As our chat about possible new American policies in the Middle East interrupts his excruciatingly slow restoration of the Duomo's 900-year-old floor mosaic, I can't help but think, only in Sicily.
Throughout its 2.5 millennia of history, this jarringly gorgeous Mediterranean island has been at the crossroads of drastically different cultures. Miraculously, it has managed to fuse those contrasts peacefully. The fruits of that fusion make Sicily one of the most intriguing parts of Europe.
Twice during the past decade, I've done week-long tours of the island, marvelling at everything from Catholic chapels bejeweled by Muslim artists to the everyday heroism of anti-Mafia businesses. A visit to Sicily is a study in the unexpected fusion of times and cultures. And these are a few of my favourite pairings:
Multicultural devotions: Bleary-eyed from the overnight ferry that took me from Naples to Palermo, Sicily's capital, I made a beeline for the Cappella Palatina, the chapel built in the early 1100s by the Norman king in his palace complex. At 8:30 a.m., I had it for myself for a few minutes before the tourists arrived, enough to be transported by the glitters of gold chasing each other from the wall mosaics into the painted kaleidoscope that is the carved wooden ceiling.
Under the patronage of Sicily's first Catholic king, Muslim artists executed the ceiling, while Greek artists created mosaics representing Christ and New Testament scenes in the Byzantine tradition. Straight from the era of the crusades comes the most dazzling artistic and cultural synthesis of the medieval Mediterranean world.
Antiquity Alive: Ancient Greek colonizers snapped up the best vistas in Sicily. I can't decide if the most scenic archeological site in the Mediterranean is Segesta in its splendid valley isolation among pines and honey-scented wildflowers; Selinunte, framed by eucalypti on its Africa-facing sandy shores; the Taormina theatre opening over the sea and the volcano, Mount Etna; or Agrigento's Valley of Temples, by sheer size the most stunning of them all. I like the latter best in the late afternoon, when the wind-eroded stone of its two best-preserved 450 BC Greek temples -- the nearly intact Tempio della Concordia and the Tempio di Giunone up the ridge -- turn strawberry gold in the dusk and then are floodlit among the dark silhouettes of olive trees and agave plants.
Revitalizing hidden treasures: If Sicilians 2,500 years ago stunned by vistas, those who built palaces and piazzas in the Baroque era astonished by intricacies. Noto, Ragusa Ibla and my favourite, the Ortigia island neighbourhood of Siracusa, are full of churches and palaces exuberantly carved with mythical figures and floral arrangements. Once crumbling in decay, they have been scrubbed to a shine like aristocratic drawing rooms.
Two palaces to stay: The countryside villa of Baron Luigi Bordonaro di Chiaramonte, built in the 13th century inland from Agrigento, and the gorgeously frescoed Palazzo Ajutamicristo of the Barons Calefati di Canalotti in Palermo's historic centre. Both young owners are gambling that tourism will help their historical treasures stay vital.
Anti-Mafia food: Young Sicilian Angelo Fabio Conticello and his brother own the iconic Palermo restaurant Antica Focacceria San Francesco, so famous that when I visited it, I thought the squad cars in the square outside were there to protect some celebrity gorging on their octopus or fried vegetable plates.
