Aithalia, Italia, Italy

(Source: pergiu)

(Source: sparklelovesoates)

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Modica: Salvatore Quasimodo’s house

Everyone stands alone at the heart of the world
pierced by a ray of sunlight,
and suddenly it is evening.

Modica was the birthplace of writer Salvatore Quasimodo, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1959.
Salvatore Quasimodo (August 20, 1901 – June 14, 1968) was an Italian author and poet. In 1959 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature “for his lyrical poetry, which with classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own times”. Along with Giuseppe Ungaretti and Eugenio Montale, he is one of the foremost Italian poets of the 20th century. [x]

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Modica

Modica (Sicilian: Muòrica, Greek: Μότουκα, Latin: Mutyca or Motyca) is a city and comune in the Province of Ragusa, Sicily, southern Italy. The city is situated in the Hyblaean Mountains and, along with Val di Noto, is part of UNESCO Heritage Sites in Italy.
According to Thucydides, the city was founded in 1360 BC or 1031 BC and was inhabited by the Sicels in the 7th century BC.
In 845 AD, Modica was captured by the Arabs who referred to the city as Mudiqah. In 1091 the conquest of Modica and the entire Val di Noto ended the long lasting war of the Normans, led by Roger of Hauteville, against the Arabs.
The most striking event of the modern era was the earthquake of 1693, which destroyed the entire Val di Noto, although to a slightly lesser extent in Modica. Despite being ravaged by earthquakes in 1613 and 1693 and floods in 1833 and 1902, Modica has maintained some of the most beautiful architecture in Sicily, in the Sicilian Baroque style. An extraordinary and unique product is the famous chocolate of Modica, produced with an ancient and original Aztec recipe. [x]

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Scicli

Scicli is a city in the Province of Ragusa in the south east of Sicily, southern Italy. It is 25 kilometres from Ragusa, and 308 kilometres from Palermo. Alongside seven other cities in the Val di Noto, it has been listed as one of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites.
Scicli was founded by the Sicels (whence probably the name) around 300 BCE. In the Middle Ages, like all of Sicily, Scicli was ruled by the Arabs, under whom it lived a flourishing period as agricultural and trade center, and then, after its conquest by Roger I of Hauteville in 1091, by the Normans. Scicli was one of the garrison which rebelled against the Angevine domination in the Sicilian Vespers (April 5, 1282). Following the various dynasties ruling the Kingdom of Sicily, it was an Aragonese-Spanish possession before being united in the Kingdom of Italy in the mid nineteenth century.
Following a catastrophic earthquake in 1693, much of the town was rebuilt in the Sicilian baroque style, which today gives the town the elegant appearance which draws many tourists to visit the city.
The city is also frequently used as a film set, most recently for Marco Bellocchio’s Il regista dei matrimoni and is popular in Italy as the home of Il Commissario Montalbano, the popular television series broadcast by RAI. [x]

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Noto [x]

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Aidone museum - The Goddess of Morgantina

The 5th century BC Greek statue known as the goddess of Morgantina, was unearthed in illegal excavations in Sicily, and after being smuggled into Switzerland and eventually given “legal” status, it was purchased in 1988 by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles for $18 million.  Recognized by archeologists as having come from the ancient site of Morgantina, after a thorough investigation and long negotiations the Getty museum eventually agreed to return the disputed statue to Italy in May of 2011.  Amongst much rejoicing and fanfare, the looted goddess is now housed in the archeology museum in Aidone, a small town set on a lofty hilltop near the ancient city of Morgantina.

The Goddess of Morgantina (often erroneously referred to as Venus) is most likely a figure of Persephone and is carved using the acrolithic technique in which a different material is use for the body and the extremities. In this case the body is carved from a limestone from Ragusa, while the head and extremities are carved from Greek marble. Traces of color suggest that the gown was once painted. Archeologists date it from 400-425 BC, and a likeness of the statue has been found on ancient coins from Morgantina. It is surmised that the statue stood on a pedestal in the center of the city. [x]

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Aidone museum - Tanagra figurines

Aidone is a town and comune in the province of Enna, in region of Sicily in southern Italy. The Regional Archaeological Museum of Aidone contains many archaeological remains from Morgantina, including the famous Goddess of Morgantina. [x]

Morgantina is an archaeological site in east central Sicily, southern Italy. It is sixty kilometres (forty miles) from the coast of the Ionian Sea, in the province of Enna. Morgantina was inhabited in several periods. The earliest major settlement was made at Cittadella and lasted from about 1000/900 to about 450 BCE. Morgantina has been the subject of archaeological investigation since the early 20th century. [x]

The Tanagra figurines were a mold-cast type of Greek terracotta figurines produced from the later fourth century BCE, primarily in the Boeotian town of Tanagra. They were coated with a liquid white slip before firing and were sometimes painted afterwards in naturalistic tints with watercolors, such as the famous “Dame en Bleu” (“Lady in Blue”) at the Louvre. Tanagra figures depict real women — and some men and boys — in everyday costume, with familiar accessories like hats, wreaths or fans. Some character pieces may have represented stock figures from the New Comedy of Menander and other writers. Others continued an earlier tradition of molded terracotta figures used as cult images or votive objects. [x]

landscapepalettes:

Monte Zoccolaro view (by IRON78)

(via nzutin)

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Villa Palagonia, Bagheria, Sicily [x]