Entering:

The idea of entering: to be transported, to glimpse another world and to be greeted by a new space is wonderful. And, in Sicily there have been many entrances that have ushered me into another world, to enjoy discovery and stir curiosity.

No.1  Via Carlo V, Polizzi Generosa:

Topped with a golden, griffin like creature with the face of a young beauty the low doorway at number 11 Via Carlo V, newly painted in a rich glossy brown and framed by soft crumbling ancient stone, stirs my curiosity.

I wonder if it enters a small, private garden tiled with colourful Sicilian tiles.

One day I would love to meet the custodian of this delightful doorway which I passed when I walked Via Carlo in June this year.

No.2  Villa Malfitano, Via Dante Alighieri, Palermo

Walk through the intricate double iron gates of the late 19^th century early Liberty style villa, Villa Malfitano, once the lavish home of the entrepreneurial Joseph Whitaker and his wife Tina and you are transported into a 7 hectare garden filled with hundreds of exotic and rare species from the world over. 

It was an August day in 2010 when I entered the Villa Malfitano gates; crowned with the Whitaker family crest. They were open for the people of Palermo to enjoy the avenues and trees. The villa was closed that day.

We wandered the shady pathways and peered through the closed back doors of Villa Malfitano.

No.3  Porta Pescara (the fishing door) a charming ‘doorway’ to the sea in Cefalu

Arched and facing the Tyrrhenian Sea the Porta Pescara is the only remaining medieval gate of Cefalu. It entices the viewer to pause, to look out and to walk under the arch down to the sheltered sea; to exit Cefalu for a while.

And, in the summer months it frames a classic Sicilian scene: a lido on the sand, a blue, blue sea, the odd small colourful fishing boat and, suntanned bodies.

The charming ‘doorway’, Porta Pescara, is a reminder that Cefalu was a fishing town.

Salve,

Suzanne