STONE
BUSTED COMPUTER-PICTURES TO FOLLOW!
3/19/05
We have spent this week travelling around Sicily looking at sites for our guests to visit in April and June to visit. This is also the week that I have been reading Bruneleschis Dome, the saga of the vaulting of the great cathedral dome on the church of Santa Maria di Fiore in Florence (we saw it two years ago). Most of the book was about how tons and tons of stone were translated into a giant heavenly statement by mere men in the 1400s. The ingenuity used in solving the problems of moving the stone and vaulting such a huge space make for excellent reading. My fond memory of the grandeur of that pink and green and white marble kept me interested too.
So I was thinking of stone before I noticed what I had been taking pictures of all week. As I looked at these pictures from our travels, I realized how important stone is to the general order of things here. When we walk at Sunset Point, it is to see the rock formations that the plants cling to and that the water slides over. We saw divers this week slipping under the huge stones and boulders in the water. They might have been exploring the recently discovered giant millstones that were mined in this area and shipped by water. We enjoy the natural stone head sculpture and the house that fits so well into the hillside and the stone wall that is so integral a part of the landscape that we cannot decide if it is natural or manmade.
We went to Gibellina again to see the earthquake ruins and rock sculpture covering the town. What an eerie feeling it gives to walk the concrete streets! It almost makes you look at the earthquake ruins of fallen stone buildings as normal scenery here.
We visited Erice again and found it just as medieval as ever. The stone streets and houses always make it feel chillier up there, so we were glad to be there on a warm day. Of course we found more pottery to buy at our favorite pottery shop. I did not get to the stone castles but how many pictures of the same thing do I need? Maybe some day when I shoot my favourite castle di Pepoli, I will actually see Rapunzel letting down her hair!
Finally, we visited the city of Calatafimi on the way home and tried to get into the new art museum which was closed unexplainably without signs of any kind-but thats Sicily for you. I did get some a nice picture of the two stone slab sculptures in the back, and a neat sunset shot of the temple at Segesta from a different angle.
So everyday we live with stone all around us. It is the most available and cheapest building material around. Our stone house is not comfortable on cold winter nights. But the rest of the year it keeps us cool and comfortable-and cuts down on the hazards of fire. And it can be beautiful, like the piece of Turkish marble Steve admired at our friend Emilios marble works. Two days later he had fashioned a marble ashtray for Steve and brought it over. Sicilians are as warm as stone is cold.
3/19/05
We have spent this week travelling around Sicily looking at sites for our guests to visit in April and June to visit. This is also the week that I have been reading Bruneleschis Dome, the saga of the vaulting of the great cathedral dome on the church of Santa Maria di Fiore in Florence (we saw it two years ago). Most of the book was about how tons and tons of stone were translated into a giant heavenly statement by mere men in the 1400s. The ingenuity used in solving the problems of moving the stone and vaulting such a huge space make for excellent reading. My fond memory of the grandeur of that pink and green and white marble kept me interested too.
So I was thinking of stone before I noticed what I had been taking pictures of all week. As I looked at these pictures from our travels, I realized how important stone is to the general order of things here. When we walk at Sunset Point, it is to see the rock formations that the plants cling to and that the water slides over. We saw divers this week slipping under the huge stones and boulders in the water. They might have been exploring the recently discovered giant millstones that were mined in this area and shipped by water. We enjoy the natural stone head sculpture and the house that fits so well into the hillside and the stone wall that is so integral a part of the landscape that we cannot decide if it is natural or manmade.
We went to Gibellina again to see the earthquake ruins and rock sculpture covering the town. What an eerie feeling it gives to walk the concrete streets! It almost makes you look at the earthquake ruins of fallen stone buildings as normal scenery here.
We visited Erice again and found it just as medieval as ever. The stone streets and houses always make it feel chillier up there, so we were glad to be there on a warm day. Of course we found more pottery to buy at our favorite pottery shop. I did not get to the stone castles but how many pictures of the same thing do I need? Maybe some day when I shoot my favourite castle di Pepoli, I will actually see Rapunzel letting down her hair!
Finally, we visited the city of Calatafimi on the way home and tried to get into the new art museum which was closed unexplainably without signs of any kind-but thats Sicily for you. I did get some a nice picture of the two stone slab sculptures in the back, and a neat sunset shot of the temple at Segesta from a different angle.
So everyday we live with stone all around us. It is the most available and cheapest building material around. Our stone house is not comfortable on cold winter nights. But the rest of the year it keeps us cool and comfortable-and cuts down on the hazards of fire. And it can be beautiful, like the piece of Turkish marble Steve admired at our friend Emilios marble works. Two days later he had fashioned a marble ashtray for Steve and brought it over. Sicilians are as warm as stone is cold.
posted by Sicilian Mama at 5:50 AM
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