Whimsical words for Earth Day
Unless you’re philosophically opposed to radiant sunshine and epicurean cuisine, chances are you’d love spending a few days or a few months in Sicily. I recently returned from a short trip to this jewel of the Mediterranean, where I ate like a king, improved my tan like a Bronze Age hero, and scribbled limericks like a wandering minstrel.
Sicily’s central location made it a hub of commerce, philosophy and science in the ancient times. Before it was absorbed by the Roman empire, Syracuse was a cosmopolitan harbor city, home of Archimedes the renowned mathematician and inventor, and the temporary residence Plato who wrote some of his most important dialogues here. Further north, the city of Catania literally rose out of the sea in a series of prehistoric eruptions of Mt Etna, and today boasts a profusion of baroque monuments flanked by a staggering assortment pizzerias and gelaterrias. Elsewhere on the island, they offe