The temple of Segesta 'catches the breath'

The Greek temple of Segesta is one of  Sicily’s untouched sites of antiquity. Set deep in the countryside it is, as writer John Julius Norwich says, one of 'two architectural masterpieces (in Sicily) which, viewed from afar as well as in close up, still [has] the power to catch the breath’.

  A Renaissance beauty  In a small room in Sicily’s Regional Gallery of Art in Palazzo Abatellis on Palermo’s Via Alloro, there is a beautiful 15th century painting by the Sicilian Renaissance artist Antonello da Messina,  the Virgin Annunicate (c. 1476), which focuses on the Virgin when she hears the news of her forthcoming child.

This past week I have been in Polizzi Generosa enjoying the change that early autumn brings:

Midnight silence, storms, roses and ruby red indian figs To arrive near midnight to a beautiful silence; the odd afternoon storm and shower coming in over the mountains; cool nights; mountain drives; the last of the summer roses; the refreshing taste of ripe fico d’India  (the fruit of the prickly pear)