Thursday 15 April 2010

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!!!!!

Thursday 8 April 2010

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.