Sicily

Susan Langley is the State Underwater Archaeologist for the Maryland Historical Trust. She received her B.A. in anthropology from the University of Toronto and her M.A. and Ph.D. in archaeology from the University of Calgary.

The collective whisper of an olive grove’s rustling leaves at twilight, the trees seem to exhale after a day beneath the intense Mediterranean sun; soft, rolling hills, dotted with vineyards, lush and fragrant, the vines hang heavy with clusters of the patiently-ripening fruit; the crystalline waters of the sea, alive with fish and fisherman alike, each playing their age-old role in feeding the

It's official: summer is over (at least it is here in our Seattle headquarters). But what better way to celebrate fall than to use up the last of your summer vegetables, as part of a Sicilian menu? Try out this recipe for Eggplant Caponata as a starter; we recommended enjoying it with a glass of fruity white wine and reflecting back on the long, warm days of summer.

The claim to fame of many towns, in America and elsewhere, is that somebody famous was born there. In most cases it’s an author or a Civil War general. If the town is very lucky, it might be a movie star. Syracuse, too, has its names to drop, but in a place where history and greatness reach back as far as this one, the situation is a little different.

The history of Sicily is a list of foreign conquerors. The island was a Greek colony, then Carthaginian, next Roman, then Byzantine, followed by Moorish, Norman, and Spanish. It didn’t become part of Italy until 1860.

It is almost a truism to say that Sicily is a colorful place. But until coming here, I never realized how rich and subtly vibrant and vibrantly subtle and, well, Mediterranean the colors would be. So I have made a partial list of the colors I saw today.