Day 4, April 6th (Thursday) in Sicily. This was a busy day. We started the day back at the Teatro Opera dei Pupi Famiglia Argento in Palermo, where we learned all about the history of puppets in Sicily.
The Argento family, master puppeteers since 1893, has been divulging the history and art of Sicilian puppets for five generations. The last remaining craftsmen, in their theater we saw the canvases and puppets created and painted by their ancestors.
Each puppet is handmade by his family, primarily in wood, and family members also write the scripts and perform the shows with the puppets. It takes considerable skill and practice. Each puppet weights about 35 to 40 pounds.
There are examples of the puppets. The theater was filled with them! I tried to lift one and was shocked at how heavy they are. The theater is located very close to the Palermo Cathedral.
After our puppet briefing we walked down the street and just happened to see this man making one of the puppets in the family laboratory located in Corso Vittorio Emanuele, 445.
We finally a shot of Cathedral in sunlight! It was very busy at the Cathedral today because of Holy Thursday.
There is a remarkably well preserved Doric temple dating around 430 BC. It was surrounded by wildflowers and grape vineyards.
It was very windy and cool. But a beautiful day! Notice Mary had thee coats on!
We had lunch at an agriturismo in Segesta and hiked back to our coach past vineyards and a distant temple.
We traveled in Marsala, on the far western coast in late afternoon, just in time to see some local sights before the town’s annual Passion procession. The procession, which is an annual event attended by thousands, was the enactment of Christ’s passion and it was very professionally portrayed. We were in awe of the performers as they walked barefoot though the streets in thin robes never breaking out of their characters.
There is a beautiful gate at the entrance of Old Town Marsala marking the date the important date of when Garibaldi entered the city – May 11, 1860. More on Garibaldi here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Garibaldi
The Marsala Cathedral looks much more interesting on the outside. For more on the Cathedral, see:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsala_Cathedral
The passion procession started at 1 PM and ended at 8 PM, conveniently near our hotel. It was breezy and cold but you would never notice by the performers reenactment.
There were several performers depicting Christ at different stages of the passion and other events in his life. One where he meets with Mary Magdalene while with his disciples. Another Christ performer was dragged through the streets by soldiers.