Central Sicily

This is the Sicily we’ve been waiting to see. So far our adventures have taken us to beautiful baroque towns, overpopulated cities, coastal villages, resort towns, islands but as we made our way to central Sicily knew we were in for something else. We were reminded of our initial idea of what we thought Sicily was like and as we ventured in deeper into the empty, silent spaces we were reminded of stories of mafia hideouts, exploited children in sulphur mines, and long hot dry horizons.
We’ve been told that Sicilians don’t like solitude and this I guess became evident travelling these parts. We drove through the rolling hills that had already completely dried out aside from a few orchards and the occasional vineyard, covering distances with barely a house or a goat in sight. And when we did finally reach a village clustered on a mountaintop (after Shou-Le struggling up the hill because they were built high up on rocks to keep intruders out) they were full of old men and lots of them sitting on white plastic outdoor settings waiting and watching, watching and waiting and watching. It wasn’t all so bleak though, there was a little bling too…