Greece. From Siracusa you zoom around the coast to the valley of the Temples in Agrigento, a bit inland. Concordia is the most intact. Selinunte, an even larger collection of temples residing on the beautiful coast, is not terribly far. Founded around 628 BCE, Selinunte was one of the most important Greek colonies on the island.

selinunte beach
Selinunte Beach, watercolor 10 x 15cm/4 x 6″ If you walk the length of the park you have this view
Palermo-Museo-Archeologico-bjs-05
Frieze from Selinunte in the archaeology museum in Palermo
Temple of Hercules
Temple of Hercules, Selinunte
Agrigento-Tempio_della_Concordia01
Tempio della Concordia, Agrigento
IMG_20210924_094029
Ruins of Selinunte
agrigento juno
Temple of Juno, Agrigento

After Selinunte I made a side trip with my daughter and family to Partanna. My grandfather was born there and my grandmother not far away in Santa Ninfa. The drive through the countryside reveals the intensity of its agriculture, and just as you arrive in Partanna there are huge olive oil and wine storage tanks along the main road.

You get a sense of where you come from when you visit your roots. We don’t just pop out of nowhere. There’s a long history behind us, many stories to be told, many we will never uncover. I have one of my own: to this day I do not know who was the father of my uncle Matteo, born to my grandmother. His birth certificate is silent on the matter.

We continued on to Erice, a small town perched on the top of a mountain. You climb to the top via numerous tight and often very steep switchbacks. The stone village has fabulous views of the sea on one side, Trapani on another with its salt drying ponds sparkling under the sun, and extensive agricultural lands elsewhere. We stayed in Villa San Giovanni. The old building is fun to be in. The rooms are a bit dated and basic, but it’s tough to beat the views.

WhatsApp Image 2025-06-11 at 11.15.56
View from our hotel in Erice
WhatsApp Image 2025-06-05 at 18.15.08
Real Duomo (Chiesa Madre di Erice)
WhatsApp Image 2025-06-11 at 11.16.02(2)
Castello Pepoli
WhatsApp Image 2025-06-11 at 11.16.02(1)

More on Erice from my previous visit is here https://garyjkirkpatrick.com/erice-ancient-mountain-top-village-on-the-coast/

There are great views as you drive along the coast to Palermo, with mountains on one side and the coast on the other. We stopped for one night at a beach apartment, the sandy beach just a five minute walk.

Palermo was settled by the Phoenicians in 734 BCE. The fabulous decorations of the Greek temples in Selinunte Archaeological Park is in the https://www.regione.sicilia.it/beniculturali/salinas/. You’ll be floored by what’s on the walls there. Otherwise Palermo is about the churches and the fabulous art within.

WhatsApp Image 2025-06-06 at 21.43.19
Palermo’s Cathedral at night

For many the highlight of a visit to Palermo, aside from the cuisine of course, is the church art of Giacomo Serpotta, 1656 –1732. His stucco (plaster) sculpture in the Rococco style will stun even the most casual visitor. His was a self-taught master of this highly detailed realism. According to the free of charge guide he added marble dust to the plaster for sparkle and added strength. His brother and son were also in the church decoration business.

Oratorio-di-San-Lorenzo
The work of Serputta in the Oratorio of San Lorenzo. San Lorenzo martyrdom is depicted

Church architecture in Palermo runs the gamut, from Norman to Baroque. The must see Arab -Norman Palace (11th) dates from Norman times but was built over centuries so you get them all. The Palermo Cathedral is huge, with 17th century paintings and a great painting in the aspe ceiling.

The Duomo of Monreale, which you get to by bus or car, is loaded with Byzantine style mosaics. Just superb! It was built by the Norman kings William II, 1166-89. Who woulda thunk it? Probably not even my blond, blue-eyed Zio Matteo. From the village there are great views of Palermo.

Duomo Monreale, Sicily
The Duomo of Monreale

Palermo’s main street downtown is a pedestrian zone. It is lined with upscale shops and restaurants, with perhaps a tavola calda or two. In this part of Italy a tavola calda has arancini, risotto rice shaped into balls coated with corn meal, then deep fried. They have an orange tint so together with the shape and the orange color they came to be called arancini, little oranges. There are other shapes. The round ones are stuffed with ragu. The other shapes have different ingredients, including pistachio sauces.

WhatsApp Image 2025-06-07 at 07.52.43
Via Ruggero Settimo in Palermo on a Friday night

Follow this street on down and you come to Quattro Canti, an intersection with four effusively decorated facades, one on each corner. Turn right and you find the Cathedral and a but further on the Palazzo dei Normanni.

For good itineraries in Palermo, check out https://www.thethinkingtraveller.com/blog/the-best-things-to-do-in-palermo-itineraries

Scilla: Views of the Sea (acrylic paintings)ScillaCilia: Views of the Sea (acrylic paintings)Scilla: Views of the Sea (acrylic paintings)Scilla: Views of the Sea (acrylic paintings)

Cilia: View of Sea
Scilla: View of the Sea, acrylics, 21 x 30cm/8.3 x11.7″
cilia steep stairs
Scilla: Steep Stairs to the Sea, acrylics, 21 x 30cm/8.3 x11.7″

Scilla is a small fishing village in Calbria. It’s narrow streets stretch across the harbor. We visited in April 2025. We’d never been to Calabria before. For more https://garyjkirkpatrick.com/reggio-de-calabria-then-and-now/

Chateau de la Flie (Liverdun, France)

We came upon this beautiful chateau as we proceeded upstream on the Moselle. It’s across the river from Liverdun. In Liverdun’s harbor, which sits well below the cliff upon which the town sits, we stayed a pitch black night, maneuvering carefully to avoid grounding in the shallow waters.

Chateau de la Flie, Liverdun, France
Chateau de la Flie, ink drawing (digital signature, original signed) 21 x 30 cm/8.3 x 11.7″

Pianist, Singer, Dancers, Parallel Universe

pianist singer dancers final
Pianist Singer Dancers and the Parallel Universe Acrylics on Canvas

This is another in the Pianist series. The dancers whirling dervishness calls forth a parallel universe. https://garyjkirkpatrick.com/pianist-singer-ballerina/ evoked that universe, causing the abstract incursion displayed on the rear wall. The additional energy produced by the dancers in this painting brought forth the more intense intrusion of a parallel universe.

Art meets string theory.

Or you can forget all that and just enjoy the contrast between the representative and the abstract, the muted values and the blaring values, the forms and motion, the unusual view from behind the performers.

Château de Montaigu (ink)

Chateau de Montaigu, Nancy
Château de Montaigu (ink)

The Château de Montaigu is located on the outskirts of Nancy, France. It was built starting in1757 by the General Receiver of the Farms of Lorraine. The residence was upgraded and expanded starting in 1850. Edouard Salin, a mining engineer and his wife Suzanne bought the residence in 1918. Afire caused significant damage in 1921. Salin and staff dragged the furniture out of the burning structure. The work they undertook respected the style but used new construction methods and materials such as the steel used in the roof.

The rooms contain furnishings in the style of Louis XV (16th century). There are painted wall coverings as well as painting directly on the plaster. You can visit only the ground floor.

See the Chateau’s website https://www.chateaudemontaigu.eu/accueil

Toul, France

Not Toulouse, not Toulon, just plain Toul: its a moat encircled ancient town located on the Moselle River with impressive late 1700’s stone ramparts, ranging to 5 meters in height. There are two locks within 100 meters of one another protecting the population, connecting the Moselle River and the Canal du Marne au Rhin. Known as Tullum Leucorum by the Romans, Toul did not become part of France in until 1552 after having been a Catholic diocese since the 4th century.

The fortress within the ramparts was last used during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Surrender to the Prussians came in less than a day after a 2300 shell bombardment. In WWI it served as a base for the incipient US Air Force. The stone ramparts date from 1698. The area produces the Cote de Toul AOC protected wine, most notably the Gris de Toul.

There’s a cut in the ancient wall that these days allows cars into the old town. Follow the streets around to the Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Toul, built in flamboyant Gothic style. Construction began in the 12th century and completed by 1496, with some later additions. The towers rise to 65 meters/ 213,’ the nave is 100 meters/328′ in length. It has a large cloister. “With a Romanesque plan and Gothic construction, this building is a symbol of the city’s rich episcopal past and an emblem for a whole territory. Remarkable by its dimensions as well as by its beauty, the Cathedral of Saint-Etienne attracts several tens of thousands of visitors every year.” https://toul.fr/cathedrale800ans/

toul cahedral joan ard
Joan of Arc
Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Toul
Nave of Toul’s Cathedral

The 139 statues of the portico were destroyed during the French Revolution. The roof and the south tower sustained damaged in WW2. They were restored in the 1980s.

Messina: A Surprising Pleasure

It takes a half hour on a fast ferry from Reggio de Calabria to arrive in Messina, crossing the Strait of Messina. The large port is home to numerous ferries, commercial vessels as well as military ships. The city center of the small city of 215,000 is about 12 kilometers from the entrance to the Strait. The lovely City Hall sits along the harbor. The city, wracked by a major earthquake in 1908 leading to a devastating tsunami, backs up against hills to the west.

The Greeks liked this location, settling the area in the 8th BCE. Artifacts in the Museo Interdisciplinare Regionale (the Regional Museum) bear witness, but there is much more. The 1908 earthquake produced such vast devastation that many buildings were not rebuilt. Their decorations, paintings and other valuables were placed in the Museum. Capitols and a wide variety of other carvings sit in a special exhibit. An exuberant hostess showed us around and helped us with their 3-D glasses. These give you a 360 degree perspective, providing context for the objects upon which the presentation focused.

North end of Messina's harbor
North end of Messina’s harbor

A room of the special exhibit simulates the deafening sounds of the earthquake. Beyond lies a huge collection of religious art with countless figuring staring into the clouds, as was common in that era. There is a collection of the works of Antonello da Messina, a well known painter of the early Renaissance. His works are much above average for the time. There are several Caravaggio paintings. He stopped here on his way to an early death near Napoli from the wounds he suffered in the last of his many street fights.

Caravaggio's Adoration of the Shepherds
Caravaggio’s Adoration of the Shepherds
chat icon