Remembering Paolo Borsellino

It is 19 years since judge Paolo Borsellino was assassinated by the Mafia in Sicily. It was a Sunday, I was in church for the feast of SS Redentore in my hometown of Pace del Mela. I saw somebody crying and screaming during the mass. Soon the voice spread out that Paolo Borsellino was killed with a bomb while visiting his mom in Palermo. This is his last public speech he gave remembering his friend and judge Giovanni Falcone assassinated on May 23, 1992 by the Mafia. These are truly national heroes.

Min 5:32 (Italian)

Enel SpA (ENEL), STMicroelectronics NV (STM) and Sharp Corp. Opened Italy’s Biggest Solar-Panel Plant in Sicily

Enel SpA (ENEL), STMicroelectronics NV (STM) and Sharp Corp. opened Italy’s biggest solar-panel plant to benefit from the Mediterranean basin’s growing renewable energy market.

The three spent a total of 300 million euros ($428 million) to 400 million euros on the venture to produce Sharp’s so-called multi-junction thin-film panels near Catania in Sicily. Initial capacity of 160 megawatts a year will rise to 480 megawatts.

“We are uniting our different know-hows to produce panels that we plan to market to the entire Mediterranean area,” Enel Chief Executive Officer Fulvio Conti said today in an interview at the plant. “While fossil fuels will continue to play a large role for some time, I see a very strong push towards renewable energy.”

More at Bloomberg.com

I Wish I Were Here Now – Lipari Photo

The largest island is Lipari, and tourism marketing often names the entire archipelago the Lipari Islands because of the ease of pronouncing Lipari compared to Aeolian. The other islands include Vulcano, Salina, Stromboli, Filicudi, Alicudi, and Panarea. The town of Lipari has about 11,000 inhabitants.

Strait of Messina Bridge will not Happen

In 2009, we were reporting this news from the Telegraph: A week does not go by without an article about the Strait of Messina Bridge. The £6 billion suspension bridge that the Italian government has announced it will start building on December 23 [2009] has the enthusiastic backing of Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s prime minister, whose supporters believe it will form an enduring legacy of his period in office – and represent a final step in the unification of Italy. Read more

It looks like nothing of this is going to happen… Il Corriere della Sera reports that about € 250 million have been spent since the first time Berlusconi announced that the bridge was going to be built in 2005. It looks like the economic crisis and politics killed the project.

Garbage Again?

We hate reporting this, but it must be done. We thought the garbage problem in Palermo was resolved. Yesterday we posted about the new marketing campaign that Sicily launched to attract more tourists to the island. However, we have received emails and comments in the last few days that report bad news about the state of garbage in Sicily, especially in and around Palermo and nearby Siracusa. We have checked with the Messina province and Taormina and everything seems OK there. Our friend Graham Bird reached out to us with this email. Before writing to us, he tried to contact many people in Sicily more influential than our blog Sicily Guide.

Like you I love Sicily and visit as much as I can, but every time I am sadden by the garbage and the lack of respect for the beauty of the Island. Lack of courage of the local officials to do anything.
[...]

Arriving in Palermo by air is exciting as you skim over the crystal blue sea with a backdrop of amazing mountains. But soon you begin to wonder, are we still in Europe?

Five minutes from the airport you are confronted with piles of household garbage along the freeway. Welcome to Bella Sicilia!

Some parts of Palermo resembles a large garbage dump. The locals, including the various council and government groups don’t notice or do anything to encourage people not to throw their garbage on the streets, overflowing rubbish dumpsters confront you as you try to weave throught the fascinating small streets.

The tourist office advises you to visit Mondello. It is easy as there is a bus line direct. Passing through the large “ Parco Favorita” badly maintained, more garbage… Arrival in Mondello, a beautiful bay, sounded by mountains, crystal clear waters and what appears to be a lovely sandy beach. Then you see the usual, garbage, people just drop rubbish were they stand, the beach at the end of the day is indiscrible, covered in plastic and glass! Bottles and paper.

Recently the authorities have placed some bins on the beach, but not on the promenade where many walk, dropping empty water and drink bottles as they go. Some glass, take away food containers litter the bushes.

[...]

Nearby is the beautiful marine reserve of Capo Gallo. Sadly littered with peoples refuse, especially after the weekend. And it’s a National Reserve. I emailed various officials with photos attached, of course no reply: info@diegocammarata.it, o.amara@comune.palermo.it, urp@artasicilia.it.

The Regional Tourist Authorities spend so much money on tourist promotion, on television all over Europe and beyond but why ignore the garbage. I will still return and each time hope of the better, when inviting friends to join me, I apoligize for the garbage and point out how beautiful it is, that is if you ignore the garbage. I am always positive, recently that is fading though.

Do you have any experience that is similar to this one? We are going to forward your comments to our contacts at the region’s tourism department. Thanks.

Sicily 365 Days a Year

June 1, 2011 7:00 pm

to

December 31, 2011 7:00 pm

Sicily 365 Days a Year is the new marketing campaign that the region just launched throughout the country to boost tourism to the island.

Every image links to a PDF with list of specific events.

 

In Memory of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino

You did not assassinate them, their ideas live on our legs! These are the words that inspired Sicilians after the assassination of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, the two anti-Mafia judges who were brutally killed with their security guards by the Mafia nineteen years ago on May 23 and July 19, 1992.

 

Their assassination woke up Sicilian people and is considered a turning point for the fight against the Mafia in the island. Falcone and Borsellino are true modern heroes!

 

Sicily Is A Great Alternative If Your Travel Plans Have Been Disrupted by the Political Turmoil in North Africa

 

Sicily has it all. We know this and have been talking about the beautiful island since 2006. Lately, we have seen similar stances repeated convincingly in unexpected publications.  The Telegraph has published various articles on the island. We mentioned Lee Marshall’s article on Sicily’s restaurants last week. Expedia Insiders’ Select show Sicily among the top destinations in the country. Arrivals at the airports in Catania and Palermo are up, festivals and initiatives abound and new flights for the summer season are scheduled. A big tour operator has decided not to close a resort for renovation in Western Sicily this coming summer.

These are all signs of a good momentum for the island. Hopefully, the local tourist industry will be ready and will manage to take advantage of it. The political turmoil in North Africa explains the attention of the sector diverted towards Sicily. The region has a lot to offer especially during off-season months with its mild climate, but its history, culture, traditions, culinary delights are second to none. Therefore, if your travel plans have been disrupted by the events in North Africa, Sicily can be the right alternative for you.

The Bishop of Pantelleria Wears Armani

Bishop Domenico Mogavero in the small island of Pantelleria – South of Sicily – drew some criticism because he ordered new vestments from fashion designer Giorgio Armani, who owns a luxury villa in the island.

 

More at www.guardian.co.uk

Pauline Frommer on Sicily

It is always nice that we are not the only ones thinking that Sicily has been stereotyped way too much Pauline Frommer talks about the same thing in this post. The only difference with her thoughts is the very end of the article. She argues that Sicily”not part of Italy isn’t totally outrageous”. We think Sicily is Italy at its highest degree for good and bad.

Francis Ford Coppola has a lot to answer for. His portrait of Sicily in the “Godfather” films was so compelling, so seemingly complete, that many first-time visitors are bewildered by what they actually encounter in Italy’s largest region. Occasionally the reality and the myth dovetail; more often than not, they’re at loggerheads. What are some of the most potent misconceptions?

That Sicily’s a danger zone: Yes, its true that the Mafia, also called the “Cosa Nostra,” played a large part in Sicilian life since as far back as the early 19th century. (There are theories that when the ancient Greeks colonized the island, secret, extralegal organizations developed to resist that foreign rule, so it’s possible these organizations could have even deeper roots.) But even when they were at the height of their powers, these gangsters focused on intimidating locals and usually left visitors alone. And thanks to a groundbreaking series of trials during the past dozen years, all but a handful of the largest Sicilian bosses are now behind bars.

Is there still organized crime and governmental corruption? Undoubtedly. But it’s on nowhere near the scale seen previous to the 1990s. As for street crime – pickpocketing, purse-snatching and the like – it’s on a level with what one would encounter in Rome, Paris or any of Europe’s other big cities. Use the same common-sense precautions you would in these burgs, and you should be fine.

More at http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com

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