L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 2017 www.italoamericano.org 14 L'Italo-Americano MARIELLA RADAELLI B agheria is a curiosity, a literary space in the most exotic place in Europe: Sicily at the crossroads of the Mediterranean, part of Europe and Africa, yet belonging entire- ly to neither. Sicily remains a unique land with an Arabic vibe, where the legacy of the past is redolent everywhere. The seaside town of Bagheria and its eccentricities is also a particular place. H i s t o r i c a l l y a m a g n e t f o r aristocrats, writers, painters and film directors, its pull continues to be felt today as artists evoke its beautiful landscape, gardens a n d s u m p t u o u s m a n s i o n s through their work. Bagheria is also called "the t o w n o f v i l l a s " . I n 1 6 5 8 Giuseppe Branciforti, Prince of Butera and former Viceroy of Sicily, built a summer retreat here, starting a fashion that it w a s q u i c k l y f o l l o w e d b y P a l e r m o ' s a r i s t o c r a t s . S o o n Bagheria became the preferred vacation spot for the city's elite. Only 13 kilometers east of Palermo, it is separated from the large city by open countryside with olive and orange groves. I t s n a m e " B a a r ì a " i n t h e Sicilian dialect originates from a P h o e n i c i a n t e r m t h a t m e a n s "lands that descends toward the sea". Other sources claim the name derives from the Arabic "bahriyah", meaning "of the sea". The town offers a spectacular sunsets over a coast that includes t h e m a r i n e h a m l e t o f A s p r a w h e r e y o u e n j o y a s u p e r b panorama of sparkling Cape Mongerbino and Cape Zafferano with their pristine seas. Anyone wanting to combine sacred art with a lively beach experience will appreciate a visit to th e v illag e ch u r ch , M ar ia Santissima Addolorata that has e a r l y f r e s c o e s b y r e n o w n e d painter Renato Guttuso. Born in Bagheria in 1911, Guttuso grew up in an environ- ment wracked by poverty. Later in his life he would say that his "deeper and remote inspiration" was found in "my childhood, my people and peasants." Today Bagheria has an inter- e s t i n g m u s e u m d e d i c a t e d t o G u t t u s o ' s w o r k ( w w w . museoguttuso.it). The Museo G u t t u s o l o c a t e d a t V i l l a Cattolica has just reopened after a long restoration. Also connected to Bagheria is the novelist Dacia Maraini. Her memoir "Bagheria" is crowded with recollections of her Sicilian hometown where her family had been nobility. Maraini dips into the town's history and tracks down some of her ancestors -- r e b e l s , c o n s e r v a t i o n i s t s a n d eccentrics. Another child of Bagheria, the award-winning film director G i u s e p p e T o r n a t o r e , s a i d "Baarìa is an ancient sound, a magical formula, and the only key able to open the rusted cof- fer of jewels where my most pri- vate movie hides". His 2009 m o v i e " B a a r ì a " e v o k e s t h e loves, dreams of utopia and the disappointments of an entire community from the 1930s to the 1980s. "In Baarià the lives of men and women 'stretch' a l o n g t h e m a i n b o u l e v a r d . Promenading in a circuit day after day for years, you can learn what the entire world won't ever be capable of teaching you," said Tornatore. The Bagherian people are considered resourceful and keen. They begin their passeggiata at a r o u n d 6 . 3 0 p m . T h e y w a l k slowly along Corso Umberto, idly window shopping for any- thing and skillfully spreading out to gather their evening's epicure- an sustenance. Francis Ford Coppola shot a few scenes for Godfather III in the town. In the 20th century it was also the birthplace of poet Ignazio B u t t i t t a a n d p h o t o g r a p h e r Ferdinando Sciacca. Giuseppe "Joe" Aiello, the tough Chicago bootlegger and mob leader dur- ing the Prohibition era who tried to kill Al Capone, came from Bagheria, as did many of his brothers and cousins. Aiello was born in 1891 and was shot to death at age 39 by Capone's gunmen in Chicago. Though illegal building has left its mark, Bagheria is still a place of villas -- big, white, lazy and airy with lemon trees in the garden. The town experienced a boom in villa building during the Savoyard and Hansburg rules in the early Settecento and continu- ing to the Ottocento. Villa Palagonia is the most striking and odd baroque resi- dence today open to the public. One of the earliest examples of Sicilian Baroque, it is one of the strangest attractions in Europe. K n o w n a l s o a s t h e V i l l a o f M o n s t e r s , i t i s a n i n v e n t i v e building based on principles of alchemy that inspired writers s u c h a s A l e x a n d e r D u m a s , Wolfang Goethe and Luis Borge. Designed in 1705 by architect Tommaso Napoli, who was also a Dominican friar, it was built as a s u m m e r r e t r e a t f o r D o n Francesco Ferdinando Gravina, f i f t h P r i n c e o f P a l a g o n i a , a politician and philanthropist. W i t h a c u r v e d f a ç a d e a n d complex staircase, it features grotesque, anthropomorphic and fantastical statues that decorate its walls and gardens. The interi- or include mirrors that made the p r i n c e ' s g u e s t s a p p e a r a s deformed as the prince himself. Goethe described the villa's monsters as "beggars of both sexes, men and women of Spain, Moors, Turks, hunchbacks … dwarfs, musicians, pulcinellas … deformed monkeys, many drag- ons and snakes, every kind of paw attached to every kind of b o d y , d o u b l e h e a d s a n d exchanged heads". Painter Salvador Dalì at one t i m e w a s a b o u t t o b u y V i l l a Palagonia, while film director Michelangelo Antonioni chose it as the set of "L'Avventura". Several other villas are open to visitors nearby. Worth a visit a r e V i l l a V a l g u a r n e r a , V i l l a Butera, Villa Spedalotto, Villa San Marco and many others. Its name "Baarìa: in the Sicilian dialect originates from a Phoenician term that means "lands that descends toward the sea" ALL AROUND ITALY TRAVEL TIPS DESTINATIONS ACTIVITIES Bustling Bagheria, town of villas, eccentricity and art These are some of the grotesque statues with human faces that decorate garden and wall of the Villa Palagonia or The Villa of Monsters near Palermo, Sicily, Italy. — Photo by Alesinya

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