Arrivederci Bella Sicilia

It's very odd that Sicily has such a bad image in Britain.  If you mention that you're going there, the first things most people seem to think of are gangsters, then poverty and vendettas.  They'd have to think hard before they think of great wine, acres of fragrant citrus orchards, huddled clifftop towns, smartly dressed courteous people going out of their way to help visitors, blue and white wooden fishing boats pulled up on a sandy beach, Norman cathedrals decorated by Saracens,  gorgeous Greek and Roman remains, almond cakes and all things nice.

We'd heard enough good about Sicily to be really keen to get there, but were ready for it to be a bit of an intense and maybe scary experience.  The reality was warm and welcoming.  If we hadn't had other places to go to I think the only thing that would have made us leave would have been the summer heat.

There's something ridiculously thrilling about looking across the Straits of Messina from Reggio Di Calabria; such a famous stretch of water, so beautiful, and with so many other famous names on the other side.  When we saw it it was calm (no sign of the notorious whirlpool that nearly ended the Odyssey, although it's still there), blue, busy with ships (full of life and bustle and glittering wakes) with Messina glinting in the background and a clear view of Mount Etna off to the left (a perfect cone like a text book volcano, topped with snow).

We travelled clockwise around the whole island, sticking mainly to the coast but with a detour inland to Piazza Armerina and Enna.  We regretfully missed out the mountains as Stella's knee was objecting and the roads inland were hard work for a 3.5 tonne van.

A few highlights:

• Doric temples of astounding antiquity in astonishingly good condition.  It's an architectural style that is so well known and so often imitated that when first catching sight of one my first fleeting thought tended to be that a Victorian municipal library had been teleported to an uncharacteristically dramatic location.  Sicily has so many it's easy to get overwhelmed, but the group at Agrigento are as good as they get.  These date back to when Sicily was inhabited by Greek colonists, around 600 BC, and they're in better condition than the Messina to Syracuse motorway.

• Everywhere we went we came across frothy Baroque architecture.  The most famous sites (UNESCO World Heritage Sites) are the towns in the Noto valley which had to be rebuilt in the 17th century after an earthquake.  However, it's obvious that during the 17th and 18th century a lot of money was being spent all over Sicily building and refurbishing in the latest fashion.  I thought Baroque architecture was one of my least favourite styles, but it's grown on me.

• A group of eleventh century Norman mercenaries had the good fortune to find themselves in charge of Sicily. They built cathedrals and employed artists to decorate them with mosaics, most notably Capella Paletina and Monreale in Palermo.  The whole interior is full of saints, biblical scenes and geometric decorations.  Viewed close up, an astonishing variety of mosaic tiles have been used including many colours of glazed ceramic, glass and gilt.  With this, the artists have achieved amazingly subtle detail and tones, as well as a mass of shining gold around Jesus above the altar.  Some of the artists were local, some travelled in from Byzantium and some had a distinctly Arab style.  They were drawing on an ancient tradition – a Roman villa uncovered in Piazza Armerina has top quality mosaic floors from a thousand years earlier.

• Downtown Palermo.  A maze of romantically crumbling streets with mediaeval and baroque details peeking out everywhere.  A riot of life, trade and fun but with none of the feeling of danger we had in Naples, Marseille, or even Newbridge.
• And its natural heritage, a wonderful coastline.  All around the south and west coast there are sea cliffs and beautiful sandy beaches (no dog bans!)  In the northwest corner massive rock outcrops (actually marble mountains) loom over deserted grassy plains, rich in wild flowers – lovely poppies at this time of year - which merge into dunes and more sandy beaches. I'm sure their mountains are also wonderful, but not for this visit or this vehicle.

General impressions:

• Contrary to our preconceptions it seemed prosperous.  Apparently the Norman kingdom was the richest in Europe, and there was certainly plenty of money available in the 17th century to rebuild the towns of the Noto Valley (it clearly wasn't done on the cheap).  After Calabria the towns seemed well built and well maintained,  the people comfortable and the shops well stocked.
• It seemed friendly.  Everyone was polite and helpful.  People would go out of their way to help us with directions, advice, directing the van, even when we didn't need help. 
• With a few exceptions (driving, rubbish collection) it seemed well organised and orderly. Streets were swept, there was little graffitti, no beggars, no visible junkies or drunks, no jostling.  It wasn't obvious that anyone was enforcing any rules (but see below), people just seemed to be behaving themselves.
• Its culture is a wonderful cheerful mixture of influences from all over the Mediterranean and Europe.  A typical Sicilian town will have been a Greek colony with some Phonecian settlers, conquered by Rome, adopted by Byzantium, conquered by the Saracens who were ultimately expelled by the Normans, who ruled it until the Swabians took over, followed by the French, Spanish, British, French again, the Italians under Garibaldi, Germans for a short time, Americans for a while, then back to Italy.
• While Britons are a bit scared of Sicily, for some reason Germans have no such fear.  German is certainly the second language in the tourist trade.  We saw many many German registered vehicles during our visit, plus a fair few Scandinavians and Dutch, but only two from the UK in the whole trip.

But what about the gangsters? 

They're real, and they're still there, but they are serious professional criminals, busy people who have much more serious things to do than bother tourists. If anything the 'Mafia Peace' makes it a safer place to visit. Organised crime doesn't tolerate disorganised crime if it disrupts their own profitable activities.

The campsite we stayed at near Palermo was a few hundred metres from the memorial marking the place where Giovane Falcone, his wife and bodyguards were blown up by the Mafia in the 1990s.  According to some, the Italian state has made good progress disrupting the Mafia and weakening it (the bombers are in prison, businesses in Catania openly refuse to pay protection money).  It is also possible that the Mafia has changed its strategy, decided a war with the state is too much trouble and decided to take a lower profile.

"Don't pay preotection money" - poster campaign in Catania

Sicily knows it's known overseas for the Mafia, and the tourist shops are full of Mafia themed figurines and t-shirts.  Most of it seemed rather affectionate and romanticised, and in rather poor taste given the bloodshed.  I wondered if it really does come from affection, if it's just tourist shops giving tourists what they want or if someone's working a subtle public relations exercise behind the scenes.

These days the Calabrian gangs have an even more vicious reputation than their Sicilian counterparts, but it turns out that even they are not as bad as we thought.  When we crossed the Straits of Messina back to Reggio we called again at the post office and were delighted to find all our parcels were waiting.  The mafia gave us back our trousers!

Sicily is a wonderful island, we were sorry to leave and hope we'll be able to return one day.