Modica and the road to Agrigento

This post covers Wednesday 3 May at Modica and Siricusa, and Thursday 4 May where we drove to Agrigento via the ruined roman villa at Piazza Amerina.

We drove from Cassabile where we were staying to Modica, one of the so called Sicilian Baroque villages. Our friends drove on to see the Palazzo which was the location for the well known novel of Sicilian politics and aristocratic life, the Leopard by Giuseppe Lampedusa.

Modica presents a lovely aspect in a steep valley, with the houses rising steeply on both sides of the main street and square. We were focussed on contemporary art, and had three galleries on our list of potential visits. Unfortunately we only found one, which was closed, the other two either having moved or were no longer in existence. Nevertheless we had an extremely enjoyable few hours.  

Our first experience arose when we knocked on the door of the Centre of Contemporary Art in Modica, which turned out to be a small archive on contemporary arts writing, and were enthusiastically welcomed by Francesco Lucifora, an independent curator and art critic. Francesco offered us a coffee and we chatted about contemporary art in Sicily and Australia, our interest in Indigenous art, and his desire to perhaps organise an exhibition of Australian contemporary art in Sicily at some point. He is writing a guide to Sicilian contemporary art which he hopes to finish next year, so we wish him luck and good fortune!

Heading back towards el centro, we came upon the small 12^th century Chiese Rupestre San Nicolo Inferiore in the Piazzette Grimaldi. This miniscule church is built into the side of a cliff, and uses a small natural cave as its nave and altar. Painted on the rock face behind the altar space are a series of wonderful frescoes in the Byzantine style, some quite damaged, but others complete albeit faded.  All in all, a series of seven or eight full figure paintings of various saints, the archangel Michael, and Jesus. The paintings were beautiful, and inspired a tangible sense of awe, which derived not so much from their age, but from their tangible presence, the style of art which exudes warmth and magnificence, and the contrasting cool darkness of the quasi underground setting.

Exploring the centre of town, we visited both the main cathedral, the Duomo of St Peter, and an even larger church up on the hill, the Duomo St Giorgio, which was a hive of local activity when we arrived, hosting a funeral. The church was overflowing, with a considerable crowd standing on the steps outside. The funeral was concluding as we arrived, the funeral procession and music was beautiful, scores of people holding large bouquets of white lilies, and quite a lot of active engagement from the attendees. There were at least three priests and a host of children leading the coffin out of the church; half way down the aisle, the pall bearers lifted the white coffin off their shoulders and held it aloft to the sustained and enthusiastic applause of the whole congregation.

I suggested to Boronia that she might arrange for this to be undertaken at my funeral, but she demurred, suggesting that there would be too few willing to clap!

After a low key lunch in a bistro siciliana, we headed back to Cassibile. After a rest, we headed into Siracusa for dinner. Boronia had identified two potential restaurants. One was no longer operating, the other, Bistrot Bella Vita, was excellent. Great food, terrific service, a real pleasure. I ordered only one course, fried sardines with fennel and orange salad. Surprisingly delicious.

Thursday was largely taken with driving from Cassibille to Agrigento. The highlight was the stop on the way at Villa Romana del Cassale at Piazza Amerina.

I had been feeling unwell from the time I woke up, so this placed a shadow over my enjoyment, and meant I dozed and slept much of the way, feeling quite uncomfortable. The roman villa is the site of an extraordinary set of second century roman mosaics, and was clearly a second century version of Trump Tower.

I wont try to describe the mosaics, except to say they were clearly done with great artistic flair, an eye for detail. That they have survived in such a complete state is remarkable. All four of us enjoyed them immensely, though I didn’t have quite the same intense emotional reaction as I had to the Byzantine frescoes in Modica. Still, something not to be missed!

We arrived Agrigento mid afternoon, and after a shower and rest, went out for dinner. Enjoyable, but not earth shattering.