Tag: italy

Postcard from Siracusa, Sicily: Bellomo Palace and, for saint’s sake, always eat two of this dessert

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Above: A representation of the story of Adam and Eve eating the forbidden apples, Museo Regionale di Palazzzo Bellomo

A stark façade conveys the 12th-century origin of the Bellomo Palace. The interior spaces, however, reflect several centuries of architectural alterations, much like the centuries of regional Sicilian art housed within. Benedictine monks occupied the palace in the 18th century, merging it and an adjacent palazzo into one compound.

The Risorgimento, the ongoing unification of the Kingdom of Italy, represented a disaster for many Catholic religious orders. In Sicily, the government seized property and buildings, including this monastery in 1866. In 1940, the government repurposed the compound as a museum, with the 1866 confiscated religious art forming a major portion of its collection. The Bellomo underwent substantial renovation in 2004.

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Postcard from Siracusa, Sicily: Street Sweets

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Above: Il maestro di croccante

Of course, there’s gelato. The single scoop pictured below is rich hazelnut from what many claim is the best gelateria on Ortigia, Gusto on Via Roma. But granita, an icy slush in a multitude of flavors, is found everywhere as well and is perhaps even more popular among the natives. The cupful below is caffe, sweetened black coffee; no cup of espresso needed that day.

An unusual habit in Sicily is that these are fair game as breakfast foods. It’s not at all uncommon for Sicilians to order a granita with brioche on the side or an unwieldy looking brioche split 3/4 of the way through and stuffed to overflowing with two scoops of gelato in the morning hours.

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Postcard from Siracusa, Sicily: Water indeed creates a ‘strange island’

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Normally, I fail to designate states in my headlines and opt for the country alone. Poor identification in geo-political terms, but being proper would demand even more cumbersome headlines for my travel posts. In this case, I’m breaking with tradition and am ignoring Italy because Sicily seems almost another country.

Sicily hangs close to the toe of Italy’s boot as though a ball kicked off the mainland, floating amid the waters of the Tyrrhenian and Ionian Seas and the rest of the Mediterranean. Through the centuries, the island often fell under the rule of other powers than that of the mainland.

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