To return  Two years have passed since my last stay in Polizzi Generosa and I think of when I will be able to return. For nearly 18 years I have been returning yearly (bar one or two) to stay a while.

To go back is always a good thing.  To use the words of travel writer Peter Jon Lindberg, returning to the same place is 'soul affirming joy' .

Good Friday (Venerdi Santo) is the most solemn day in the Christian Church's calendar and two years ago, when spending some weeks in Polizzi Generosa, I witnessed (for the first time) the sacredness and dignity of Polizzi’s Good Friday evening procession under the Easter full moon.

  The Madonna, robed in black, grieves the death of her Son. The statue of the sorrowful Madonna (Madonna Addolorata -Madonna of Sorrows), leaves from the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie on Via Carlo V and is carried slowly through the softly lit streets of Polizzi on a litter, supported on the shoulders of devoted men, members of one of Polizzi's  confraternities.