Times of Sicily

23/04/2024

Mr. Ripley made it to Palermo 🥰… Looking forward to watching the new series on Netflix !! Andrew and Suzanne Edwards Suzanne Edwards insights ..

Without wanting to contribute too much to the overtourism phenomenon that is increasingly associated with film locations, we can’t help but focus on the beautifully pared-back cinematography of Ripley, the new Netflix series, and its connection to Sicily. Anyone who has seen the black and white Ne...

25/02/2024

15 Topics, Courses for Presentations to Cultural, Corporate, and Educational Events With over three decades of experience as a writer/author, a television producer, and a film director/producer, Mark Spano brings a wealth of expertise and personality to every speaking engagement. Noted for compelli...

09/12/2023

....Michela Musolino packs up her most beloved Sicilian and Southern Italian Christmas songs and relocates them to Memphis, Tennessee.

Michela Musolino has been internationally lauded for her unique ability to reimagine Sicilian folk and roots music, alchemized with renowned American musical genres, to mirror the history and movement of people and their musical traditions from the Old World to the New. Michela brings this perspecti...

09/12/2023

So interesting! Giusi Murabito and Saverio Bruno's book review by Mark Spano !!

HomeArts & Culture Arts & CultureBook ReviewsFeatured Women’s Cooking: Tales & Recipes from Filicudi By Mark Spano December 4, 2023 0 23 FacebookTwitterPinterestWhatsApp If Sicily is in some respects removed from the Italian mainland, then the Aeolian Islands are to a degree removed from Sicily, a...

12/07/2023

..You will find a complex Sicily in these pages, a Sicily at war with itself, but also a Sicily that projects beauty and truth, concepts that, at times, are just out of reach. If only… if only.

‘Nobody looks at her anymore.’  This line jumps from the page of Contemporary Sicilian Poetry, Italica Press’ new bilingual anthology of poetry from the island.  It refers to the moon, that much used poetical metaphor, but it seems to stand for poetry as a whole, the genre and the concept. ...

16/04/2023

Welcome to our new contributor Paul Mila. Nice post about his Grandfather Joe and Joe Petrosino. Paul is a multi-talented writer who publishes a monthly magazine about the sea and diving

Giuseppe Palisi, 31 years old, and his wife Josephine 22, had no idea what awaited them as they departed Messina, Sicily for a voyage to the New World, around 1900. Like other immigrant groups before them, Italians had heard stories of a new land of opportunity across the sea, where the streets were...

16/04/2023

Andrew and Suzanne Edwards recently discovered an intriguing story about some Sicilians who fought in the 1588 Spanish Armada against England. They got stranded in Scotland by a storm and ended up fighting for a kilted clan chieftain before getting blown to bits by Walsingham, Elizabeth 1 spymaster. Thought that some fathered children in Scotland?!

Depending on who you talk to, it was known as the Grande y Felicísima Armada (the Great and Most Fortunate or Blessed Navy) or the Invincible Armada. The latter of the two names was largely taken up by the English who used it in an ironic manner after the navy was defeated in 1588. For […]

08/01/2023

My interview with my colleague and friend Alex Okl, Author of the book “Asking One Question” (http://www.amazon.com/Asking-One-Question-Traveling-Happiness-ebook/dp/B07BJL5PYX)

Beautiful landscape shots of Madonie National Park in Sicily. 🇮🇹An interview with Giovanni Morreale about happiness. 😇Get inspired a...

15/12/2022

.."Just what did these early guides make of Sicily? How did they represent the island? In the following paragraphs, we’ll look at some of their opinions and recommendations." - By Andrew and Suzanne Edwards

Fascinated by how travel has changed over the centuries, it is perhaps no surprise that we have amassed a small collection of antique guidebooks – everything from Murray’s Handbooks to the occasional Guide Bleu, a treasured Touring Club Italiano and numerous Baedekers.  When leafing through the...

12/09/2022

..."A Troubled Samuel Taylor Coleridge in the Mediterranean" - By Andrew and Suzanne Edwards

If you mention the name Samuel Taylor Coleridge to many people and ask them to associate him with a place, the answer will usually either be the English Lake District or the West Country, particularly Somerset or Devon. Even if he only rings a vague bell of recognition, those places still resonate w...

13/05/2022

Giuseppe Antonio Borgese – "poet, novelist, critic, and politician who wanted the unity of art and the world"

We recently bought a copy of Colm Tóibín’s novel about the life of Thomas Mann, The Magician. If you haven’t read it, we would heartly recommend it. Tóibín, however, hardly needs an endorsement from us as his work is so well known and respected. Praise aside, reaching the section of the nove...

06/02/2022

Feel like taking some time off in Sicily or living a few months here???... Go 4 it!!!

Have you thought about leaving the daily routine for a few weeks or months and enjoying some time away? After all the lockdowns and changes in our habits and lifestyle, maybe it is a good time to stop for a while and have a re-think about a slower pace of life.  Funnily enough, in Italy […]

19/12/2021

A trending topic nowadays .. // A new must-read article by Andrew and Suzanne Edwards

In these uncertain times, we’ve all been focusing a little bit more on the theme of mental health. When normal life gets suspended, and we are forced to adapt to circumstances beyond our control it inevitably takes a toll and affects a good many people. Mental health has always, to a degree, been ...

22/09/2021

A warm welcome to our new contributor Veronica Newcomb ♥

Traveling smartly and choosing local vacation spots is a growing trend among post-covid travelers. Smaller communities with rich histories and longstanding traditions are becoming more and more common among those craving to connect with the uncommon world after a year plus of isolation and staying i...

21/09/2021

"The book is set during the period after the initial invasion of the island by Allied troops during the Second World War. - A Conspiracy of Talkers - By Gaetano Savatteri ..an astute observer of the quirks and nuances of Sicilian society." A must-read!

Gaetano Savatteri is an astute observer of the quirks and nuances of Sicilian society. In our book on Palermo’s Hotel delle Palme, Ghosts of the Belle Époque, we refer to Savatteri’s writing on a couple of occasions. Firstly, we recount the unusual story of Baron Agostino Fausto La Lomia who us...

17/08/2021

NEW! Book Review by Mark Spano: "The invention of Sicily"- A Mediterranean History - Jamie Mackay"

The Invention of Sicily: A Mediterranean History, Jamie Mackay, Published by Verso, 304 pages, $24.26 US/£16.99 Reviewed by Mark Spano …the concept of Europe must have first been formed as an antithesis to that which is not Europe… from Europe (in Theory) by Roberto M. Dainotto In Un Chien Anda...

01/04/2021

..about Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa stories !! By Alejandro Luque

Someone like me, who can become very heavy about what he enjoys, has been banging on for a few years about the desirability of rescuing Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s stories. The last edition of this volume in Spanish, published by Edhasa, dates from 1990 and, although 30 years are nothing, in th...

04/03/2021

exhibition in Palermo till April the 30th - by G.Morreale

It seems like Masayoshi Sukita and David Bowie were soul mates who were destined to come together in the name of art. You only have to look at the photos of Bowie to imagine how much the iconic musician means to Sukita. It wasn’t Bowie’s music that first drew Sunita in. The photographer was in [...