Theresa Maggio

Palermo can take your breath away. Monte Pellegrino is in the background. This greensward is where the Luna Park amusement park was for many years.

From The Guardian:
"In 1066 the Normans were not just conquering grey, cold England. They were also in sunny, fertile Sicily creating what became one of the most enlightened cultures in Europe.
The little known story of the other Norman conquest is to be told in an exhibition exploring 4,000 years of history on the island  Read More 

The city and regional government have broken their promises and robbed the poor of hope says lay missionary Fra Biagio Conte whose Mission of Hope and Charity houses and feeds more than a thousand destitute people, Palermitans and immigrants alike in four urban missions and now on several farms in Sicily. Fra Biagio says  Read More 

The Norwegian Frontex ship Siem Pilot picked up 723 migrants at sea and the body of one Somali man who died during the voyage, according to La Repubblica.
Among the migrants were 29 unaccompanied minors , several pregnant women and a handicapped person with leg problems. This morning they were brought to safe harbor in Trapani.

Via Cartari is one of the few historic streets to retain its hexagonal paving stone. I lived just a block from this little street and saw it every time I walked to the Antica Focacceria San Francesco. This was the paper makers' street. A great neighborhood. Gotta tell you that the photographer had smelly  Read More 

Vicolo Castelnuovo is off the Via Vittorio Emanuele in the Albergheria quarter. Only a few streets in Palermo are still paved with these elegant hexagonal paving stones. The street is surprisingly free of garbage. South Asians live here.

The New York-based Sicily lover and connoisseur Karen La Rosa of LaRosa Works offers her limited-participation UNCORK MOUNT ETNA TOUR to be held May 30 - June 6, 2016. The group will explore vineyards, meet winemakers and learn from the pros in spectacular settings ranging from Catania to towns on the slopes of Etna, Europe's largest active volcano. The tour includes fine dining in spectacular settings, private transportation and guides to accompany the group. Read More 

When an overcrowded immigrant boat capsized just off the coast of Lampedusa and killed hundreds of people, island carpenter Francesco Tuccio met some of the survivors in his local church. Some of the survivors were Eritrean Christians fleeing from persecution in their home country. Though unable to help them in a concrete way, he  Read More 

The volunteers are part of a group that formed spontaneously to remove graffiti from the cars of Palermo's spanking new trams, Tramiamo Civita`. The local group belongs to a larger umbrella group, Retake, a national anti-graffiti association.

The first really cold days of 2016 have hit Sicily and the snow is sticking to the mountains that ring Palermo.

This morning the Italian coast guard ship Dattilo delivered 246 migrants it picked up in a vessel off the coast of Libya: 218 men, 27 women, and a minor, plus one cadaver, according to a report in La Repubblica. They are disembarking at Catania.
The report did not mention what countries the immigrants are from.