By Train from Palermo to Mt. Etna

 [February 28, 2021:  The BBC Great Continental Railway Journey of Sicily on YouTube has been removed and so while I search for a replacement, here is the short clip on Michael Portillo's visit to Gangi and its Mafioso history directly from the BBC.]

In this BBC Great Continental Railway Journey, Michael Portillo takes the Sicilian railway from Palermo, to Agrigento, to Siracusa and finally up to Mt. Etna.  He uses Bradshaw's Guidebook dated 1936 and so Mussolini and Fascism are highlights in this episode.  Michael will never be lost in the crowd because his clothes are so vibrant, garish in fact.  Not at all British. so it must be his Spanish heritage, although he doesn't mention the Spanish influence in Sicily at all, merely the "Bourbon".

1930 Photo

In Palermo, besides going to the Ballaro street market where he eats pasta con le sarde and actually finds it quite good, he pays a visit to the monumental post office on Via Roma next to the main train station.  It is called the Palazzo delle Poste which I don't believe I have read about.  Very very interesting as it was built under Mussolini and has gigantic Greek columns but also a futuristic interior which is quite beautiful, especially the conference room and the stairway.  

Mussolini tried to make everything efficient so he would probably be disappointed that the post office is the epitome of inefficiency, according to Off the Beaten Track in Palermo.  He also wanted the trains to run on time but that was only in Northern Italy.  Sicily was neglected, except for the Mafia, which Mussolini wanted to eradicate.  To illustrate that, Michael takes a side trip to Gangi, a previous Mafia stronghold in the interior of the island that Mussolini surrounded and kidnapped the women and children so that the mafiosi eventually surrendered.  Now Gangi is considered one of the most beautiful villages in Italy.  Perhaps you have heard of the nearby restaurant Tenuta Gangivecchio or looked at one of their cookbooks, La Cucina Siciliana di Gangivecchio.

Michael also visits the Greek temples of Agrigento and talks about Luigi Pirandello, the playwright born in Agrigento and what his relationship was to Mussolini and fascism.  

Then he visits Siracusa, a very interesting historic city which rivaled Athens in the Greek world.  Too bad we are only going to spend a morning there on our trip to Sicily.  Since Siracusa is on the coast, Michael takes a boat ride where he eats arancini (cone-shaped there as opposed to round like oranges in Palermo) and cannoli.  But it is the little pear-shaped tomatoes that caught my eye.  Such a pure deep lipstick red!

In keeping with the Mussolini theme, Michael visits the Monumento ai Caduti in Africa, commemorating the Italian invasion of Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) in 1935-6, another monument that you don't hear about too much in tour books.  It was created in 1938 by Romano Romanelli and was destined for Addis Ababa but was later (1952) erected in Siracusa which was the jumping off point for the invasion.  Although fascistic and imperialistic, it is a very imposing work of art.

Finally, Michael winds up on Mt. Etna, that famous volcano of Sicily.  Michael takes the cable car to the top of Mt. Etna but what is more interesting I think, is the Circumetnea, a railway established in 1895 that makes almost a complete circle around the volcano.  In 1937 they introduced La Littorina, a futuristic Fiat motor coach that they still use in the summer for special rides.  The website, Unusual Places, has an article about it with many photos.

So you can see that this rail journey covers places we haven't seen in other videos about Sicily and it is interesting to learn about the fascist period of the 1936 Bradshaw Guide.