12 Comments

I absolutely LOVE this kind of "following the crumbs" of history, which is inevitably entangled with religion/politics, and conquest. I would add that you are a superb writer, and English *not* being your first language impresses the H*** out of me even more. Thank you so much for sharing this kind of top quality content!

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Thank you so much for you kind words, it is not always easy to write in English and I have nobody handy to proof read my posts so I’m very glad to read they’re good from a linguistic point of view 😮‍💨

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Very interesting piece producing random thoughts: I wonder if there was a spate of Norman architecture in Sicily following the conquest like there was in England. I love the idea of all things lost by humanity going to the moon, and still existing there! That is so poetic about Orlando's senno being found in a bottle. The marionettes are so gorgeous in their Renaissance armor. The granita looks finer than the NYC version which is a little crunchy and a comes in only lemon or espresso (at least in old-school shops).

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Yes Norman architecture is everywhere although in Sicily it’s often stratified…so you can see the different layers of dominations on top of each other! Yes the moon episode always fascinated me and that’s why I still remember it, you should look for an English translation, crazy stuff! Granita comes in all sorts of flavours these days (like arancine!) and honestly the more the merrier!

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Fascinating! Thank you!

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So interesting! Thanks for writing!

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Wonderful article., so informative. Thank you for sharing!

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Wonderful

Thank you

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My mother was born in Licata, Sicily and came to the USA as a toddler with her parents and older brother. They have all departed this life; I miss them and when I get a taste of home cooking that reminds me of big family dinners, it brings a tear to my eye. Thank you for sharing a heritage the immigrants were so eager to shed in the name of becoming American!

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I enjoyed reading this very much. I would love to hear your thoughts on the common Muslim/African music root that connects the blues with Sicilian and Neapolitan folk music.

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Books you recommend on this subject? Written in English. 😆

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I love the street sign I saw in Palermo, in 3 languages, Italian, Arabic and Hebrew

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