Palazzo Biscari in Catania
The Duomo in Catania
The coast off Trapani in the west side of Sicily.
A view from the train as we left Trapani for Palermo and from Palermo to Catania via Messina along the Northern coast
The coast off Messina
Finally Catania train station.
Via Etnea in the center of Catania
Sicily is so much in the news these days because of the boatloads of people fleeing the maghreb and landing on the island of Lampedusa. Not everyone will be allowed to stay. They have to meet strict assylum rules. Definitely economic refugees will be repatriated later when the crissis dies down. 
Over dinner last week, family was over and we talked about the holocaust. My sister in law's family were from the Czech Republic and in the early days before the establishment of the state of Israel, Jewish people were already leaving Europe and heading for the coast of Palestine. I use 'Palestine' not in connection with the Palestinians but in the biblical understanding that this is 'Palestine' home of the Jewish people who have scattered during the diaspora. God in the Bible was to bring them back from wherever they have gone. While Rivka's parent never experienced the holocaust, they have family who did. In fact I met an aunt who lives in California who has the Nazi tattoo on her arm. They tell of boatloads of Jewish people landing at the harbors of Palestine and of the authorities pushing them back out to sea to refuse them landing. There was an incident where the refugees exploded a device on board to sink the ship to prevent it from leaving shore and back out to sea. It had fatal consequences, some on board were killed, the rest were allowed to come on shore.
http://sicilyscene.blogspot.com/2011/03/german-woman-among-migrants-fleeing.html
The link is to Patrizia's blog where she tells of a story of a German woman and her daughter being among the refugees in one of those boats. How did I end up in the USA? I was an economic refugee some 26 years ago. I'll tell my story one day.
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