Yes, the Mediterranean really is that color!

Trapani Salt works

Trapani windmill in disrepair. Mounds of salt in front

Norman architecture

Medieval baths in Cefalu

I was totally envious that my writing partner got to go back to Sicily, and when she brought home the picture, my oh my, I'm sure I turned green.  She and her friends must have had a wonderful time. I got a postcard, not a T-shirt.  But with the postcard and the pictures from Trapani, I just might design a windmill quilt for her. Here are some of the wonderful places she visited.

Eating in Cefalu and Siracusa - octopus, sea bass and other yummies

Having recently returned from our trip to Sicily and Budapest, I wanted to let our readers know about a wonderful restaurant in Siracusa.  It's called Basirico's and it is in Ortigia, specializing in seafood.  My friend and I ate there twice and had octopus (my personal favorite and something you don't eat in the Rocky Mountains) and sea bass.


My Neapolitan friend just came up for a visit to the cool, refreshing mountains from Florida and has the cookbooks we love to read - the Sicilian Food Lovers cookbook (she wants to take that cooking class in Cefalu from Cinzia and Antonio!), plus Eating in Sicily and a few others.  So I don't have my normal cookbooks around me.


But octopus - goodness!  What a treat!  When I first had calamari (which is squid and not the same, correct???) in Chicago it tasted like my Jeep tires.  I decided calamari and octopi were not for me!


In Siracusa and Sicily in general, it's a whole different ball game.  I don't know what they do, but it's tender, perfect and exquisite.  Olive oil, parsley, salt, pepper and garlic with breadcrumbs is what I Sapori di Sicilia recommends for baking small squid in the oven.  (p. 178)


While I don't think I can buy any calamari or octopus (polpa or polpette as I saw it referred to in Siracusa) in a store here that even vaguely compares to fresh product in Sicily, the memory will linger for a long, long time.

The 4 humors of Medieval medicine

Ideas about the origin and cure of disease in the middle ages were not purely secular, but included factors such as destiny, sin, and astral influences. The efficacy of cures was similarly bound in the beliefs of patient and doctor more than in empirical evidence, so that physical remedies were often subordinate to spiritual intervention. The theory of the four humours (bodily fluids of blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile) arose out of Greek philosophy in an attempt to relate all things to universal laws. And so we have parallels drawn between particular aspects of the surrounding world. The humors were oftentimes attributed to appropriate seasons, properties such as hot, cold, dry, and wet, signs of Zodiac in groups of three, four ages of mankind - infancy, adolescence, adulthood, and old age, and even sometimes to the four Evangelists - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, as well as the compass directions. (Even now, we still use words "choleric", "sanguine", "phlegmatic" and "melancholy" to describe personalities.) Such balance and classification of the world was of utmost importance, hence the balance of humors within a human body was necessary for health. The physician evaluated the patient's home climate, their normal diet, and astrological charts during consultation. The heavens influenced every person in different ways by influencing elements connected to certain humors, important information in reaching a diagnosis. The physician could determine which humor was unbalanced in the patient and prescribe a new diet to restore that balance. Diet not only included food to eat or avoid but also an exercise regiment, medication, and blood-letting.

Almond milk - today and in the Middle Ages - no refrigeration

A number of books on medieval cooking, especially in the Mediterranean, refer to the consistent use of almond milk. In my treasure trove of Sicilian cooking called Sweet Sicily by Alessandra Dummone, she shares that simple recipe with us. Latte di mandorle - blend the almonds with sugar to a fine powder. Pour the powder in a saucepan with water and put more sugar in. Heat, but don't boil, cool, then refrigerate. Strain or filter the milk through fine cloth or a strainer. How perfect for a region whose temperatures often sizzle above 90 degrees! Who needs cows?

The First Computer

Three flat misshapen pieces of oxidized bronze that now rest at the National Archeological Museum of Athens, Greece, have been called the world's first computer. It spent the last 2000 years under the sea. Look closely and you will find gears with neat triangular teeth and a ring divided into degrees of the circle. Nothing like it will appear again for 1000 years. With amazing accuracy, the device was meant to track the motions of the sun, moon, and planets. Similar in sizer to a mantel clock, the Antikythera Mechanism has trains of interlocking gear wheels that drive at least seven hands (sun, moon, and the 7 planets visible to the naked eye) at various speeds to mark celestial time. It also featured ways to mark phases of the moon, the calendar, and the timing of lunar and solar eclipses. Cicero wrote that a Rhodes philosopher Posidonis made a similar model of the heavens in the first century BC, and some have suggested that such items originated as much as 200 years earlier in Babylon. How was such knowledge transmitted to the sailors of the Mediterranean down through the centuries if another such device wasn't readily available? By the time of our stories, such information was 1300 to 1400 years old. Merchants and sailors may have relied on this ancient knowledge without knowing where it came from.

Beauty is in the eye of the Nurse

According to Aldobrandino of Siena, an Italian physician living in France in the mid-13th century, beauty or ugliness was determined by the way in which the nurse swaddled a new born. This is from his Regime du Corps, supposedly the first medical text written in French and translated into several other languages, c. 1254: 

“After the woman has delivered the child, you should know how to take care of the child. Know that as soon as the child is born, it should be wrapped in crushed roses mixed with fine salt… And when one wishes to swaddle [the baby], the members should be gently couched and arranged so as to give them a good shape, and this is easy for a wise nurse; for just as wax when it is soft takes whatever form one wishes to give to it, so also the child takes the form which its nurses give to it. And for this reason, you should know that beauty and ugliness are due in large measure to nurses. And when its arms are swaddled, and the hands over the knees, and the head lightly swaddled and covered, let it sleep in the cradle.” 

Cluny Museum, Iceland and some cool medieval images

Check out Peter and Sandra's latest issue at www.medievalists.net for very cool medieval images, top ten things to see at the Cluny Museum (where Alison and I will be in April!) and look at the fabulous pictures of Iceland! Alison and I will be staying at the Blue Lagoon, soaking our heads off and thinking of, well, I'm not sure what we'll be thinking ...