Buona Sera,

  We visited Enna the first afternoon of our road trip and the last evening and morning or our road trip.  It’s a place I wish I could click my heels and return to for a morning or evening stroll.  A winter visit would be interesting too to see the season so different from the first day of summer. Where according to mythology, the winter months came to be.  To me it seems a very livable city, walkable city.

Ru

Enna Part 3  Narrow Streets

I was trying to explain to myself what it was about Enna that attracted me.  I think it was the same thing that attracted me in Siracusa,  S. Stephano di Camastra and later in Piazza Armerina’s Duomo neighborhoods.  It’s the narrow streets and neighborhoods mixed with small shops and cafes.   Sometime in college I’d read about the development of suburbs, away from commerce with streets wide enough for parked cars on both sides.    The Levittowners: Life and Politics in a New Suburban Community by Herbert Gans  published in 1967 was one of my assigned readings. 

Gans defends Levittown to the critics of suburbia…

     "The critics have argued that long commutation by the father is helping to create a suburban matriarchy with deleterious effects on the children, and that homogeneity, social hyperactivity, and the absence of urban stimuli create depression, boredom, loneliness, and ultimately mental illness. The findings from Levittown suggest just the opposite – that suburban life has produced more family cohesion and a significant boost in morale through the reduction of boredom and loneliness." (220)

And

"They (the critics) also look at suburbia as outsiders, who approach the community with a ‘tourist’ perspective. The tourist wants visual interest, cultural diversity, entertainment, esthetic pleasure, variety (preferably exotic), and emotional stimulation. The resident, on the other hand, wants a comfortable, convenient, and socially satisfying place to live…" (186)  (How can these be mutually exclusive?)

and

"The disappearance of farmland near the big cities is irrelevant now that food is produced on huge industrialized farms, and the destruction of raw land and private upper class golf courses seems a small price to pay for extending the benefits of suburban life to more people." (423) (The countryside around Enna was just beautiful.)

http://geography.about.com/

I find myself definitely agreeing with the critics. 

I also found this information while searching about narrow streets and neighborhoods.

“The things making that corner of the Maeser neighborhood unique are not difficult to understand. The homes are small and well-built; the smaller blocks have alleyways for access, garbage removal etc.; everyone lives close to amenities like parks and grocery stores; there are no big garage doors facing the street.

But I think the best part of all — and perhaps what makes everything else possible — are the smaller streets.

I wrote about this idea back in March while reporting on a post about the difference between the car-centric streets of Atlanta and the narrow lanes of Florence, Italy. And during my recent trip to Europe, I saw plenty of others streets that also emphasized the superiority of smaller lanes:”

http://provocationutah.wordpress.com/

http://www.strongtowns.org  another site devoted to urban planning with narrow streets.

So this email is about Enna streets seen from our room and the room itself; and of course some food photos.

Driving to Enna through the farmlands of Sicily For miles and miles and miles you see this raised autostrada and tunnels through dozens of hills.

Our hotel where it helped to have a car the size of a toothpick to fit in the lot.

This elementary school/JHS shared the hotel’s  plaza/parking lot : that’s our tiny red Fiat

Room with a view Our floor was Primo Piano, up one floor from the lobby; but high enough on the hill to overlook the city.

Our room was lovely with lots of soft color, windows that opened to a great cityscape, AC, and the best white cotton sheets!  Botticelli’s Venus on the half shell is over the bed.

Ru and camera; my mom’s chin and my own gray hair

Our view I could have sat for hours just watching the city change colors from dusk to night to dawn.  And with the zoom I could look down at the streets to watch people interacting with each other and the city.

Dusk

Interesting even in B & W

Night colors

Zooming down at kids out on the streets

And a motorcycle in tight quarters

Sun rise and city shadows

The room with the row of red plants was the porch of the dining room.

Breakfast The plates were full when we went for breakfast, but I’d forgotten my camera.  Less than an hour later the plates were mostly empty and there weren’t so many folks staying at the hotel.  I ate two of the lovely pastries in the middle with two cups of cappuccino.      When you enter the dining room they ask what you’d like to drink.  I’ve completely forgotten about tea for now and just ask for a cappuccino.  Besides, what else would one eat with an Italian pastry.  It does seem to be what everyone else eats for breakfast.  There was melon and fresh strawberries and eggs, yogurt, ham, cheese, and rolls.  I did take lots of the strawberries, but skipped the rest of the healthy stuff and really enjoyed my pastry and cappuccino; our final breakfast of the road trip. Even I couldn’t do these; not for breakfast.

Checking out Jane from Hydeaway brought this bag for me from England and I used it to carry my books, Kindle, art supplies (which sadly I didn’t use.)

Lock at Lombardi castle. This photo is for our friends Peter and Jane.

Buongiorno,

   No castle has caught my imagination like our first visit to Kyrenia Castle in North Cyprus.  Perhaps the motorbike ride up the mountain taking us there added to the drama of the setting.  So Castle Lombardo wasn’t my favorite attraction in Enna but it was on my list and Randal does like castles, so we went.  I saw lots of folks walking there the first evening I visited.  As for the Rock of Ceres, I wanted to see it and we did!  Did I feel the spirit of Demeter?  No, can’t say that I did.  But it was a lovely setting and she was the goddess of nature, so who can say.  You can certainly see what may have inspired the myths, stories once used to explain the world to ourselves before we had science.  Now the myths add to our reasons for travel to see where they were created and the landscape that inspired them.

Ru

Castello di Lombardi

Enna’s main attraction is the Lombard Castle, built by Frederick II in the early part of the 13th century. Many historians, however, agree that the castle was erected upon the ruins of an earlier fortification, possibly Arab or Byzantine.  That older fortress could have been built on the remnants of an even earlier structure dating to the Roman period. http://www.bestofsicily.com/enna.html

Situated on East most point of Enna, the site has been fortified since earliest times because of its strategic position. Under Norman dominion, the castle was reinforced. It was made habitable by Frederick II Aragon, who added a number of rooms that rendered it suitable. It was here that He was crowned King of Trinacria and in 1324, convocated the Sicilian parliament. The name of the castle dates back to the same period linked to the presence of a garrison of Lombard soldiers posted there to defend it. The ground plan is of pentagonal which follows the lay of the land. Of the 20 towers only 6 remain. The most interesting and complete tower is called La Pisana or Torre delle Aquile (The Pisan Tower or of the Eagles).

Under the Spanish control in the 16th and 17th century, Enna strategic importance was diminished and the castle was used a prison. It fell in a bad state of despair, in the 20th century, archaeologist Paolo Orsi began excavation and restoration work.  

http://www.sicilianexperience.com/history.php?codice=enna

The Hotel Bristol was locked up tight so we stayed in the Hotel Sicilia

Walking up to the Castello di Lombardia

Vicissitudes  : favorable or unfavorable event or situation that occurs by chance http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vicissitude My 8th grade English teacher who was also my 9th grade Latin teacher used to say, “Such my friends are the vicissitudes of life which we must all endure.”   Vicissitudes isn’t a word you hear or read everyday so I thought it was a surprise to see it here.

Photo from http://www.sicilyontour.com/  which has additional info and photos

Behind the vans is the statue of Euno and the tall crenellated Torre Pisana

Looking back at the castle from the road to Rocca Di Cerere

Old and new…

Looking back to Enna and the road we drove to get there

Ceres Rock in Black and White : we walked to the top where the views were stunning. The Siculians made Enna one of the main sacred centres for the cult of Ceres in honour they built a sacred fence and a sanctuary on the eastern slope of the mount. Traces, mostly imaginable, are in the Ceres Rock, at the foot of the Lombard Castle.   http://www.welcometoenna.com/

Rock of Ceres Walking to the very top where you can easily imagine some type of temple stood. You can see the top of the Duomo in the Enna skyline. “Enna is a very old city, and a temple to Demeter stood on the rocky mount near its Lombard Castle, overlooking the plains and mountains below. In his Hymn to Demeter, Homer recounts the story of Persephone. It is much embellished over time, with local versions featuring details unknown to the ancients.”  http://www.bestofsicily.com/mag/art45.htm   (full article below)

Somewhere out there is Lake Pergusa  (a great place for bird watching  Charmaine and Linda) The Pergusa Lake, the only natural lake in central Sicily, is located 5 km from Enna, and has originated due to a subsidence of the land. According to the mythological story of the abduction of Proserpina, daughter of Ceres, on the part of Pluto, is believed to be one of the gates of hell, perhaps for the red color that its waters are in some periods of the year. Brackish water coming from rain only because the lake has no tributaries or emissaries. Since 1995, the lake and the environment surrounding Pergusa are a Special Nature Reserve to protect, according to the official justification, of a lake that is home to a rich variety of bird life and is the only wetland of stopping in the heart of Sicily, for migratory birds. Between April and May and between October and November Pergusa becomes a real crossroads for birds, due to its geographical position and for being an oasis in a wet landscape for many months dominated by the drought. Pergusa represents the ideal habitat for birds that make long hours of uninterrupted flight over the sea to and from Africa. Periodically, the lake, for a synergy between some of the microscopic organisms that live in it, has a unique phenomenon: its waters are tinged with red. Protagonists of this phenomenon is a little "shrimp" that, to defend himself from the rays of summer sun, is tinged with red pigment and is setting up in dense colonies in the aquatic plants. The pigment is then transferred to water and bacteria in it to give up the mirror of the lake a reddish color http://www.villacasablanca.it/en/to-visit/pergusa-lake.html

Enna’s modern government building.

Oxymoron but clever

     “Today, the typical young Sicilian woman stands about five feet five inches. If not a goddess, she’s shapely but not overweight, perhaps rather stylish, and spends most of July and August at the beach. She finds her first employment of any kind at around twenty-six, following an interrupted year or two of specialized higher education. In a sexist society, she’s slightly left of center politically and opposes the death penalty (which anyway doesn’t exist in Italy). Having studied in Italy’s schools, she believes that an Italian named Meucci invented the telephone. A non-practicing Catholic, she nevertheless marries in a lavish religious ceremony at thirty-two after a lengthy courtship.

      Persephone’s courtship, by comparison, was a last minute affair, though she had little need for religious ceremonies.  In mythology, she was the beautiful daughter of Zeus, king of the gods, and Demeter (Ceres), goddess of agriculture and fertility. While gathering flowers in the Valley of Enna, Persephone, who is also known as Kore (Greek for "maiden") was abducted by Hades and taken to the underworld.  Having lost her daughter to this dark realm, Demeter descended into sorrow, losing interest in the mortals and their agriculture, and Zeus had to intervene to bring an end to the famine that resulted from this abandonment. This he did by ordering Hades to release Kore, but not before the maiden had consumed a pomegranate seed as a sign of fidelity to Hades. That meant that she had to spend at least four months of every year with Hades, by whom she had a son, Plutus.

     Kore became the goddess of grain (wheat), and her annual absence was meant to account for the barren winter fields. Her cult was widespread, particularly at Enna, and Lake Pergusa is sometimes identified as the place where she was abducted or raped by Hades. She appears in several Greek myths and was worshipped at Eleusis in Attica.

     The allegory of Persephone is timeless. Grain sprouts to life from the earth to be harvested by man in the same way that a nubile girl is taken from her parents and her virginity lost to bring forth new life. Persephone’s case may have been rather extreme, but the principle is unchanged. Her story dates at least from 700 BC, when the first Greek colonies were established in Sicily. Enna is a very old city, and a temple to Demeter stood on the rocky mount near its Lombard Castle, overlooking the plains and mountains below. In his Hymn to Demeter, Homer recounts the story of Persephone. It is much embellished over time, with local versions featuring details unknown to the ancients.

     Persephone’s renewal is not unlike nature’s, and through the myth, human life is said to imitate nature itself. The imagery and message are purely Greek, but the earliest legend may have been Sicilian. It has been suggested that Persephassa, an earlier name for Persephone, indicates a pre-Hellenistic origin, and possibly a Sicanian or Sicel one. This may explain the early existence of a cult to this goddess in east-central Sicily coinciding with the Greeks’ first incursions into the region and their gradual amalgamation with the native peoples.

     To the Romans, she was Prosperina, and that is how she is known to Italians. Her Latin name shares the root of the word meaning "to prosper."

About the Author: Palermo native Vincenzo Salerno has written biographies of several famous Sicilians, including Frederick II and Giuseppe di Lampedusa.

http://www.bestofsicily.com/mag/art45.htm