Ancient Sicilian Flag “The Trinacria.” The word or term Trinacria means “triangle” as for the shape of Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean. The Greeks called it Trinakrias, the Romans called it Trinacrium, meaning “star with 3 points”. Today its known as Sicily, or Sicilia in Italian.
I and my German friend had been to Italy some years ago. In fact, we had seen almost the whole of Italy, having entered it after visiting Monaco. We had taken the route of Genoa, Florence, Siena, Pisa, Rome, Vatican, Naples, Capri, Salerno, Amalfi, Bari, Foggia, Ancona, San Marino, Revanna, Bologna, Paduva, Verona, Venice and left Italy via Trieste to Lubljiana. I was under the impression that as the poem of Herbert Nehrlich, a German poet wrote, “To see Venice and die†because he was so impressed by the same he prayed God to delay his death until he sees Venice as there is nothing else to be done once he sees Venice. But later on I read what Goethe, the German writer, poet etc. had said about Italy. In his Italian Journey he says “ to have seen Italy without Sicily – is not to have seen Italy at all, as Sicily is the key to everything.â€
So during one of my visits to Europe, me and my friend decided to go to Sicily. I was under the impression that the same being always described as the land of the mafia, one could see quite a few members of the mafia with the help of local people. But my guess proved to be totally wrong, except some people showing some big palatial buildings in the thick of forest on hilltops overlooking the Mediterranean Sea or Strait of Messina as the houses of some mafia dons. I do not know whether they said the truth. This is so, because they do not work in the public glare and hence that desire of mine never fulfilled.
Sicily is an island. The island and the mainland are divided by the Strait of Messina. The distance between the island and the mainland Italy by the Strait of Messina is about 3 km wide in the north, and about 16 km in the south of the Strait. As usual, we thought of discovering Sicily and hence to reach Sicily we took a flight from Frankfurt to the airport called Lamezia Terme Airport, which is about 120 kms from Messina, nearest city for us to stay in Sicily. On arrival at the airport, we hired a car on rental which we had booked much earlier and drove towards south and crossed the strait by a ferry boat which also ferry’s the car and reached Messina. But after reaching Messina, we felt that we could go still further and stay in Catania as one could view the Mt. Etna during night also if there were eruptions.( very far fetched wish ).
Apart from the most famous volcano known as Mount Etna, we wanted to see some places in Sicily including the graveyards and catacombs. Of course catacombs we had seen in Vatican and in some other places, but having read about the graveyards of Sicily, they fascinated us and we resolved to visit a couple of graveyards.
Mount Etna was not the first volcano we had seen. Earlier we had also seen another dangerous volcano called Vesuvius which is about 5 to 6 miles from Naples. It was Mt. Vesuvius which had destroyed the ancient city of Pompei. However it cannot be denied that Sicily’s greatest natural attraction is Mount Etna. Greeks called it as Vulcan, means God of Fire and the home of the one-eyed monster known as the Cyclops. There are guided tours to Mount Etna. We went almost to the top where we were allowed to roam around. On our way we could see gravel beds and rocky gullies. Of course, there were no active craters except one could see smoke all around coming from the ground. It is desolate grey or brown landscape all around.We get a strange experience to feel the warm ground under our feet and the smell of sulfur in some places and it is quite overwhelming. One could see a buried building which the guide said was due to the lava thrown out during eruption. The guide said, which I do not know whether I should believe, that the inhabitants of Sicily used to think that the volcano was a curse for the people. But, he claimed that the nomad type people who came after crossing Asia Minor from the foothills of Himalayas about 12000 B.C. made the inhabitants to respect the volcano as God of fire. He said that the foothills of Himalayan region was inhabited by a very intelligent and enlightened people. Really, I was very elated to hear the same but I could not confirm it. I wonder whether he wanted to please me by that statement.
This statement by the guide made me to refer to the ancient history of India. I found that between 10000 to 15000 B.C. there was an enlightened civilization in the north western region of India on the foot hills of Himalayas. It is called as Vedic civilization and that period is called as Vedic period. They were considered as very intelligent people, they having given to us four Vedas ( Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda and Atharvaveda ) which are the scriptures providing essential knowledge of the lifestyle during the Vedic Age. The Vedas are the foundation of the Hindu religion. They worshipped Agni, hindu god of fire. In Rig Veda, the first of the four Vedas, has the largest number of hymns addressed to Agni, the God of Fire. The Hindus offer sacrifices to Fire God as they believe he is the conduit between god and man. That apart Agni is light. Darkness instills fear while agni or light confidence. Perhaps these people must have reached Island Sicily about 12000 B.C. There appears to be some some truth in what the guide said.
Then there is Stromboli which is a very small Italian volcanic island just north of Sicily. It is an active volcano and we are ferried to that island by hydrofoil. The island of Stromboli is in very small size of only 12.6 square kilometres and the Volcano is little more than just 900 m high. Two kilometres northeast of Stromboli is the small, uninhabited sister island Strombolicchio. One can see fire in a liquid form as lava falling into the sea. We are taken round the same.
Apart from the Roman amphitheatres, one reminiscent of Rome’s Coliseum, other fascinating places to be visited in Sicily are the cemeteries. They are unique. I was awe stuck by the beauty of the graveyards. I really appreciated the way they loved their dead and the efforts they made to perpetuate their memory. We never felt when we entered that we were entering a graveyard but having entered and having scene the different types of crypts almost like a home or mausoleums built in the name of the dead with eternal fire burning there, we can appreciate how the dead are remembered in Sicily. Perhaps either for not so wealthy or perhaps for want of space in the cemetery, there are walls with shelves in which the ashes of the dead are kept in urns and stuck in the shelves with name and other details of the dead. The life history of the dead are given on the walls of the crypt. Even with their pictures and photos. There are newspapers used as memorials by pasting them on the walls of the crypt. In some there were alters perhaps for the loved one’s to pray. One could see basketful of flowers everywhere. The walking area is kept clean and neat. One cannot see anything from outside as the graveyards have high walls.
My friend was right in taking me to show the island of Sicily. I never thought a tiny island could treasure so much of knowledge and could be feast for the eyes of the tourist. Though people like me, who hail from Asia think that Sicily is synonymous with Mafia, now I know it is not Mafia but the wealth of knowledge which one can discover by going there. Though it is superfluous and naive on my part, I would like to say I approve what Goethe said. “ to have seen Italy without Sicily – is not to have seen Italy at all, as Sicily is the key to everything.â€