A Week in Sicily

Golden churches, holy cannoli, and many, many shots of espresso

Hello, Friends!

Happy Saturday. Where do you find yourself on this fine day? I am typing this from full flight from Palermo where about fifteen Italian speakers seem to be making bets on something, exchanging gifts, and generally enjoying each other’s company in the airplane aisle with very little regard for the seatbelt sign or the insistence of the pilot to please stay in their seats. The attendant has long-sufferingly asked them to clear the aisles a few times and the Brits around me are not astonished but infuriated. Thus is my re-entry to the UK after an enjoyable trip to Sicily to present some research at the European Academy of Religion.

Do you like golden churches? Do you like carbohydrates? Wine? Do you like streets littered with cigarettes, graffiti, and artisan handmade goods? Do you like the sun shining on a sea that is almost impossibly blue? Do you like sipping espresso with sugar in a bustling square around a fountain? Do you like fighting for your life on narrow streets occupied by tourists, cars, and motorbikes alike with no perceptible traffic rules other than every woman for herself? If your answer to most of those questions was yes, you would probably enjoy Palermo.