A medley of things Italian

Here are some things which have caught my interest in Italy/Sicily:

  You may notice that Sicily is actually upside down in this painting in the Vatican Museum. We figured that it was because Rome was seen as the centre of importance and everything was measured or drawn with that as the reference point. In the painting, you can clearly see that Sicily has three capes, hence the symbol for Sicily is a three legged symbol taken from the ancient Greek mythological symbol, seen here on the bottom of an ancient pot in the Agrigento Museum and its modern interpretation, which is seen everywhere in Sicily.

 

I found out the meaning of Casino, my place of birth, when we registered at one of our hotels. Apparently, the name means a mess, or a brothel/bordello.	Ah, the misleading nature of language: ostriche are NOT ostriches, avvocato are NOT bought at the fruit shop, and a chiesa rupestri is not a strange cheese ripening building, as M supposed (I laughed so much I was nearly sick at that one)
Even clerics have to shop for their robes, though I didn’t expect such window displays.	Robes hanging up in the Cattedrale at Monreale, all ready for the next service.
Meat for sale. We didn’t buy!!	Yep, Rome, not India.
Lazy Sunday in the Piazza.	Lots of small cars in Rome.
One evening in Palermo we came across this procession.	They had been dancing, 19th century style.
	Sign in Etna National Park. Yes, that animal on the sign is a kangaroo on a leash.
Australia’s biggest export to Sicily is gum trees. There are millions of them along the verges of roads and invading places like la Rocca at Cefalu.  They seem to like it here as the picture shows. This could be anywhere in Australia – except we are driving on the wrong side of the road of course.
	This was the strangest Madonna, from the Sicilian School. Either the model was deformed, or the artist had no real idea where the breast is located.

So arriverderci Sicily, hello Malta.