Tag: sicily

Dangling horse dominates, but you’ve a hearty appetite as well

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Above: Skyline of downtown Austin, 11:59 p.m., December 31, 2023

Smoking mezcal cocktail delivered in Palermo, Sicily

Readers of this blog seem drawn to the embalmed horse, of course, suspended by artist Maurizio Cattelan from a dome in a former castle above Turin, Italy. And any mention of the Alamo always attracts a crowd, even when I’m drawing no line in the sand but waving a flag of truce. But you also seem drawn to photos of food, or cocktails, no matter the country of origin; street art; ghosts; and saintly tales not taught by nuns.

The following list represents the biannual results of the most-read postcards on this ever-rambling blog, with the numbers in parentheses indicating rankings from six months ago when applicable.

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Postcard from Palermo, Sicily: Marionettes and mummies

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Above: Museo Antonio Pasqualino Internazionale delle Marionette

Opera dei Pupi, a traditional form of Sicilian puppet theater originally focused on tales of the Crusades and French knights, was on the verge of disappearing when it attracted the interest of surgeon Antonio Pasqualino. He set about collecting everything he could related to the art and sparked the interest of others with the 1965 founding of the Association for the Conservation of Folk Traditions. A decade later, the association established the International Puppet Museum, naming it in memory of Pasqualino following his 1995 death.

The collection has become international in scope and is far from stagnant. The museum fosters cultural exchanges by hosting an international festival annually, nurturing contemporary artists and staging performances for all ages. We were surprised to witness a group of 11- and 12-year-olds howling at every punchline delivered in a dated traditional show.

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Postcard from Palermo, Sicily: Artists color bombed-out and new walls

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Sadly, World War II bombers left a wake of damaged buildings behind them in Palermo, many still not renovated. Blank walls, even crumbling ones, are magnets for street art.

Some of these photos from our explorations are authorized works; some are enormous murals attempting to humanize housing projects; and others are found in random spots within the city’s labyrinth of narrow streets.

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