Theresa Maggio

Last week I visited the Women's Home, one of three centers comprising Brother Biagio Conte's Mission of Peace and Hope. It houses roughly a hundred homeless women, palermitans and immigrants, single women, women with young children and women with infants. It is housed inside the former convent of Saint Catherine of Sienna in Via  Read More 

In Palermo I belong to a cultural non-profit called La Palermo Dei Misteri, or Palermo of Mysteries. A few times a month on Sunday mornings, we have a guided tour on some theme planned and executed by founder Professor Carlo Di Franco, an anthropologist and connoisseur of his city. This morning, Palm Sunday before the Passion  Read More 

I spent yesterday afternoon with Mohammed, a homeless Iranian architect, a vagabond by nature, a kind man who helps all the other homeless people less fortunate than he. He lives with three or four dogs, and visiting pigeons, cats, seagulls, lizards and human friends, in a camper by the sea, at the Foro Italico,  Read More 

 Read More 

The Ferrara family owns most of this palace. They made their money with a local pasta factory, and when they sold it, they bought this palace, and spent six years refurbishing it, including the frescoes on the ceiling. The largest Murano chandelier came out of a Taormina hotel. Marcello Lampone eyed it and said  Read More 

I met this wonderful inventor today. We spent three hours in his laboratory workshop and surroundings and the time flew by for both of us. I can't wait to write about him. His enthusiasm and will to create is so contagious. He sleeps in his hoarder-like shop and lives next door to billionaires.

Marcello Lampone has invented an electro-mechanical (non-digital) watch and/or clock with no minute- hand nor hour- hand. I cannot imagine how you can tell the time from it. He won't let me see it , or explain it, until it is patented. He is hoping for a sponsor to help him pay for the  Read More 

I can only run one photo per blog post, so I am making lots of blog posts about this guy. He made my day.

Guided visit today to the ex- Florio tonnara in Arenella, Palermo, conducted by the president of the non-profit association, La Palermo Dei Misteri, anthropologist and professor Carlo Di Franco, a man who can make the stones talk.
The tonnara had been there for three centuries when the Florio family ( the Sicilian Rockefellers, originally from  Read More 

 Read More 

http://www.amopalermo.com/2013/01/la-martorana-restaurata-alcune-immagini.html

Link to wonderful photos of the interior of my favorite church in downtown Palermo, la Martorana, a Norman-Arab beauty with gold and lapis mosaics by Byzantine masters and inscriptions in Arabic on column capitals. Thanks to AmoPalermo blog for these photos. The church was most recently restored in November 2012.