Christmas and New Year's in Italy/Sicily

When Bill and I were in Sicily over the holidays, we saw a lot of wonderful things that we don't do here in the States.  One was an incredible million course meal every night of the 12 days of Christmas.  Yowza.  How did I lose 20 pounds there?  And some interesting travel snafus as well.


For example, we decided to spend New Year's Eve in Siracusa with our friend Bruno.  We had a wonderful time, then hopped on the hydrofoil to Malta and spent a few days there.  When we returned to Sicily, we went to the train station, expecting to be able to hop a train or even a bus back to Palermo.  No way.  The date was January 6.  Ring a bell?


I was pretty puzzled.  Why would all transportation stop because of my oldest sister's birthday?  Which brings me back to the first paragraph - they really celebrate the 12 days of Christmas in Sicily and Epiphany is January 6.  As a defunct Methodist, that was news to me.  So to make a long story endless, we ended up calling a friend who took us to an obscure corner we never would have found to catch the bus to Palermo as no trains ran that day.  Not only were we grateful for his kindness, it turned out that we had to switch buses in Modica, but that bus would have left 10 minutes before we got there.  Our bus driver called Modica, talked to that bus driver, who said absolutely he would not wait as his buses were always on time (wait, this is Italy - who is he kidding?!).  But he got a surly "okay" and when our bus pulled into Modica, there was a busful of people for Palermo patiently waiting for us.  Bill flew off to buy tickets and I tried to thank the entire busload in my lame Italian - they were so gracious and laughed and clapped. 


I love the Sicilians.

Peace of Caltabellotta

31 August, 1302, was the date on which the War of the Sicilian Vespers, begun in 1282, can be said to have ended. The Peace of Caltabellotta was the formal treaty ending the struggle between the Houses of Anjou and Barcelona for the control of Sicily and the Mezzogiorno (the southern portion of Italy's mainland). The treaty separated the island of Sicily from the mainland, which came to be known as the Kingdom of Naples, still under the rule of Charles of Anjou. Frederick III was ruling Sicily. He was the third son of Peter of Aragon and succeeded his brother James on the throne. In effect, this treaty formalized an uneasy status quo. The treaty stipulated that Sicily, now called the Kingdom of Trinacria, would pass to the Angevins upon Frederick's death. Charles was obligated to pay tribute of 100,000 ounces of gold to Frederick, unless Pope Boniface VIII allowed Frederick to conquer either Sardinia or Cyprus. Frederick released Charles's son Phillip, Prince of Taranto, from imprisonment, and  he married Charles's daughter Eleanor. Five hundred years later in 1816 the Kingdom of Sicily merged with the Kingdom of Naples to form the Kingdom of Two Sicilies. Not until 1861 did Sicily become part of the Kingdom of Italy.
     Wishing the world, and all of you peace in 2016.

Admiral of the Seas

Roger de Lauria (born in southern Italy c. 1245, d. 17 January 1305), Sicilian commander of the fleet for Peter III of Aragon in the War of the Vespers and the Aragonese Crusade, the most successful and talented naval tactician in the medieval period. As the Angevins took over Sicily, Roger's family fled to Barcelona. His mother was a nurse to Queen Constance. He was named admiral of the fleet in 1282 and went on to win six major naval battles from 1283 to 1300, defeating the Angevins in Sicily and the French in the Aragonese Crusade. He retained his admiralty during the reigns of two of Peter's successors, James II and Frederick III.
     After winning against the Angevins near Naples in 1287, Roger made a truce with the Neapolitans without authorization from his king. This may have deprived the Aragonese of victory on the mainland of Italy.
     Frederick III rewarded Roger with a castle and lands in Aci, but Roger's affections for the Angevins soured their friendship. Frederick besieged Roger's castles and arrested him. However, Roger escaped and fled into the service of Edward I of England to fight the French. He soon left the English and returned to Italy where, in 1299, he defeated the Sicilians, capturing 18 enemy galleys. In 1300 he defeated and captured King Frederick himself, but ultimately submitted to Frederick after the Peace of Caltabellotta. Frederick pardoned him. Roger then retired to Valencia where he died in 1305.
     So was Roger a patriot or greedy mercenary?

Roger's statue in Barcelona

   

true crime stories

http://kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/2015/12/guest-post-jeanne-recommends-some.html


Some of us who like murder mysteries really gravitate towards true crime stories.


Above the a link for those of us who do - two of my personal favorites are on this list - Devil in the White City, which takes place during the Chicago Exposition of 1893 and Leopold and Loeb:  Crime of the Century.  Aside from the fact that they both take place in my favorite place after my Rocky Mountain paradise - Chicago - they're just eye-popping reads.  You won't put them down.


What are your favorite true crime books?

Aragonese Crusade

Ah, yes, all those saints! And the Church had to make the world safe for sainthood, so they set about to slay their enemies. Peter III of Aragon (yes, our King Peter in Sicily) was declared one of those enemies by Pope Martin IV. As part of the extension of the war after the Sicilian Vespers, Martin excommunicated Peter and deposed him as king of Aragon, all over a little island in the Mediterranean. You see, Peter's father (PeterII) had ceded Sicily to the Holy See. Martin then gave Sicily to Charles of Valois (the French/Angevin), Martin was unhappy when the Sicilians invited Peter to take over again.

Then, to complicate matters, Peter's brother King James II of Majorca joined the French, thus creating a civil war. James also held the county of Rousillon on the mainland, and it stood between the dominions of the French and Aragonese monarchs. James welcomed the French army into Rousillon in 1284, but the populace rose up against them under the command of the Bastard of Rousillon. The French eventually won, burning the church and massacring the people. The French also took Girona the following year, but their fortunes were soon reversed by the intercession of Peter's Admiral, Roger de Lauria (yes, he's in the book too). A celebrated and feared naval commander, Roger defeated the French fleet at the Battle of Les Formigues. Following a camp epidemic of dysentery, the French army on land was then defeated at the Battle of the Col de Panissars. Historian HJ Chaytor said the Aragonese Crusade was "perhaps the most unjust, unnecessary and calamitous enterprise ever undertaken by the Capetian monarchy." It was to have far-reaching consequences for the history of Europe.

December Saints Days, Coffee and Chocolate

So I'm going through my usual morning routine - the cats (which they had in the 13th century) jump on my head, I get up and make coffee (which Sicily did not have in the 13th century) and I contemplate my espresso beans - a gift from my sweet friend Meredith - covered in chocolate (which they did not have in Sicily in the 13th century.  My, those 13th century Sicilians were deprived!  Well, they had cats.  And lemons.  And cane sugar.  And leather.  It's a start ...


And because one of my friends mentioned the Feast of the Immaculate Conception the other day (December 8) I thought I'd peruse the Book of Saints to see how many December saints there are.  Holy Smokes!  Check out the list below - there's a virtual plethora of them!   Happy Feast Days!  (it always comes back to food doesn't it?)


St. Francis Xavier
St. John Damascene
St. Nicholas (
Santa Claus)
St. Ambrose
Mary's Immaculate Conception
St. Damasus
Our Lady of Guadalupe
St. Jane Frances de Chantal
St. John of the Cross
St. Peter Canisius
St. Lucy (Santa Lucia - my personal favorite)
St. John of Kanti
St. Stephen
St. John the Apostle
Holy Innocents
St. Thomas Becket
St. Sylvester


Now, as a defunct Methodist, most of these saints are not familiar to me.  But Santa Lucia, not only a popular saint in Sicily/Italy, I met at a Lutheran Church in Chicago.  I attended a Santa Lucia Day ceremony, with young girls coming down the aisle wearing tiaras with lighted candles on their heads.  Very impressive.  Santa Lucia is also Siracusa's patron saint and they have a beautiful procession, with Santa Lucia cakes.


And who doesn't know the story of Thomas Becket?  "Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest" in the famous words of Henry II.  Arrivaderci, Thomas.


And that's my December saints blog!

Muslim expulsion from Sicily

Reading about Republican proposals to ban Muslims from immigrating to America recalls the various efforts in the Middle Ages to do the same thing in other lands. For over 400 years in the Early Middle Ages, Muslims controlled the Middle East, Jerusalem and Constantinople, destroying Christian shrines and temples and murdering pilgrims. Conflict reigned between the religious groups for centuries. In the 1090's the Seljuk Turks overran Arab Constantinople and in 1098, the Fatimid dynasty of Egypt conquered the Turks. By 1099, Pope Urban II was calling for the first Crusade to return the Holy Land to Christian control, and to unite the eastern and western branches of the church. In a series of 7 major Crusades over the next 200 years, Europeans streamed into the Holy Land to kill the "infidels", and in the process, be absolved of their sins and have a chance to acquire wealth and position. Crusaders breached the walls of Jerusalem on July 15, 1099, killing the residents indiscriminately. Contemporary sources said the streets of the city ran with "blood up to the ankles".

Against the background of the Great Schism, the Pope sanctioned the Norman conquest of the Muslim Emirate of Sicily in 1066. For about 100 years thereafter, contrary to other kingdoms, Muslims were accepted on the island. Mulsims served in government posts and the army. However, vilification of Muslims gradually took hold in Sicily as well as in other parts of Europe, and their royal protection ended with the death of William the Good in 1189. Frederick II then enacted many repressive measures against the Muslims to please the Pope. Eventually there was a failed Muslim rebellion on the island, leading to formal expulsion in 1224 of 15-20,000 Muslims to Lucera, a town on the southern end of the mainland. There the Muslim population could be isolated and controlled, but also taxed. King Charles (the Angevin ruler in our mysteries) finally decimated the colony of Muslims in 1300 before his final defeat by Peter of Aragon.Those Muslims that weren't killed in his pogrom were exiled. Estimates are that about 10,000 of them were sold into slavery.

...And the beat goes on...

Greek temples, Hannibal, Segesta, Agrigento

I keep being dragged back to the impact the Greeks, and other ancient civilizations, had on Sicily, when I look at pictures of ancient Greek temples.  Anyone remotely interested in that subject knows that the best extant examples are in Sicily - Segesta, Agrigento, around Siracusa.


On my trip this April with my friend Alison, we were lucky to be driving through Segesta and Agrigento and seeing these massive (and they are massive) buildings from the autostrada is incredible.


And since I just got back from soaking in a neighboring hot spring, I was also interested to learn that Segesta was famous as a medicinal soaking place.  Its hot springs were sulphurous, its founders were reputed by Thucydides to be Trojans and Phocians, who pre-date the Greeks on the island.  This is an old, old place.


Segesta kept changing alliances between the Carthaginians and the Athenians, not to her benefit.  Eventually she became subject to Carthage, then came under a brutal attack by the Athenian Agathocles, who came to Sicily to war against the Carthaginians.  Segesta welcomed him, but for some reason he turned against them and hurled men from catapults, or bound them in brass beds with recesses for their arms and legs, then roasted them alive.  What happened to diplomacy?


And I always wondered what happened to Hannibal of Carthage.  I always imagined he was trampled by one of his elephants, but of course that wasn't the case.  He actually died in Sicily, besieging Agrigento somewhere around 414 B.C.  For eight months the siege dragged on but when Agrigento's mercenaries deserted and the Carthaginians poured into the city, the prominent men of Agrigento sealed themselves into the Temple of Athena and set fire to it, preferring death by burning to capture by Carthaginians.


A reflection on war, torture and its ongoing, seemingly never-ending, appearances.