Goodbye to our etwinning friends

S. Rosalia, the patron of Palermo

Rosalia was a noble Norman girl who lived in the twelfth century and who retired from the world on the mount Pellegrino; her bones were found in the seventeenth century and saved Palermo from the black plague. This episode made her Patron of the city.

S. Lucia, the patron of Siracusa

The legends linked to S. Lucia are very fascinating. The two saints, S. Agatha and S. Lucia had a similar destiny. Lucia refused the love of a noble lord; as a consequence he, in order to avenge himself on her, denounced her as a christian (in a period when christians were persecuted) and made her extirpate her eyes. That's why nowadays she is considered the saint who protects the sight.

There is a legend which tells us that Agatha and Lucia's lives were very linked; it is said that the two girls could meet themselves thanks to two tunnels of the christian catacombs which connected the cities of Catania and Siracusa. Once become saint S. Lucia became the patron of Siracusa. There ia a beautiful tradition that wants that every year a nice girl coming from Sweden (Siracusa and Stoccolma are twined thanks to the cult of S. Lucia ) is welcomed in Siracusa to pray on the occasion of the feast dedicated to S. Lucia which takes place in December.

The legend of the olive tree

Sicily has got three saints who are considered the patrons of Catania, Siracusa and Palermo.
They are S. Agatha (patron of Catania), S. Lucia (Siracusa) and S. Rosalia (Palermo).
Some fascinating legends are linked to them.
The first one is the olive- tree of S. Agatha.
It tells us that when Agatha was on her way to the law-court to be judged according to the will of her persecutor, Quinziano, she stopped to lace up her shoes. Just there an olive -tree originated and all its fruits were picked up by the devotees of S. Agatha.
Nowadays just in front of the church built in the same place of the prison of S. Agatha there is an olive-tree and people think that it is the same tree of S. Agatha.

The elephant, symbol of our city Catania

Our city has got a particular symbol, a stone-made elephant. It is in the main square of the city just in front of the cathedral dedicated to its patron, Saint Agatha .

The elephant stands in the centre of the square and it seems to observe the city and its inhabitants , who are very affectionated to it.

There are many legends linked to it, but there is one in particular which sounds very fascinating. It tells us that in ancient times , when Catania was firstly inhabited, some fierce animals threatened the city; so its inhabitants used the elephant (which was called Diotru) to make the other animals go away. As a consequence in order to thank the elephant people made a statue which represented it and which has become the symbol of the city.

SPOTLIGHT ON IPSSAR

Goodbye to our Indian friends

Dear etwinning friends from India wishing you Happy holidays ( you are very lucky that school there finishes in these days) we would like to say something to you.
Here in Sicily is already spring. And what about your country?
We liked your dance very much: it was a great idea to dance a traditional dance of another country and you were very good. We thought to send you a video of our traditional dance that is "tarantella",but unfortunately we didn't have enough time to make it. Now we are going to make some videos to say goodbye to you. We hope you will have the possibility to watch them even if you are on holiday! We hope to work with you next year too for a new project. We learnt a lot about your culture and your legends. They are so special!

Goodbye from Italy!!!!!

The legend of the chestnut of the 100 horses.

There is a chestnut in a small village

called Saint Alfio at the foot of volcano

Etna which seems to be the biggest and the most ancient tree in Europe (between 2000 and 4000 years old).

It can be considered a real "vegetal monument" and it attaracts lots of tourists every year.

Its story was told by Jean Houl who after a visit in S. Alfio was so impressed that he wrote about it.

There is a fascinating legend linked to this marvellous tree that tells us that queen Giovanna d'Aragona used to go to Naples and then to Sicily to visit volcano Etna together with the nobles from Catania riding a horse like her knights.

It seems that one day she with all her knights was caught in the storm, so she took refuge under the huge tree whose leaves became a very safe shelter for all of them.

Today the tree is divided into three hollowed trunks. In the past there was a house inside it.

The legend of the baroness of Carini

There is a fascinating legend about ghosts which tells us about a famous baroness who lived in Carini in 1500 whose name was Laura Lanza and who at the age of 14 was forced by her father to marry the baron of Carini, a village in the province of Palermo. After some time she was disappointed because she thouhgt to live happily with the baron. On the contrary, he left her alone most of the day to take care of his lands. So, she fell in love with Ludovico Vernagallo and she became his lover . Her husband discovered the love story of the baroness and he killed her and Ludovico with the help of her father. The room of the murder, which was in the west side of the castle of Carini, nowadays is totally destroyed but it is said that on a wall there was the bood-stained hand-print of the baroness. All what remains of the legend is: the ghost of Laura, who it is said that goes around inside the castle and a particular mistery... somewhere in the main tower of the castle in the area of the west side there is a hand sculptured on the wall.

The origin of Rome, the capital of Italy

According to a fascinating legend, Romolo and Remo were the children of the God Marte and Rea Silva, who was the daughter of the king of Alba Longa Numitore. Numitore was deposed by his brother Amulio who forced Rea Silva to do vow of chastity.
King Amulio who knew of the birth of Romolo and Remo became furious and ordered to kill the children, but the servant who had to kill them wasn't so corageous to do that ; so he decided to put the children in a basket and leave them in the river Tevere. The basket who was pushed by the current, after some time stopped in an area which is the actual Palatino . Here children were found by a she-wolf that brought them with her till when a shepherd whose name was Faustolo found them and he brought them at home and he raised them. When they grew up Romolo and Remo came back to Alba Longa where they killed their uncle Amulio. Numitore became king again. The brothers decided to found a new town. A name for the town had to be chosen but neither Romolo nor Remo wanted to give up; so after a terrible quarrel Romolo killed Remo and the town was founded by Romolo who gave it his name and he himself became the first king of Rome.

The Eolie islands

The Eolies, as the legend tells us, have been created by Eolo, the god of winds. They are seven isles situated in the province of Messina and they are : Lipari, Vulcano, Stromboli, Panarea, Salina, Alicudi and Filicudi. The islands were submarine volcanoes emerged from the waters around 700.000 years ago in this order : Panarea, Filicudi, Alicudi, Salina, Lipari, Vulcano and Stromboli ;the latter is probably 40.000 years old.
Many archaeological sites have been discovered in all the islands (this means that they were inhabited during the prehistoric age) exception done for Vulcano which couldn't be inhabited because of its continuous and intense erptions of its crater.

Catania is cool ! ! !

Volcano Etna: the "good Giant".

Etna is the highest volcano of Europe, it is in the north-eastern part of Sicily and it is active since millions of years. Etna is about 3300 m.high, it has got a boundary of about 210 Km and a surface of 1600 Km2. During its eruptive activity, lava can come out from hundreds of small craters which are spread on the volcano.

In the past the greatest eruption was that one which took place in 1669 ( here is a picture representing the eruption at that time ). On that occasion, lava destroyed many lands and villages and buried most of the city of Catania reaching the sea.

Among the eruptions of 1900 we can remember that of 1908, which led to the formation of new craters and that one happened in 1928 during which lava destroyed, covering it, the village of Mascali.

In 1971 the villages of Milo and Saint Alfio risked to be seriously damaged, by two eruptive mouths being on the south and east sides of the volcano, where two rivers of lava caused very serious damages to the roads and fruitful lands, and almost reaching the villlages.

In 1981 it was Randazzo, a small village, to be hit; in 1983, for the first time, lava was diverted in an artificial big canal using explosive powder. The aim of that was to avoid the distruption of some villages.

During recent years we have had many eruptions (in general once a year), but fortunately without dramatic consequences for people or villages.

Anyway, people from Catania consider the volcano the "good giant" and they are so affectionate to it that they couldn't manage to live without it!

Here we are

Here we are!!!