In his essay “What is this Sicily?” dated 1945, Sebastiano Aglianò wrote pages full of love for his land, but also “Leopard-like” critiques which he used to push Sicily to abandon old and harmful habits. However, he was misunderstood and sent away with disdain. Reading his words reveals the huge debt of gratitude we...
Just like the Grimm brothers in Germany, the ethnologist from Messina was central in preserving the island’s folkloristic and historical heritage
The brilliant scientist, born in France, stayed for twenty years in our island, classifying and appreciating its flora and fauna. The study conducted on the shells of the mollusk Argo opened the way to the modern oceanography
“With gestures you pray and grant, you praise and blame, you stroke and despise up to compose whole discourses”. The ethnologist from Palermo was among the first to highlight, in his majestic collection, how important gestures are in communication. He noted the surprise reactions of foreigners already in the 19th century
In its sweet or salty variants, every December 13 the dish dedicated to the patron saint of sight and of the city of Siracusa, becomes the protagonist of Sicilian tables, according to a tradition that has its distant roots in a miracle performed by the saint
The Greeks and then the Romans were the first to use beans for cooking, as attested in the comedy The Frogs by Aristophanes and in the works of Pliny According to the tradition, ‘u paìsi du maccu (i.e. the village of the maccu) would be Raffadali, in the province of Agrigento. To the inhabitants...
Its name comes from the Italian verb granire, meaning to reduce to grains. Its arrival on the island, instead, is due to the Arab gastronomic tradition, as during their domination in Sicily they imported a frozen drink flavored with fruit juices and called sherbet Anyone in the world has not heard of it at...
Readers in Sicily hold several negative records and in the last five years 2,300 bookstores have closed their doors in Italy. However, Istat data reveal how new generations still want to read. Where does the crisis come from? What can we do to reverse the trend? In Sicily only one in four people read....
Unlike what one might think, this dessert was not invented after the canonization of the young sicilian martyr and would have its roots in the cults in honour of the goddesses Isis and then Demeter, both common in ancient times in Sicily There is no person from Catania nor tourist who does not know...
Many texts written in Sicilian have existed and have been recorded for centuries, as this idiom was the official language of some communities. Today, however, the situation has changed, and its definition remains controversial even according to the most important international associations The debate on the nature of the Sicilian is still open and...
