WALKING means traveling – going from one place to another. It also means advancing, improving, developing, innovating. The Walking Society is a virtual community open to everyone: to diverse social, cultural, economic and geographic backgrounds. Individually as well as collectively, it champions imagination and energy, bringing useful and positive ideas and solutions to better the world. In a simple and honest way. CAMPER means peasant. The austerity, simplicity and discretion of the rural world combines with Mediterranean history, culture and landscape, all of which influence the brand’s aesthetic and values. Our respect for tradition and for arts and craftsmanship anchors our promise: to offer useful, original and quality products, promoting diversity and with a keen intention of developing and improving them through innovation, technique and aestheticism. We seek a more cultural and human approach to business activity. SICILIA is the largest island in the Mediterranean. Separated from the Italian peninsula by a thin strip of sea - the Strait of Messina - it actually has a distinctive island identity. A bridge between Europe and the world below, Africa and the Middle East, it has always been a hotspot of cultural activity, multi-ethnic relationships and new identities. THE WALKING SOCIETY magazine contains words and images from people and landscapes belonging to this virtual community, who make the world progress and change. Our first issue launched in 2001; its theme was the island of Mallorca, Camper’s native home. The original series, which covered different regions of the Mediterranean, lasted four years and eight issues, ending in 2005. This 10th issue is a tour not only in the biggest island of the Mediterranean, but also in the European identity, which was molded century after century in this area, by the Greeks, the Romans, the Muslim caliphates, the Normans. WALK, DON’T RUN. 3
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Franco is an "axe master": a term that indicates those who, in ancient times, built wooden boats entirely by hand, cutting the trunk into different shapes that will perform different functions as parts of the hull.
Sicilia Between Sicilia’s southernmost coast and Tunisia’s first rocky landfall there are only 140 kilometres. Travelling by car, it would take an hour or so. By sail, it takes longer, but Africa – for Sicilia – has always been just as important a neighbour as Europe. Sicilia is the largest island in the Mediterranean, and without too much effort could easily figure as its imaginary capital. 7
For centuries and centuries, and still today, many people landed here: first came the Phoenicians, from the Middle East, 800 years B.C. Then it was the turn of the Carthaginians, from the coast of North Africa. Later the Greeks, Romans and Byzantines settled in Sicilia. The Muslim occupation began in the eighth century, followed by that of the Normans. Then Sicilia became a kingdom of its own, and finally Italy. No place in Europe has undergone so many cultural stratifications, and on the other hand, no place in Europe is as peculiar as Sicilia, with churches that were once mosques, theatres of Magna Graecia that still host comedies and tragedies, recipes with Middle Eastern echoes and a language with an alphabet that still bears the signs of these dominions. Sicilian time flows hand in hand with the past. That is why religious traditions here are still so picturesque and heartfelt, and why its inhabitants’ 8
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The population in Sicilia is growing: it used to be less than 3 million until 1900, but it has surpassed 5 million in 2010, making it one of the “youngest” regions in Italy.
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Over the centuries, countless peoples have passed through these lands: Greeks and Romans, but also Vandals, Ostrogoths, Byzantines and Muslims, laying the foundations for the island to flourish after the year 1000.
Sicilia, under Islamic rule, enjoyed a long period of prosperity: crop rotation and agricultural innovations were introduced and the cities expanded enormously.
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Diego is the captain of a 24-meter sailing boat. In summer, he sails between Sicilia and the Aeolian Islands, reaching the coast of Liguria. Being at sea, he says, is his favourite pastime.
RECIPES & FESTIVITIES p.50 In Sicilia, every occasion has its own recipe: we have chosen 20 of them.
IGOR SCALISI PALMINTERI p.64 The artist and painter who brings Palermo's walls to life with the island's traditional saints.
relationship with the land and nature, even for those born and raised in the city, is stronger than in many other European regions. It is what always causes cultural, social and political contradictions, but perhaps it is into this wealth that one could dig to create a new identity, not only European, but strongly Mediterranean, able to bring together three continents - Europe, Africa and Asia - in a unique synthesis.
PORTICELLO p.18 The tradition of Sicilian fishing as seen from a fishing village near Palermo.
FABRIZIA LANZA p.38 A cooking school at the heart of the island, established to preserve and articulate Sicilian cuisine.
Even the island’s very particular geography shapes the Sicilian character: if the sea figures as a pivotal element throughout its history, both as an opportunity and as a weak point, as a union and as a border, and the fish markets are still among the most colorful on the Continent, Sicilia also has a landbound soul that is closely linked to the mountains and hinterland. It is a territory of numerous and sometimes very high hills and mountains, and even from the centre of the 13
MONCADA RANGEL p.118 A couple of architects who chose Syracuse as their point of arrival and departure. SICILIAN ANIMALS p.100 Animal species that live only here, illustrated by Michele Papetti. ANCIENT GREEK THEATERS p.84 The history of Sicilia seen in the Greek theatres built thousands of years ago, and still in use today.
ALESSANDRO VIOLA p.90 In western Sicilia, a natural wine producer wants to enhance the territory.
island, on the clearest days one can see the profile of Etna. Standing at almost 3400 metres on the north-eastern horizon, Etna is the highest active volcano in Europe and is nearly always covered with snow during the winter. Mountains cover a quarter of the Sicilian territory, much more than the plains, although not as much as the hills on which hectares and hectares of wheat are cultivated, covering the island with a golden cloak every summer. In the space of a triangle of land, an entire continent is contained.
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Food is a fundamental part of the Sicilian life, and every city has their districts used for markets: in Palermo alone there are four, all of them historical. Vucciria, Capo, Borgo Vecchio and Ballarò.
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You always start from the sea: this is where you come from, and from here - as the code that binds the destiny of every island states you will sail again. Unlike other Mediterranean islands such as Sardinia or Corsica, whose cultures are more closely connected to the traditions of the hinterland and mountains than to those of the sea, in Sicilia fishing has always been, and still is, a fundamental pillar
Porticello of the island's economy. In fact, no region in Italy has a fishing fleet as large as Sicilia’s, both in terms of the number of vessels and their total capacity. Leaving Palermo and heading eastwards, after a short while you come across one of the numerous headlands of the island's northern coast: Capo Zafferano, a small promontory that stretches over turquoise 18
Fishing in Sicilia is a fundamental pillar of the economy: in no other Italian region is it of similar importance.
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Sicilia is the first region in Italy for the quantity of fish caught, the size of the fleet, and the number of fishermen employed.
Perhaps the most famous product, widespread around Messina, is swordfish: it is the star of many typical recipes of the island, from pasta to fish steaks.
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Sicilian fishing is extremely diverse: the most common species fished is anchovy, but sardines, mullet, swordfish, albacore, bluefin tuna and hake are also abundant.
waters. A few steps from here, for centuries and up until 1961, there was an old tuna fishery, whose activity resulted in the area becoming inhabited and the establishment of new villages. One of these is Porticello: a village of fishermen and boat builders, born and raised in symbiosis with the sea. In the morning the bay lies silent, while in Franco's workshop the construction of a new gozzo of over seven meters is almost finished, and the croaking sounds of saws and planes at work on the wood mix with the calls of seagulls not far away. Building a boat like this entails about three months' work. They are increasingly rare vessels, which suffer from the competition offered by materials such as fibreglass. Hence, today craftsmen work mostly on repairs. The advantages of a wooden boat, however, are obvious, says Franco: the boat is heavy, and therefore stable. And of course, it has a long life: with the right maintenance, it can last almost a century. 25
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This typically Sicilian fishing boat is called a "paranza": it drops a sack-shaped net and then moves at low speed, allowing the "mouth" of the net to catch small fish.
Fishermen here still follow certain ancient traditions: for example, they decorate the bow of the boat with two eyes, in order to ward off the dangers of navigating the sea.
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People start coming in after lunch, around 3pm. That's the time when the paranze, which had gone out to sea exactly twelve hours before, three hours after midnight, return to port. In Sicilia, a paranza (trawler), is a particular type of fishing net, traditional in these parts: it is made like a sack and literally “swallows” fish, molluscs and crustaceans while the boat sails at cruising speed for a few hours. The fishermen are still wearing the blue and orange waxed suits that make them look like superheroes of some kind as they prepare boxes of the freshly caught fish to sell directly on the pier. Buyers arrive by car, on foot or motorbike. There's cod, white shrimp, scads, forkbeards and even some squid. Here, the mountains rise vertically just behind the coast, and the sun hides behind them in the mid-afternoon.
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Leaving the port and driving inland, the countryside begins at once, and without any shyness: it seems, indeed, that she had been here all along, and that there was nothing but her. From here and towards the hinterland, the territory is hilly, with some mountain ranges exceeding 1500 meters above sea level. Driving towards the heart of the island, in the direction of Caltanissetta, the sea is replaced by the waves of the hills. One approaches another Sicilia, complementary to the previously described coastal region: the Sicilia of the earth, of cheese, of bread. Of rural traditions, pastoralism, and cold winters.
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FABRIZIA LANZA
Leaving the sea behind us and moving eastwards, we approach the heart of Sicilia, the lesser known one. Here, between Palermo and Caltanissetta, the hills seem to be covered with different types of velvet. It is the wheat which covers miles and miles of land, growing surely, despite the sun that can at times burn. This is countryside, but it is also mountainous: at the side of the road brambles grow, and then olive trees, and thistles, and 38
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even conifers. Here, on top of a hill, there is also the cooking school run by Fabrizia Lanza. Located in a grain-coloured building with blue shutters reminiscent of Provence, the school was founded in 1989 by Anna Tasca Lanza, Fabrizia's mother, but the roots of the family have grown into this land for generations.
We are far from the sea, but one can’t avoid noticing how much grain surrounds this cooking school – it is literally immersed in a golden sea. We are right in the center of Sicilia, more or less equidistant from Palermo and Catania. Since ancient times, this territory has been the land of the latifondo. The term "Latifondo" refers to huge plots of land owned by a single owner. It is also relevant from a landscape perspective: around here there are no houses, no trees, only huge expanses of land planted with wheat. Wheat in Sicilia is a fairly easy crop to cultivate, so to speak, if you have many people in your employ: you sow it once, you harvest it once, and it does not require much attention as there is no need to prune, to water, and so on. Therefore, as the main cereal crop, it has always prevailed here. Moreover, grain has always been worthwhile. And so, this territory is made up of many large farms like this one, presided over by manor houses
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that are very functional. We are not in a Palladian villa in the Veneto, where beauty is unavoidable. These are forts: in the evening the door closes, and whoever is inside stays inside, whoever is outside stays outside. What is your relationship between your international vocation - the students are almost all North Americans - and this territory? For me it has always been a joy and a worry at the same time. There is no doubt that I have made our content a little easier for foreigners, but I've always wondered what, of this outward-looking operation, remained here. I think that the standards and nature of the school, from every point of view – including that of hospitality, of food and its research, of ingredient quality and attention to farming practices –, are a transfusion of know-how, of care that the locals have also felt. Thus, we have undoubtedly defined
"The definition of tradition is very restrictive to me. I don't think there is a real tradition. Cooking for me is simply a relationship. It is the construction of an emotional, diplomatic and even political path through a means. All I look for, and look at, is an anthropological path. Recipes are boring".
a pattern, a modus operandi, for the territory. For example: we make tomato extract in the summer, which is a wonderful practice. At a certain point, during one of my many attempts, I decided to sell the extract because it is a fantastic product, and nobody knows it. But I am not a good saleswoman, and I realized that it wasn't my way. Hence, I preferred to maintain the practice and sell it in the form of an experience and as a workshop for foreign students. In this way I achieved two things: first, I contributed to an increasingly concrete model of participatory tourism, in which people do not come here to passively receive information, but are part of the safekeeping of an intangible heritage, which I care about very much. Secondly, that the Sicilian girls from the area, from Vallelunga and Valledolmo, who have always done these seasonal tasks with me, seeing the interest and the light in the eyes of foreigners, have revalued this practice themselves. In
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a way, I have retrained a practice that they take for granted here, an action that they undervalued. That was my main goal. Did you have to rediscover your Sicilian roots, or have you always felt them? No, my roots have always been here, let's just say that - as it always happens with strong places and strong bonds - in order to break away you have to use a certain violence. I left when I was 18, and when I came back, everything I'd lived here came back to me, hitting me like an avalanche. Then I also realized the violence of the rift I had to make. When did the call of Sicilia reach you? I was working as an art historian; my mother oversaw the school. I came back here in 2000, and from the fairly amateurish venture that my mother had put together, tried to transform
it into a more structured project. The school is now open all year round and divides its focus between hospitality and training. Open to a maximum of 14 participants, who come from all over the world, this specific course is called Cook the Farm and runs for two months, Monday to Friday, 9am to 4pm. The curriculum is fairly rigorous and focuses on the relationship between cooking and agriculture. We work through each topic, always keeping the theme of agriculture and production as our main focus: the land, the mills, how grain is transformed... Then you work in the kitchen. You can't just talk about food from a desk. The goal is to create real awareness. The cuisine you teach is, on the one hand, preservation and conservation of the past, but can you also project it into the future? To me, cooking is a relationship. The definition of tradition is very restrictive to me. I don't think there is a real tradition: sure, my mother did things I liked, but when I do them, they will inevitably be different. And they'll differ in relation to the guests I make them for. Cooking for me is simply a relationship. It is the construction of an emotional, diplomatic and even political path through a means. All I look for, and look at, is an anthropological path. Recipes are boring.
who was involved in my wedding, who worked with my grandparents for decades. It was the recipe book of "monsù" cuisine, which derives from "monsieur". This cuisine mirrors a fantastic cultural hotpot, combining French cuisine with Sicilian eccentricity. We tested it, and to our surprise most of the recipes tasted wonderful. A kind of conservation, that stays dynamic. That is why I also founded an NGO dedicated to food research: it is called the Food Heritage Association and was started in 2019. I want it to be a food laboratory, to create a system for Sicilian and Mediterranean food culture, and then promote it and take it around the world. By studying food and studying nature, how much more can you learn? Everything: you learn the gestures, you learn the rhythms, you learn the seasons... I live in a very agricultural context, I have learned everything about what the land produces, how it is transformed, everything that comes before food. And then of course there is the psychology, the affections, the things you need the most, but also the things you can do without.
It could be a tool to update the past and help it evolve into the present. For example, not long ago we found the recipe book of the chef who lived with our family for many years,
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If you set yourself goals, or dreams, what do you see on the horizon? Lately, I would like to have more of a political voice, because it's only there that you can make a change. Of course, I say it quietly, because it scares me. I'm taking it very easy because this is very difficult territory, and I know I must not get ahead of myself. Are you worried about what you're leaving too? I'm relatively unphased by that. I wish certain things would change. During the lockdown, the thing that worried me the most was the thought that we could go back to doing things exactly as we did before. People have strayed far from politics for many reasons, but politics is important in democratic life, not an accessory. Let’s say that if I – someone who has always minded my own business and has never been involved in politics – were given the opportunity, and if conditions allowed, would like to have my say and try to change things a bit. From a grassroots level, starting with commitment.
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Recipes & Festivities
We have seen how important food is in Sicilian daily life: while its production indicates the seasons, its processing and consumption represent cardinal moments of the day. But it is also a central element of the island’s deep spirituality. 50
Minne di Sant'Agata
Virgineddi di Torretta
Pignoccata
Cassata
3rd – 5th February Saint Agatha Catania
19th March Saint Joseph Torretta
Carnival period Modica
Easter period Across Sicilia
Sfincia
Panareddu
19 March Saint Joseph Palermo th
Easter period Across Sicilia
The strong identity of different locations in Sicilia, together with the religious festivals that have marked the life of these towns for centuries, give rise to a sort of gastronomic calendar: there is a special recipe for practically every celebration, specifically cooked for the occasion. 53
Turciniuna Ragusani
Babbaluci
Pastieri Modicani
Iado co cinu
Nzuddi
Frutta di Martorana
Easter period Ragusa
Easter period Modica
3rd June Messina
Pane di San Calogero 1st week of July Agrigento
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15th July Saint Rosalia Palermo
29th August Ragusa
2nd November Palermo
Ossi di Morto 2nd November Across Sicilia
Muffulette di San Martino
Sfuogghiu Ragusano
Cuccìa
Giurgiulena
Liatina
Buccellato
11th November Across Sicilia
13th December Palermo, Siracusa
25 December Across Sicilia th
25th December Ragusa
25th December Across Sicilia
25th December Palermo
On St Joseph's Day, 19th March, Salemi has a tradition of creating sculptures made of real bread. Usually, these represent symbols of the Christian tradition, but they leave ample space for propitiatory pagan imagery: roosters and peacocks, flowered sticks, roses, and lilies. 57
Sicilia is Europe’s sunniest region: in no other area of the continent does the sun shine, on average, for so long every day, from the coast to the hinterland.
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In Sicilia, the veneration for the city's patron saints is also something that transcends religion, becoming a secular tradition, a form of symbolism, an ethos. In particular, there are three saints which are the most famous among the natives: Saint Rosalia, who was a native of Palermo; Saint Agata, of Catania; and Saint Lucia, of Syracuse. There is however another Sicilian saint whose very particular story sums itself up the multicultural history of Sicilia particularly well: Saint Benedict "The Moor". Born in Messina, at the easternmost tip of the island, to a family of slaves from Africa who probably came from Ethiopia, during his lifetime, he formed a bond with the city of Palermo, where he lived as a monk for twenty years. Today he is the patron saint of the city, in cohabitation with Saint Rosalia. His portrait, several meters high, watches over a football field in Ballarò, located in the historic heart of the city. It was painted by the artist and painter, and former Franciscan monk, Igor Scalisi Palminteri. 63
Igor Scalisi Palminteri is painting a wall in the Albergheria – one of Palermo’s oldest neighborhood, just a few steps from the market of Ballarò – with the image of Saint Rosalia as she lies, ecstatic, surrounded by lilies. Igor is an artist, a painter who often works on the walls of Palermo.
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And it is to Palermo, and in particular to Albergheria, that he returned after an unusual life, one that is not often encountered: he spent seven years as a friar in a monastery, before leaving to come back here, to devote himself to painting and raise the son he wanted. Today his commitment is divided between spirituality and his work with children: he paints the walls of Palermo, but also organizes art workshops with the city's schools. For Igor it is always art, and they are always saints: saints that differ from the unattainable saints of dogma. They are street saints, useful saints, metaphoric saints. You have painted saints all over Palermo, saints who look from the walls onto the squares where children play, onto the streets where cars, people and life pass by. Yours is a very particular kind of street art. I prefer to call them muri di strada (street walls): it's a term I coined a few years ago, during a project in which, together with other artists from Palermo, we painted five walls of the Ballarò neighborhood. Moreover, I'm more attached to the tradition of the canvas, of a surface that has a limit. This kind of painting,
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which as an artist you offer to people's eyes, is always a gamble. They are paintings that define the identity of a neighborhood, like this Saint Rosalia. Do they also have a community function? Always. This wall was born from a desire: to paint Saint Rosalia here so that they stop throwing rubbish in front of it. And local people wanted it. There is this love for one's own land starting from one's own neighborhood, indeed from one's own sidewalk.
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For you, your link with spirituality comes from afar. What did you have in mind when you entered the monastery, and what was left in your hands when you left? Everything stayed in my hands. My pictorial research is imbued with the spiritual quest that I experienced in the seven years between the age of 20 and 27. Often people define my painting as hovering between the sacred and the profane, but for me this is entirely wrong. My painting is spiritual: it tells of my spirit, of the people's spirit, of the sacred spirit that is in this world. Of the desire to abstract oneself from matter or contingency, while continuing to rest one's feet in the mud. When I entered the monastery, I had fallen in love with Saint Francis, just as one falls in love with a girl, or a boy. I fell in love with Saint Francis in the sense that I had a crush on him. The thing I was most passionate about was not poverty, the thing for which he is most famous, but the sense of fraternity that he had created with his brothers. The revolutionary
power of Saint Francis is not only his communion with creatures, that is a force found in many other saints and also in the non-religious world. Saint Francis did not only speak to birds: he spoke to people. He had this fire inside him, this idea that we could do things together. That made me fall in love and landed me with the friars. Once you left, what were your next steps? The transition was simple: I left because I wanted a child. I continued to work with children, just as I had as a friar and even before that: I started volunteering at the age of 15 in the Zisa district, one of the most depressed areas of the city, in the working-class neighbourhood of Danisinni, where there are also a couple of my paintings. Was leaving the convent a hard ride? Very hard. You feel like a failure, it’s like a separation. But today I feel I have found my place. I started working on the streets again, with
"My pictorial research is imbued with the spiritual quest that I experienced in the seven years between the age of 20 and 27. It tells of my spirit, of the people's spirit, of the sacred spirit that is in this world. Of the desire to abstract oneself from matter or contingency, while continuing to rest one's feet in the mud". 70
minors at risk of social exclusion, with the juvenile prison of Palermo. It is as if somehow, I was attracted by my inner child, who is suffering and continues to suffer, who needs to be consoled, cared for. Since your return, have the streets of Palermo changed? Instinctively I would say they have changed little, but it’s not true. Palermo has taken amazing, albeit slow steps. Palermo is slow, it's like a big turtle. And just like a turtle, it has a solid house on its shoulders, but it is slow moving. In the many years that I have lived in Palermo – before I left to become a friar and following my return – I have watched the city transform. On my part, I feel involved in this change, and today even more so as I paint the streets, as I participate in the slow process of transformation. Palermo has improved, Palermo is more beautiful, it is healthier. But at the same time Palermo needs more care, more attention. More care for the streets, the places, and even more care for its citizens. Palermo has always been a multicultural city. How does your identity change in this sense too? The children living in this neighborhood attend a middle school on Via Maqueda, one of the main axes of the city. Three years ago, I did a workshop at this school with the 7th grade class. There were only three girls from Palermo, all the other students came from all over the world. Of course, this means that the social balance is often precarious:
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integration is always difficult, a struggle. But the fact that Palermo is a port, a city on the edge and yet at the centre of the Mediterranean, somehow forces our hand. And in the balance the fortune of Palermo is that we know how to deal with people from different origins and cultures. As the children of Normans, Arabs, Africans, the French, the Spanish, we too are painted with many colors. Where are the boundaries of your work, between your commitment to children and your personal art? Until five years ago I thought I had two jobs: one related to my paintings, which I painted and sold, and then the work in associations, in the field, which was my passion. I kept them a little compartmentalized. Today this boundary has broken down: if I paint a wall with children or paint it by myself, I give it the same value and the same importance, I put the same effort into it. And I feel it is just as much as mine as when I paint a canvas in my studio. This has been a period of maturation for me, a very positive step. I owe it to the children. It's not rhetoric. The boys and girls I have worked with have unconsciously given me a greater understanding of my identity as a man, an artist and a painter. They have freed me from the need that I had to satisfy someone or something. Their spontaneity, in painting, in their approach to life, has freed me from performance anxiety. Saints are the protagonists of many of your paintings. Do you paint them as people or symbols?
"Palermo has taken amazing, albeit slow steps. Palermo is slow, it's like a big turtle. And just like a turtle, it has a solid house on its shoulders, but it is slow moving. In the many years that I have lived in Palermo – before I left to become a friar and following my return – I have watched the city transform".
My paintings are not religious, they are political. Unconsciously, I was also blasphemous once. I made a series of figurines that depicted saints dressed as superheroes. I sold them everywhere, in Latin America, Portugal, Brazil, the United States... They were saints of the Catholic tradition, which I found in the markets and then simply put them in disguise. Saint Rosalia was Wonder Woman, Saint Anthony was Batman, Jesus was Spiderman... Because at some point in our culture the saint became a bit like a superhero who solves problems for you. It is as if one can insert a token in and delegate to him or her, and you do nothing. I didn't mean to be rude or blasphemous, but rather to provoke believers. My friends from the monastery called me and asked, “But why do you treat the Lord this way?” This subtext is sometimes incomprehensible even if you paint a picture in the street.
When you think about your identity and your roots, what do you see? What I feel deep is this natural sense bonded to religion. Then if I dig deep inside myself, do you know what I find? My relatives who left for America. This idea of travel. But in your journey, in the end, you chose to land in Palermo. What ties you to this city? On my mother's side, I come from a seaside village near Palermo called Terrasini. But I lived almost all of my life in Palermo, until I entered the monastery. I went back to Terrasini, but in the end, Palermo called me back. So I chose Palermo, I chose to stay.
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A few meters from here, as happens every morning, the market of Ballarò is getting ready for the day. It is a market that takes its time, and the stands only begin to be set up after 9 am. The sun is already warming the cobblestones, which are called balate and will soon be wet, almost flooded, by the water that traders constantly sprinkle over the vegetables and fish on sale. The zucchini here can be over a meter long. The heads of broccoli are bigger than a football. Then you find stands of dried fruit, dried tomatoes and canned capers, elbow to elbow with those managed by others who display large sacks of rice, baskets of garlic, coconuts and papayas. Some traders are more famous than others: the one exhibiting a mountain made of kilos and kilos of green cauliflowers has a sign naming himself the vegetable specialist: u vruccularu.
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Ballarò is the heart of the Albergheria, one of four historical districts that make up the center of Palermo. It is the oldest part of the city and houses the Royal Palace, or Palace of the Normans, alongside more modern buildings that struggle to hide the signs of age. Together with two of the cities’ other markets - Vuccirìa and Capo - it was once part of a single metropolitan area: the medina, still typical of Middle Eastern cities. The name Ballarò comes from Arabic: it derives from Bahlara, a village only a few kilometers away, from which – during the Arab domination –, came the merchants who traveled here to trade. Just a few meters inland, the church of San Giovanni degli Eremiti (St. John of the Hermits) is a symbol of Sicilia's complex history: inspired by the Islamic architecture of the Maghreb, its five red domes date back to the 11th century and would not be outshone in the once-precious landscapes of Baghdad or Damascus. 83
Ancient
Theaters
There are eight Greek era theaters still in use in Sicilia, scattered throughout the island: from the province of Messina in the northernmost part, to Agrigento immersed in the Mediterranean, the western coast, in the province of Trapani, and the centre of the island, in the province of Enna. However, there are many more that are no longer used as theatres, but still open to visits.
Greek The Romans, who followed the Greeks, also left the island several theaters, albeit fewer. The theater of Taormina, among these, is unique: it is of Hellenistic origin, but was then "restored" by the Romans, who added several elements that are still of fundamental importance today. During the last years of the empire, it was transformed from a theater into an arena, and dramatic performances were replaced by those with beasts and gladiators.
The Greek colonization of Sicilia lasted several centuries: although some recognizable architectural traces remain today – especially temples and theaters – the first travelers arrived over 2500 years ago, and the occupation continued until about 300 years B.C. Of course, being closer to Greece and more easily accessible (in addition to the Calabrian coast overlooking the Ionian Sea), the most densely inhabited area was the island’s eastern part: stretching from Messina to Catania, and then further south towards Syracuse, and Gela, Agrigento and Selinunte further to the west. Of that domination, the theaters are the most evident vestige, and if some remain only in the form of majestic ruins, standing as white stones washed by the sun and surrounded by grass, thousands of years after their construction, many others continue to perform their original function, hosting classical performances, and concerts in the spring and summer months.
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The road to Alessandro Viola's vineyards climbs upwards, from the sea of Alcamo, and it seems that you go up without stopping, curve after curve, and then turn
ALESSANDRO VIOLA one last time and go down some hairpin bends. At a certain point, the vision: the green valley, covered with vineyards, like a funnel of light that opens up onto the sea. Some small houses – in one of 91
these, Alessandro is waiting with a bottle of Catarratto ready – and an exciting silence. His wines are among the most famous natural Sicilian wines and reach the shelves of the best North American and Japanese wine shops. He, with his long, grizzled hair, is silent and focused. He’s looking at this new land he just bought. Small wildflowers bloom under the young vines.
Behind us is Mount Bonifato, in front of the Gulf of Castellammare. Here, wine is an ancient tradition. In Sicilia many people cultivated the vineyards, but no one then bottled the wine. It was sold to the so-called "brokers", who bought it in bulk. Apart from a couple of big historical wine cellars, this is how it was done in Sicilia. Wine is a family matter for you. Is that what you used to do? Yes, starting with my grandfather, who was born in 1900. When I was a child, I still made wine using the old artisan methods: with the press and the mule. It was the 1980s: I was practically born in the vineyards. My brother and I grew up like this: helping our father grow vines.
This corner of Sicilia, between Palermo and Trapani, which is both sea and mountains, has unique characteristics. The "Denominazione di origine controllata" (DOC, controlled designation of origin) of the territory of Alcamo is one of the oldest in the whole of Sicilia. It's not too hot, and it's perfect for fresh, fine wines, which are the ones I love the most. My father's company, on the other hand, was more inland, an area with clayey, very hard soil. There you could have wines of great thickness, great structure. Yet your wine is special: almost personal, with unique characteristics. It was the '90s, and I decided to start making my own wine in the garage
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at home. I read some manuals, and I liked it, I got passionate about it. Also because it seemed to me that growing grapes but not making wine was a bit like... having a child and never seeing them, not knowing what happens to them. So it was a job stripped of meaning: you play a part in making wine, but you don't know what wine will come out of it. It wasn't very stimulating, because rural work is hard work. Later I decided to enroll in university, to learn more. You took the path to viticulture. I enrolled late, at 28. I studied Viticulture and Oenology in Marsala. After I graduated, I went to work for a famous oenologist in Piedmont, after which I was hired by a large winery on Etna. But I worked in large, industrial wineries, therefore with wine made with industrial standards. But I was never passionate about that kind of wine, and between me and myself I thought that the wine I made in my garage was better than the one I made in that industrial winery. So I quit my job and started making my own wine, following my own ideas. It was 1999: that year I produced my first 1000 artisanal bottles. Meanwhile, your brother followed the same path. Since we started selling it, Aldo and I have never made wine together. In the garage we dabbled in making it together, then I studied oenology and he enrolled in university later. Anyway, he made his own wine, and I made mine, just like we wanted to drink it. We took different paths in a very natural way: everyone wants
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to make the wine they would like to drink and mediating with another person would have risked us losing interest. This is another reason why we are on excellent terms! When was your label born? In 2000. We used to be called "Uva Tantum". I used to make wine with a friend. Then this friend couldn't follow the project, so I went on alone, and being a one-man company, I gave it my name. At that time, I bought grapes from other producers, because here many make grapes, but few make wine. I wanted to study the territories, the different characteristics... I wanted to understand the differences between a Catarratto cultivated in one area and one cultivated in another, the potential, and the differences of the territory. It's a quest that continues to this day. And in fact, in recent years, I have bought the land in this area, around Mount Bonifato, because in my opinion there are very special conditions. What do you think is the birth of a wine? In the end, I try to make the wine I want to drink. I imagine it, I dream about it. And then I try to make that dream come true. What happens, though, if the wine you produce is different from what you dreamed of? Actually, the process is a little bit the opposite: the idea of this wine does not come from pure fantasy, but from the flavours you taste from
"In recent years, agriculture has not been focused on obtaining quality wine here. So no one knows the true potential of this territory yet. It's very stimulating: here I can discover, invent, I can be a sort of pioneer. I think the potential here is very high and totally unexpressed: the most beautiful there can be".
the grapes. So, you taste grapes, and from that taste you can imagine the best matching wine you can get. Yes, fantasy and invention have their role, but you must start from the message that the unique ingredient, the grapes, gives you. So, the trick is figuring out what talent grapes can have. You must identify the potential of the grape, and then be good at guiding it to express itself in the right direction. There is a phrase by Albert Einstein that guides me: it says that everything you can imagine nature has already created. So, if you imagine a wine, it's because you've tasted grapes with those flavours. Has going back to Sicilia ever been in question? No, never. For one simple reason: because I think this is the most stimulating place to make wine. In recent years, agriculture has not been
focused on obtaining quality wine here. So no one knows the true potential of this territory yet. It's very stimulating: here I can discover, invent, I can be a sort of pioneer. I think the potential here is very high and totally unexpressed: the most beautiful there can be. Is Sicilia, in recent years, opening up to the world? I think so. Also because there is no alternative: today, in the field of wine, either multinationals or unique and well-defined niches survive. If you're an entrepreneur, the middle ground doesn't have much future. So if you're small, you have to do something that the big one can't: pay meticulous attention to it, and also take more risks in winemaking. For example, I don't add sulphites, I make natural wine.
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The world is paying a lot of attention to natural wine. As a winemaker, how do you live through this new wave? When I started making wine, I started making it natural. Because when I dabbled in making my wine in the garage, I had neither knowledge nor substances to add, nor particularly invasive technology. But I had known those flavors, and in fact when I then came up against the technological way of making wine, I was dissatisfied. Probably because I had been conquered by those real flavors, which reminded me of the time when I was passionate about winemaking. What I think is simple: wine has existed for thousands of years, and so have grapes... It's as if someone had put it on this Earth for humanity to discover: you just push a bunch of grapes and you get must, and if you don't do anything for a while it becomes wine. It almost looks like a signal put there by some gods. Over the centuries, then, several greats of the past have written that this drink was something mystical, magical, the nectar of the gods. Obviously, in those days, there was only natural wine. And that's the wine for me.
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Is the natural wine here to stay? Yes: in the future I think there will be more and more natural wines properly made. Then, on a step below, there will be the natural wines less well made, and then the manipulated wines. But I think that the great wines of the most renowned areas are already natural enough. Well-made industrial wines, after all, are not 100% original. The original is natural wine: 50 years of industrialization cannot change the previous millennia.
Sicilian
Animals
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An ancient breed, it is thought to be the result of a crossbreeding between Sicilian chickens and others from North Africa. While the hens are great egg producers, the roosters can be recognized by their distinctive crown-shaped crest.
A black pig, whose existence can be traced back to Greek domination, it is bred in north-eastern Sicilia around the Nebrodi Mountains, usually in the wild, and compared to other pigs, is small in size.
The "Ragusano" donkey is a breed recognised in 1953, particularly associated with the comuni of Modica, Ragusa, Santa Croce Camerina and Scicli, in southern Sicilia. It was also unfortunately listed as endangered by the FAO in 2007.
The "Cinisara" cow is very large, and completely black. It can graze even the most impervious terrain and is usually raised in the wild. Once endangered, today there are more than 3,000 of these animals.
Cinisara Cattle
The Sicilian Chicken
Black Wild Boars of Nebrodi
Ragusano Donkey
It is thought that this particular breed of dog may have originated, thousands of years ago, in the Egypt of the Pharaohs, and then came to Sicilia on the ships of the Phoenicians. They are elegant, yet robust hunting hounds.
Immediately recognizable by its long, twisted horns, that carve out a spiral shape. It arrived on the island around the year 800, together with the Arabs: its appearance in fact recalls some typical Asian races.
One of the few horse breeds still living in the wild, Sanfrattellano horses are thought to have arrived in Sicilia around the year 1000, perhaps with the Arabs. They live mainly in the territory of San Fratello, in the Nebrodi Mountains.
Cirneco dell’Etna
Girgentana Goats
Sanfratellano Horses
To get to Syracuse, one crosses the island from coast to coast, driving through its landscapes – each so different from the next – as if moving from scene to scene in the plot of a movie. As one heads south, as soon as the view and then the feeling of the sea disappear, the mountains rise. We approach the Parco delle Madonie, which from a distance appears shrouded, as if by a fringe in low clouds. The road is surrounded by eucalyptus trees. The hairpin bends climb some of the highest peaks in Italy. Paradoxically, the Mediterranean is not that far away, yet the temperature drops dramatically, meter by meter. Signs on the road announce the presence of wild boar. The sky seems closer.
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Tobia has founded a small company with which he works ancient grains to produce flour and pasta, including ancient and native Sicilian varieties.
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The Porto di Terra cultural association deals with permaculture and agroecology. The founders come from Sicilia, but also from other parts of Europe, and host workshops and festivals that are open to the public.
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Federico, one of the founders of the association, has lived in Australia, Thailand, India, and Nepal. He learned permaculture techniques that he then brought back to Sicilia, his native region.
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We make a stop: a group of young men and women have chosen to live here, renovating an old house in a valley full of hazel trees. They have hundreds of square metres of vegetable gardens and fruit orchards, and the historic olive trees from which they produce their oil are a natural heritage planted as long as 500 years ago. And then there are the animals: dogs, cats, mules, roosters and chickens. Once past these peaks, we start to descend again. First to Enna, at the heart of the island, and then to Catania, further East. From here, we head down to Greek Sicilia, which opens onto the sea, facing Africa and Asia Minor. And again, there are the colors and scents of departure to bring us full circle.
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MONCADA RANGEL
From Syracuse, in the easternmost and southernmost part of Sicilia, one could look straight ahead, without obstacles if not the sea and the curvature of the Earth, towards Cairo, the Nile Delta, even Jerusalem. The centre of the city, on the other hand, is a real island: it is called Ortigia, suspended in the sea but clinging to the mainland, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005. 118
Here Francesco Moncada and Mafalda Rangel founded their architecture studio, open to the Mediterranean just like their research. He is Sicilian, she is Portuguese: together they want to enhance this periphery of continental Europe, that has been, at the same time, the center of Mediterranean culture for centuries. Moncada Rangel: already by name, it has all the traits of an international studio, which has been around Europe and beyond, before choosing to return and settle here. What’s the story? Francesco: I'm from here: I was born in Syracuse, I studied in Palermo, but as a boy I wanted to leave. Before graduating I went first to Spain, where I studied and worked, and then since 2001 I travelled around the world: London, Oslo, Portugal, Dubai. We met in Portugal. Then we were together for a long time in Rotterdam, where we both worked for a big firm, OMA, and we got married and had children. And then from there, both for personal and professional reasons, we decided to go back south. We were a little tired of the formality of the northern countries and we wanted a slightly slower, more informal life. Mafalda: In truth, there are not so many differences between Portugal and Sicilia, because there are many
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fundamental values in common. Between Porto and Sicilia we chose Sicilia because it was a less explored place, where we could have contributed more. More like a tabula rasa, in terms of design, contemporary architecture and creativity. Porto, on the other hand, is already a very rich city on a creative level. What is the lowest common denominator of Mediterranean architecture? F: Surely light is important, because it changes things, it changes the space. And in the Mediterranean space it has a predominant importance because there is a very strong light, which creates a lot of shadows and a lot of contrast. But also the food: the products of the earth, in the Mediterranean Basin, are very similar. M: When you go to North Africa you don´t see difference between there and this part of Europe: it's the sea that brings them together.
Ortigia and Syracuse have been UNESCO World Heritage Sites for several years now: there has often been talk of the risk of "musealization" associated with these recognitions. Is this a subject you've been working on? F: Authenticity is very important to us, but unfortunately it is difficult to preserve, because "musealization" is always a risk. One of the themes on which we reflect a lot, and on which we have also started to work, is the fact that often the themes of "preservation", and therefore also everything UNESCO does, focus much more on the image than on the real substance. Syracuse, at the time of the Greeks, was an enormous and very rich city: today it is smaller than it was back then, and this simple experience shows how much cities can be alive, capable of expanding but also of shrinking. F: Yes, it is a very rare fact that a city is larger in antiquity than it is in modern times. Usually cities either disappear, or hardly ever remain. Syracuse, on the other hand, has remained, and has grown stratified. Politicians and preservation organizations often look much more at the outward appearance than at social dynamics. But the active nature of places, their evolution, should be something to be preserved: their tendency to be always modern. How was it to adapt to Sicilia? M: We went through several periods: the first was observation. Look
around, to fit in. Our strategy is always interaction with the territory. We're not here to be strangers with no connection to the territory. So, we tried to interact with the territory at different levels, even with the school, at several degrees: workers, materials research, projects. Sicilia is a very stratified island. It is multicultural, with different stories, different types of people, and it is the centre of what is happening in the Mediterranean with the new migratory phenomena. So, it is a fertile territory to develop contemporary thinking, and to act on contemporary reality. We hope to do so also through education, in addition to our architectural studio. F: When I was a child, I was always amazed by the fact that Sicilia was always at the center of all the world maps. But it's a real thing, and it feels real. Starting from plants coming from all over the world to the many influences that can be found on this island. Can the Mediterranean be the centre of an artistic and cultural "renaissance"? M: Of course: one of the themes that we have most developed with the students of our "Made Program" courses is linked to the territory: starting from the stimuli and materials of the island and reviewing them with contemporary eyes. F: One student, for example, did a project on mussel scraps: we often think it is organic waste, but it is not, and it is thrown into the sea, but too much waste is bad for the sea. So, she reinvented a kind of reuse of these
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Left: CRCLR S/S 2021 Right: Pelotas Ariel
"We’re not here to be strangers with no connection to the territory. So, we tried to interact with the territory at different levels, even with the school, at several degrees: workers, materials research, projects. Sicilia is a very stratified island. It is multicultural, with different stories, different types of people". scraps to make building materials. Because the shell of mussels is actually calcium carbonate. Or another student has created a kind of bio-skin from carob. Others have researched some gestures that could be lost: a student wrote a dissertation on the gestures of how bread is made, a sort of dictionary of baking through the gestures of the hands, inspired by Bruno Munari. Mafalda comes from Portugal, Francesco from Sicilia: but is Portuguese culture a Mediterranean culture? M: That’s a good question. For me it is a mixture of Mediterranean culture and Nordic, Atlantic influences. The multicultural base, however, is an aspect in common with Sicilia. F: The influence of the sea is there, the Atlantic, with its connections from Norway to France, and also a close link with North Africa and South America.
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Every summer the "Made Program" school turns into summer workshops for international students: Made Labs. In summer 2020 they could not be held, but the theme "Scarcity" was extremely contemporary. M: Yeah, it was perfect. And it has several reflections: political, economic, architectural. It was an invitation to designers and creative people to look at the autonomous possibilities of the Sicilian territory. F: Scarcity of resources is a key issue, not only for architects and designers, but for everyone. And it should be the centre of everyone's attention. Another interesting project of yours is called "Piedi Liberi. Tactical Urbanism Proposal” ("Free feet. Tactical Urbanism Proposal"): an attempt to create more pedestrian areas in the city, taking space away from cars and car parks. F: The project is tactical urban planning: rethinking, with a tight
budget, places or intersections that until then were not seen as places with potential. But not in the old town: Syracuse is a strange city, because it has a historic centre that is an island. So there is often a tendency to separate Ortigia from Syracuse. And it's absurd: Ortigia is Syracuse, indeed, for many years Syracuse was only Ortigia. But for many people coming from outside, the focal point is only Ortigia, or it is thought to be a detached entity, as if Syracuse was the part on land and Ortigia the part on the sea. But at the same time everything outside Ortigia needs more attention, because the locals live right there.
F: The ultimate goal is to try to entice more and more people to travel on foot and not by car.
M: The project was born from the idea of involving the communities around these future squares: it starts with the delimitation of areas that were not pedestrian, transforming them into pedestrian areas, and giving the community the chance to reclaim that space.
F: The sea is not a border for me, but a link. If there is sea, there is a chance of connection: one can go in all directions from the sea.
And after the lockdown that marked 2020, and the increasingly widespread need for "social distancing", the concept of the piazza can once again become architecturally the central element of the cities of the future. M: The piazza has been greatly revalued, like all public spaces. But it is above all a fundamental element of Mediterranean architecture. Syracuse is surrounded by the sea. How do you live on this border?
M: Water is a real territory, just like earth: with its morphology, its flora, its fauna.
"Syracuse is a strange city, because it has a historic center that is an island. So there is often a tendency to separate Ortigia from Syracuse. And it’s absurd: Ortigia is Syracuse, indeed, for many years Syracuse was only Ortigia. But for many people coming from outside, the focal point is only Ortigia". 128
Left: CRCLR S/S 2021 Right: Pelotas Ariel
THE WALKING SOCIETY
A tour of Sicilia is a deep dive in the Mediterranean heritage. SICILIA
In the evening, from the coast of Trapani, the sunset is perhaps one of the most beautiful in the whole region: the islands of Favignana, Levanzo, Marettimo and Formica light up with the last pink glow that descends on the sea. To the eye, it seems as if one could swim out to them in only a few minutes. This is an illusion: they are actually much further away, and the last ships shuttle between the ports, crossing the flat sea. Or perhaps one really could get there. It would suffice to go slowly and be patient. Here, with time, anything can be done.
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Edition & Creation Alla Carta Studio Brand Art Director Gloria Rodríguez Magazine Photography: Osma Harvilahti Set Design: Aapo Nikkanen Illustrations: Michele Papetti Copywriting: Davide Coppo Translation: Emma Hedley & Martina Aroldi Videos Director: Fele la Franca Editor: Luca Lo Nigro Cinematographer: Andrea Nocifora Live Sound Engineer: Gianluca Donati Music: Luis Luft, Dirt O'Malley Assistant Director: Angelo Maniscalco camper.com © Camper, 2021
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