Armchair Travel
Just returned from an actual visit
to Ragusa province in South East Sicily
we welcome Inspector Montalbano
back to our TV screens
Up to now, travellers to Sicily, traditionally headed to the capital city, Palermo, on the northwest of the island or to the east coast cities of Catania, Taormina and Syracuse. Southeast Sicily, miles from an airport was more difficult to reach. All that has changed
With the recent opening of Comiso Airport (officially Vincenzo Magliocco Airport), you can fly there with Ryanair in just three and a half hours, direct from Dublin (Thursdays and Sundays). They also fly from London Stansted direct to Comiso. The airport changed from military use (a major NATO base during the Cold War) to civil use in 2008.
As if on cue, BBC4 are showing series one of the popular Italian TV mystery drama Inspector Montalbano (BBC4, 9:00pm Saturday June 28). Set and filmed in the province of Ragusa and along the coast of southeast Sicily, between Scoglitti and Pozzallo, it is worth watching for the sun-drenched landscape of dry-stone walls, gnarled olive trees, and towns like Sicicli where Montalbano's police station is actually the town hall and the guesthouse in the village of Punta Secca where the Inspector lives overlooking the sea.  |
| Montalbano consoles Lapecora's widow's during interview Photo: RAI / BBC |
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| Southeast Sicily Map: HOLIDAYezine |
Further reading:
Comiso in South East Sicily. Pat Keenan flew into a new airport, visited a charming town, admired some great artistic riches and had another encounter with dead monks http://holidayezine.blogspot.ie/2014/06/comiso-in-sicily-charming-town-new.html
How to cook Arancini. Pat Keenan visited the Southern Sicilian province of Ragusa and tried his hand at cooking a local delicacy
http://holidayezine.blogspot.ie/2014/06/how-to-cook-arancini-pat-keenan-visited.html
Books by Andrea Camilleri
This Italian TV detective drama is based on the novels and short stories of Sicilian writer Andrea Camilleri. He sets his books in Vigata, a fictional town, broadly based is his own home town of Porto Empedocle, further up the coast from the TV locations. Many of the books, now translated into English, are available from good bookshops and online at www.amazon.co.uk www.easons.com etc.
To read in the order they were written, start with The Shape of Water and then The Terracotta Dog, The Snack Thief, The Voice of the Violin and Excursion to Tindari. There are more but that's enough to get a flavor.