Sicily: Contrasts at a Mediterranean crossroads

By Giovanna Dell'orto

updated 10:30 a.m. ET April 23, 2009

MONREALE, Italy - I am inside one of the most glittering monuments to Christianity — the mosaic-filled cathedral of Monreale — talking to a conservator, whose apron is covered in Arabic script, about President Obama.

As our chat about possible new American policies in the Middle East interrupts his excruciatingly slow restoration of the Duomo's 900-year-old floor mosaic, I can't help thinking, only in Sicily.

Throughout its 2.5 millennia of history, this jarringly gorgeous Mediterranean island has been at the crossroads of drastically different cultures. Miraculously, it has managed to fuse those contrasts in a peaceful dialogue. The fruits of that fusion make Sicily one of the most intriguing regions of Europe.

Twice over the last decade, I have done weeklong tours of the island, marveling at everything from Catholic chapels bejeweled by Muslim artists to the everyday heroism of anti-Mafia businesses. A visit to Sicily is a study in the unexpected fusion of times and cultures. And these are a few of my favorite pairings:

Multicultural devotions: Bleary-eyed from the overnight ferry that took me from Naples to Palermo, Sicily's capital, I made a beeline for the Cappella Palatina, the chapel built in the early 1100s by the Norman king in his palace complex. At 8:30 a.m., I had it for myself for a blissful few minutes before the tourist buses arrived, enough to be transported by the glitters of gold chasing each other from the wall mosaics into the painted kaleidoscope that is the carved wooden ceiling.

If you go Sicily: http://www.regione.sicilia.it/turismo/web_turismo/ Attractions: Most attractions listed have an admission fee, usually between $5-9 (4-7 euros). A car is necessary as distances are considerable; it's about 250 miles from Noto in the southeast to Segesta in the northwest. But don't drive in downtown Palermo, where congestion, scarce parking and the local driving style are difficult to cope with. Palace accommodations: To visit or stay in the two noble residences listed, see http://www.bordonaro.it and http://www.palazzo-ajutamicristo.com. Pizzo-free establishments: Check out http://www.addiopizzo.org for a list of Palermo businesses that have gone public in refusing to pay bribes to the Mafia.

Under the patronage of Sicily's first Catholic king, Muslim artists executed the ceiling, complete with Kufic inscriptions, while Greek artists created mosaics representing Christ and New Testament scenes in the Byzantine tradition. Straight from the era of the crusades comes the most dazzling artistic and cultural synthesis of the medieval Mediterranean world. Nobody knows exactly how this harmony came about, but it's both inspiring and humbling to feel they had figured out a way to live symbiotically despite differences we are still struggling with 900 years later.

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Other can't-miss glories of the Palermo area from the time of the Normans are the fortress-looking churches that hide eerily realistic golden mosaics: The Monreale Duomo, perched high on a barren, prickly-pear studded mountain; the Martorana church in Palermo, across from the mosque-looking, red-domed church of San Cataldo; and the Cathedral at Cefalu, standing sentinel over the medieval fishing village.

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Antiquity alive: Ancient Greek colonizers snapped up the best vistas in Sicily. I can't decide if the most scenic archeological site in the Mediterranean is Segesta in its splendid valley isolation among pines and honey-scented wildflowers; Selinunte, framed by eucalypti on its Africa-facing sandy shores; the Taormina theater opening over the sea and the volcano, Mount Etna; or Agrigento's Valley of Temples, by sheer size the most stunning of them all. I like the latter best in the late afternoon, when the wind-eroded stone of its two best-preserved 450 B.C. Greek temples — the nearly intact Tempio della Concordia and the Tempio di Giunone up the ridge — turn strawberry gold in the dusk and then are floodlit among the dark silhouettes of olive trees and agave plants.

Much criticism has been aimed at the ugly concrete buildings from modern Agrigento looming over the next hillcrest, but I find the contrast can't possibly spoil this view. At most, I find it shames our modern cookie-cutter architecture juxtaposed to the hushed, solemn perfection of these temples.

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