Sicily Italy Vacation

Digging Up Roots In Sicily

By Cindy Ross

Digging Up Roots In Sicily - The small fishing port of Cefalu Sicily
Fishing Port of Cefalu

When our plane flies into Palermo, Sicily, it practically drops out of the sky headed for the airport located on a skinny peninsula with jutting mountains soaring behind it. "I already like Sicily the best of all our trips," my 13-year-old son announces, simply judging by our approach.

Capitol city Palermo is loud and boisterous and wild. Youth on motorcycles rev up the streets with reckless abandonment. The market has caldrons of boiling potatoes, giant cheese wheels, colorful marzipan candies, swordfish heads with their snouts pointing upward, paper cones of olives to eat with your fingers, and baskets of slimy snails. The city is full of energy and it's people alert, embracing and receptive.

The large island of Sicily, located only 3 km off the toe of mainland Italy, looks as if it is a giant football being kicked across the Mediterranean Sea. And that's how many of the mainlanders feel about the citizens, who have historically stepped to the beat of their own drummer. Sicily is a distinct entity from the rest of Europe and far, far away from mainland Italy in appearance, feel and culture. The Mafia and corrupt government are what first comes to people's mind when they think of Sicily. There are many internal problems but they are invisible to the visitor, not to be feared, and should never deter you from visiting this garden spot of the Mediterranean.

Sicily is exotic, rich in culture and contains some of the most stunning scenery found anywhere on the planet. The coast alternates between a panorama of rugged cliffs and mountains to sandy shores. You'll find a mix of Arabic, Greek, French, and Spanish cultures, as well as Italian depending on what part of the island you are visiting, all in all, 3,500 years of history.

A wealth of archeological treasures, including some of the best examples of Greek temples can be found in Sicily and the Baroque architecture is stunning. There are several island archipelagoes to explore, which take you yet another step farther back in time. For a relatively backward and undeveloped economy, Sicily has managed to create some of the finest nature preserves and parks, providing hundreds of miles of hiking paths. Eighty-three percent of the island is hilly or mountainous. Its crowning glory is the volcano of Mount Etna, the largest in Europe. Often sputtering and spewing, it provides entertainment and is a popular visitor attraction.

When I get excited, I speak with great emotion, my voice raises an octave, and I flail my hands about. My husband, quiet, reserved and of German/Swiss descent, says, "You're yelling."

"No," I say, "I'm behaving like a Sicilian."

My parents died when they were young, as did all my relatives, so my two teenagers never knew them. I felt it important for my children to connect and learn where they came from. A trip to Europe costs about the same amount as a full-blown trip to Disney World and the benefits far greater, so I've brought my family to Sicily to discover our roots and find our relatives.

We are in Palermo just one hour when I feel as if I've already met my extended family. It happens in a lighting shop. When we enter, the owner immediately knows, somehow, we are from America. He abandons his work and scurries to fetch his photo album containing his brother's family in New Jersey. He takes a half-hour paging through the photos, elaborately explaining each one in his Sicilian dialect, of which we cannot understand one word. Two regular customers become irate because he's ignoring them but he shoos them away with a fling of his hand and a couple of loud words, not caring about losing business. One thing I do understand is his mother is dead, only because he acts out dying with his tongue hanging out and his eyes closed. My husband looks at me in disbelief. Welcome to Sicily, where family rules supreme.

Our first night we attend one of Sicily's famous puppet shows, where elaborate sets, costumed marionettes, music and boisterous dialogue tell the history of the island. Knights are the main characters and there is much clatter as swords whack armor, sending heads and severed torsos flying. Even the Sicilian puppet shows are wild and loud and packed full of emotion and passion like their people.

My family and I spend one month exploring, using buses, (which travel to every tiny, tucked away interior hamlet), high-speed trains, and rental vehicles. Our goal is to come to feel like Sicily is our home, its people our people, and with a little luck, conclude with finding our direct relatives in the village of Delia.

Our first stop after Palermo, heading west, is the Riserva Naturale dello Zingaro, outside the picturesque fishing village of Scopello. It features a completely unspoiled 7 kilometers of coastline backed by steep, 3,000-foot mountains. Close to 30 miles of trails lace this spectacular park. You can choose routes that dip down to secluded coves with white sand beaches, explore prehistoric caves or stay high, scraping heaven.

Boarding a ferry, we take off for Favignara, a nearby island, and are immediately transported to another world. On Favignara we rent bicycles to explore the strange tufa stone quarries that riddle the island, poke around caves and tunnels, and cannon bomb off a cliff into the Mediterranean.

Back on the mainland, the entire mountaintop village of Erice is built on a slant. The walled-in alleyways are made of stone, each uniquely laid with an intricate design. The roads are cobblestone, veined in emerald green grass. We peek through open garden gates to see beautifully crafted sanctuaries covered in flowers. Sicilian women lean on windowsills and shout "Ciao!" as we pass by.

There are many quaint towns to explore along the perimeter of the southern coast, which enable you to stay on the periphery of the island and never be disappointed. Agrigento and Selinute boast some of the largest Greek temples in the world. Noto is a treasure of Baroque architecture adorned in honey-colored stone. The older, lower section of Ragusa is an amazing labyrinth of homes, stairways and alleyways laced together as the town drapes down one side of the gorge and up the other.

In Syracuse, we stroll around the ancient Greek theatre where cultural events were presented to the ancient peoples of bygone empires. The Romans also converted the theatre to an animal killing show. Animal blood flowed through a trough where invalids would gather to drink its nourishment and gorge on the animal's livers. Today, tourists enjoy open-air summer concerts, as they sit on these very same ancient, eroded stone seats, pondering the past.

Catania's daily fish market is not to be missed, as dozens of fishermen gather in the morning hours to sell their catch. Instead of posting signs advertising their offerings, they bellow out this information. The market is a swirl of raucous energy, soaking wet from melting ice, smelling like the ocean. Local customers crowd the fishermen in their old sea clothing and wool caps, as they purchase their fish for the day.

The population of Sicily is mostly contained in the two cities of Palermo and Catania, with the latter being more progressive and cosmopolitan, bringing the total population to more than 5 million. Although 10,000 Sicilians emigrate a year, the island has seen an upsurge of African, Tunisian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani immigrants. Sicily is truly a melting pot and, depending on where you are, you can feel like you are in half a dozen different countries just on this one 25,700-square-foot island.

Before heading inland, we take another ferry out to the island of Vulcano in the Aeolian Islands to see its active volcano. As we make the one-hour walk to the summit, we enjoy far-reaching views of the islands sweeping across the sea, with mountain peaks jutting abruptly from their shorelines. On top, we stare at the ochre-stained rock, the smoking caldera, and the vastness of the cone's gaping mouth. Before catching our ferry back, we wallow in the yellowish-mint green soup of Fangli, a pungent-smelling mud bath. It is the perfect way to ward off any stiff muscles that may begin to tighten after your climb, however your clothes will never completely lose the scent of sulfur.

Our last destination is the small town of Delia, in the interior of the island, the birthplace of my Sicilian ancestors. We made meager contact via e-mail from home with a few relatives, and are not prepared for what we find. Upon opening the door, my second cousin pulls me to her breast and kisses me on both cheeks, speaking rapidly and excitedly in Sicilian. She proceeds to do that to everyone in my family, including my shy husband. Within minutes, generation after generation come streaming in the door, everyone hugging and kissing on both checks.

We are not warned that you always begin with the right side and so slam into a few protruding Sicilian noses. Everyone is speaking loudly and at the same time, with flamboyant hand gestures, as an interpreter struggles to trace back the generations and show us where our blood pools together. Our host heaps plates of pasta on the table, saws off huge hunks of bread, pours drinks, grates cheese onto our plates. I look at my husband and he just smiles, surprisingly loving the insanity, for he feels well loved and wanted.

For the next few days, we help our relatives harvest their olives, raking the hard green fruit from the trees with plastic combs and then transporting them to the press. There we watch the brilliant green fluid tapped into bottles, which will be shipped around the world or land right on their kitchen table.

In the evening, we walk through the town. Smoking carts roast chestnuts while teenagers chat in the square. Women go to church with lace veils on their heads and the men pull out wooden chairs and sit in the streets. Here, in the interior of the island, is where life and the people feel the most authentic, for tourists rarely visit and the outside world is kept at bay.

When we finally leave this beautiful island, there is so much crying, hugging and kissing that my husband feels as though his cheeks have developed calluses. It is hard to believe that folks you've never met can be so warm and embracing. Sicily is a wonderful place to explore. You'll leave feeling so connected to the island and its people that you'll feel as if you too have Sicilian blood coursing through your veins.

Digging Up Roots In Sicily

Travel | Digging Up Roots In Sicily