Modica is 115 km far from Catania. It's climbed on the rock. It's divided in 2 parts: High Modica, looklikes a small crib and Low Modica, situated in the Valley of 2 ancient streams: Janni Mauro and Pozzo dei Pruni, disappeared in the flood of 1902. Today they correspond to the main streets: Corso Umberto and Via Marchesa Tedeschi.
LOW
MODICA: You can visit
the unfinished Church of
Santa Maria delle Grazie,
in P.zza Rizzone. The main façade has no statues and a bas-relief with the
symbol of the town. Inside it's divided in a nave and two aisles, decorated with
arcs. In the vault and the dome there are fresco paintings of Evangelisti and
life and symbols of Virgin Mary. The Church is dedicated to Virgin Mary, who
released the town from the plague in 1709. Following the street you reach the ex
monastery of Padri Mercedari,
built in 1681. Today here there is a Municipal Library and an Etnographic Museum.
Carmine Church
dates from XVth century, even if the Bell Tower and th
e
niche of Virgin Mary are built after the earthquake on 1693.
Inside there is a gothic arc and a vestibule, and just a nave.
There is a sculptoric group of
Gagini, famousest family architect in Sicily.
In
Museo Campailla,
philosopher and doctor, you can see his mercurial stoves "stufe mercuriali",
with whom treated the syphilis. In
Marchesa Tedeschi Street there
is the
Municipal Palace,
San Domenico Church
and the monastery of Rosary
Virgin Mary (Convento della
Madonna), one nave church with vault. Over the entrance door there is the
Dominicans symbol, circled by four niches and four
statues. Betlemme Saint Mary
Church (Santa Maria di Betlemme)
is a national monument. It was built on 1440. Just the right aisle portal is of
the XVth century. The inferior main facade has 3
portals, the superior a great window. Inside there are a crystal rock
with a Virgin Mary hair, and a beautiful painted wooden roof. The floor and
the Bell Tower are of the end of XIXth century. The Sacrament Chapel
(Cappella del Sacramento - Cappella Palatina) dates from XVth century. It's an
exemple of gothic norman-arabic architecture, with is square plant and a paint
on the rock. In left aisle there is a Caltagirone crib, reproducing the
landscape of Saint Mary's Cave. Don't forget
Casa De Leva,
with the portal belonged to a church and
San Pietro Church,
in front of whom it develops the main feast of Modica:
Madonna Vasa Vasa every year on
Easter Day. And then
Palazzo Ascenzio,
Palazzo Rubino,
Palazzo Arena and
Garibaldi Theatre.
HIGH
MODICA: It offers an icredible
shows in the evening. Going on from Garibaldi
Street to
San Giorgio Staircase,
250 steps reproducing globet shape. The Church, built in 1090, at the death of
the Saint, was totally rebuilt after the earthquake in 1693. Main
facade has an organ shape, slender by the spire.
Inside there are a nave and four aisles, rare stuff in Sicily with Latin Cross
plant. In the floor there is a solar meridian. Here is
buried Campailla philosopher. In right aisle, on a wooden panel an original
paint dates from the ancient church. In the painting Virgin Mary body is a
little curved giving depth at the imagine. Another
paint strickes for its reality Saint Ippolito
Martyr (1671), in which two figures on the low left
seems to follow you with their eyes rotating the neck. Saint Ark, was silver
made in Venezia in XIVth century. Also the Main Altar is engraved in silver. In
left aisle there is a
statue
of Snow Virgin Mary (Madonna della Neve).
You can also visit Polara Palace and its rich art gallery (pinacoteca), the remains of the Castle, with caves and underground aisles, Palazzo Napolino, and San Giovanni Square, with the homonym Church. It's now in restore Santa Maria di Gesù Church, which is one of the few example of architecture before the earthquake of 1693. Inside an ancient rock altar.
There is other more, .... Have a good time discovering it, walking through this magicl town, with unforgettable atmospheares. Don't forget to taste the excellent Aztec chocolate, maybe eating it sat down on the steps of a church looking the asleeped town at your feet...
First time I saw Scicli, it
left me breathless, absolutely amazed. You can start the visit from the
historical centre or from Colle San Matteo, at the top of the
hill
and its breathtaking views. Between 1500 b.C. and 800 b.C. Siculi
founded it. The name maybe dates back to Siliqua (carrubba tree spreads
on Iblei countries) or it's the same Siculi name in its arab shape.
First itinerary starts from San Matteo Street in the historical centre.
Proceed on it, crossing the town running main Scicli monuments into.
At the top of the hill you can see San Matteo Church, Cathedral till the
end of XVIIIth century, and "Cento Bocche di
Chiafura" (100 Chiafura Mouths), the ancient town, escaved in
the rocks, today an open-air Etno-Antropological Museum. In Piazza
Italia, the Matrice in baroque style. The fa
cade, in 2 orders, closed by
2 bell towers and a tympanum, dates back first of XIXth century. Inside
3 aisles, with the statues of the Protectors Saints: Santa Maria delle
Milizie and San Guglielmo. The altar comes from the old Church "Santa
Maria la Piazza". Saint Bartolomeo Church rises in the homonim
quarry. The three order facade dates back the beginning of '800. The
inside is latyn cross with a "Deposizione" (deposition) painting and a
Crib in Napoletan style. From Italia Square it moves on Via Mornino
Penna, Unesco Heritage List since 2002. Here visits the Palazzo di Città
(City Palace), the Municipio (Town Hall) and San Giovanni (St. John)
Church. Inside is an original portraying "Cristo in Gonnella" (Chryst in
skirt) very common in Spanish tradition, but rare in Italy. Between
Palazzo Bonelli and Palazzo Veneziano Sgarlata there is San Michele (St
Michael) Church, animated by Corinthian columns. In the night you can
visit the city another time, looking at different views of enchanted
beauty.
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE
Very interesting Palazzo Fava, and Palazzo Beneventano. First, on the corner with Via San Bartolomeo, is famous for its portal and balconies, most of all that of "Grifi" balcony, so called for its sculpture-like shelves. Beneventano Palace is on the corner with the street for the top of the hill. Its corner position gives it two facade, jointed by a cornice, uncompleted in its superior part, and a diamond cantonal, that balances the picture. It's surrended by a San Giuseppe statue and 2 arab heads with the family simbol on the top. Other example of civile architecture along Via Mornino Penna.
In the main square opposite to Cinema Italia, you will find two information tourist points, in which find informations, books, and city maps.
It's
a good place to relax yourself in every season. It's crowded and coloured in
summer and amuse and warmly in autumn or winter. Time flows slowly. You can trek
on the promenade or visit the place in which was shot "Montalbano" movies,
alucky television series, inspired to Camilleri's famous books. A curiosity,
Camilleri's romances developed in Agrigento district, Porto Empedocle,
Lampedusa, but the movies have shot in Ragusa district. On 19th march there is
Saint Joseph feast, the Protector Saint of the town. In this occasion you can
look at "Cavalcata di San Giuseppe" (St Joseph horses parade) or taste good
local fish, taking part at "Sagra della Seppia" (Squid's Festival).
Nearby Donnalucata,
exit from the town 500 mt, direction Marina di Ragusa There is Irminio River
Natural Reserve. You can have some pleasant hours, trkking on the beach,
reaching the mouth, deeped in a luxuregiant nature, having birdwatching,
in a dreaming atmospheare, feeling like Indiana Jones, crossing a log (...maybe
you can have an unscheduled bathe...) tranches . .
The answer of Carlo Ruta, the Sicilian journalist at the judge Patricia di Marco for her sentence about the web www.accaddeinsicilia.it, closed for some information against the mafia and its political and economic collusions. The sentence has condemned a blogger, for clandestine press, such as a web was a newspaper.
Other informations about the incident on http://italy.indymedia.org/news/2006/10/1165090.php, www.leinchieste.com and "That's the reason why I was obscured and from whom (Carlo Ruta's interview - in Italian), and another Carlo Ruta's Interview (in Italian).
The Sicilian sentence that has condemned
information on the net, regarding it as crime, is provoking protests and alarms
on the web and in every "responsible" corner of the country. The reasons are
heavy as stones. The principles that have made the history of the democratic
thought have been attacked: the same ones for which, in our country, men like
the Rosselli's brothers, Piero Gobetti, Antonio Gramsci, Eugenio Curiel,
Giovanni Amendola, have spoilt their engagement and gave their life. The
principle of the free expression has been particularly attacked, this principle
is representative for all freedoms, it constitutes a hinge of the republican
Constitution.
The current Italian government, than is connoting itself more and more in an illiberal sense, cannot avoid the moral duty of answering these days' protests. Enough with infringes. The wave of indignation will not stop soon, and we are committed to continue as long as possible. The last frontier of democracy, in its most open and advanced form, represented by free expression in the Internet, by the communication that breaks in and bursts out in all directions, that makes citizens protagonists in a new way, is at stake. The Italian Constitution which, as Piero Calamandrei has remembered us, was not born in the parlours neither in the rooms of the power, but on mountains, beside the bodies of the victims of the war, between fires of the cities in revolt, is at stake.
A law is quickly necessary, a law distant from every possibility of misinterpretation, in order to stop the censor and repressive wefts of the strong powers of the country, illiberal and anti-democratic for vocation, in a definitive way. It is also necessary that the legislator understands that the information on the web cannot have principle limitations. The net is a hinge of our time, in which the democracy, with the exercise of confrontation, gets body and voice. It cannot be therefore annihilated, as it happens in Iran and Birmania.
Appeal is then made to the web, to the communication on all levels, to the civil and responsible country, so that the mobilization will continue endlessly, with strong initiatives. The Sicilian sentence, as a blogger has written, could be one of last "pearls" of a necklace that, day after day, is changing in an oxbow. It is about doing whatever possible to avoid this happening. It is necessary to prevent that Italy becomes the pyre of free expression, still remembering that the pyres of ideas may a preparatory stage of open scene regimes.
Carlo Ruta
For support and contacts:
accadeinsicilia@tiscali.it.
or write to Carlo Ruta:
carlo.ruta@tin.it
Please publish and popularize it. Thanks
Articles in English are in this website: www.giornalismi.info/vocilibere/articoli/art_1203.html. Freedom emergency in Italy is in: www.leinchieste.com
A stupid law and a perverse "criminal" sentence
24 September, 2008
There is no censorship in Italy, but...
"Censorship" was abolished and outlawed in Italy sixtytwo years ago. Freedom of the press and of personal opinion is not only established by the Constitution, but also deeply rooted in custom and in all perceptions of civil society. There are, however, some worrying facts. The concentration in a few hands of a large part of the information system. A general, "centralized" myopia of the "dominant culture", that is partly deliberate manipulation and partly unintentional ignorance. A sly, apparently "benevolent", culture of superficiality and vagueness that tends to lull, confuse and subdue.
A disturbing maverick, in this context, is the internet. Originally feared, later ambiguously applauded, anyhow misunderstood, the net remains annoying for those who are in the habit of having control and are irritated, if not scared, by a tool that they can't dominate or "tame".
It would be long to repeat here what I have written several times, since I published Cassandra in 1996 and continued with eighty articles in Italian (thirteen also in English) in the "freedom and censorship" section of my website. But a recent episode deserves some comment.
In this ambiguous context there are laws and "norms" that are poorly conceived and applied even worse. One, in particular, is the law on "clandestine press" (1948) to which was added, fiftythree years later (2001) a clumsy definition of "authorization" for "journalistic publications" online.
Before we get into this specific subject, let's look at two articles of the Italian Constitution.
In Article 3 it is stated that «All citizens have equal social status and are equal before the law.» But this isn't quite so. There are laws (in addition to "social status") that make some citizens "more equal than others". And there are several formally organized categories that have improper and unreasonable privileges. In addition to all sorts of limitations (or bureaucratic hindrance) of free enterprise, in business, society and culture, that everyone agrees should be removed, but de facto remain - and sometimes get worse.
In Article 21 it is stated that «Everyone has the right to freely express thoughts in speech, writing, and by all other communication.» Also that «The press may not be controlled by authorization or submitted to censorship.» But this isn't quite so. There are "authorization" rules (as well as other hindrances and privileges) that get in the way of freedom of information and communication (generally defined as "freedom of the press" ever since the concept was established in 1848 by the "Statuto Albertino" - that in 1861 became the Constitution of what was, at the time, the Kingdom of Italy.)
Within this framework, let's get to the specific case that has, quite rightly, caused a wave of protest and indignation - and to the two awkward laws that have made it possible. The facts are reported (not always accurately) in several online documents. (see the end of the article)
A "criminal sentence" issued by a Court in Modica (Sicily) on 8 May 2008 condemned historian Carlo Ruta, defining his website "clandestine press" because it wasn't formally "authorized" as a newspaper or a magazine. (The site was no longer active. It had been "seized" by the police, by order of the Modica Court, in 2004).
One of the absurdities in this Court decision is that the website was defined as "testata giornalistica" because it had a "heading". By that criterion, any publicly available correspondence written on "letterhead" could be criminally condemned as "clandestine press".
I leave it to historians of law and politics to try to understand why, when fascism had been defeated and censorship had been abolished, in 1948 a law was passed that restricts press freedom and is in contrast to Article 21 of the Constitution.
But let me "try to guess" why in April 2001 the Italian government proposed, and parliament "distractedly" approved, a poorly conceived (and never properly amended) law that extends press regulation to online communication.
All governments and all political parties and parliamentary groups have always declared that they don't intend to limit or control in any way the freedom of the press and, generally, of opinion. On the sincerity and coherence of such statements we can have some doubts, but let's assume that the purpose of the messy 2001 law was not censorship. The idea was to extend to online newspapers and magazines the ambiguous "benefits" (subsidies) that exists for print - as well as the "responsibility" controls (a system that has already caused several distortions and manipulations in its "traditional" definition).
This means that an online "newspaper" or "magazine" must be "registered" as such - and the editor must be a member of an officially regulated association called Ordine dei Giornalisti, a privileged "caste" that many agree should be abolished, but in spite of its absurdity continues to exist. The consequence is that, if the unclear text of the law is interpreted extensively, approximately five million Italian websites could be declared "illegal".
That law has been in existence for five years and there has been no "extermination" of Italian online activity. But the fact remains that, by this or other means, "errors" are possible. Several other flaws in law or regulation have been used to "blacklist" or "seize" online activities that were disliked by authorities or powerful private lobbies.
What makes the "Modica affair" unique is that, so far, it's the only case of the 1948 "clandestine press" law and its 2001 extension being applied to a website. Obviously protest and indignation must not relate only to this individual case, but above all to its general implications.
The editor-owner of that website is not in jail. The "penalty" is a 250 euro fine, plus legal expenses. But obviously the problem is that, for totally unacceptable reasons, he has a "criminal" record and his site has disappeared.
It's rather nearsighted to be complaining about this episode after having paid little attention to the fact that there is a nonsensical, and never properly amended, law. And there are other situations of Italian, or even foreign, websites being "removed" or made inaccessible, for a variety of unreasonable motives, with a too easy "voluntary" cooperation of internet providers who are more concerned with the protection of their business than with the rights and privacy of their customers.
Why was there such a violent aggression on that particular website? It's improper to "guess" making unproven assumptions. But the fact is that the "cancelled" content was about collusion of politics with mafia - probably irksome for some powerful interests. But let's assume, for the sake of this argument, that it was only a "mistake" in the interpretation of an unclear law. The fact remains that such "errors" are possible - and unacceptable in a civilized country.
There are many "tricks" that make it possible to limit, though not totally destroy, freedom of opinion and information.
There is, by the way, a not irrelevant "technical detail". It is possible, by several different means, to make available online whatever has been "prohibited". "Seizing" or "cancelling" has little, if any, effect on criminals or other "wrongdoers". This sort of persecution is very painful for honest people who want to freely express "uncomfortable" opinions, irrelevant for the mischievous, ranging from the extreme of terrorism and organized crime to all sorts of frauds and spamming.
In the (unproven) hypothesis of an absurd legal procedure being influenced by someone who wants to remove uncomfortable information or opinion, the irony is that it backfires, because the resulting "noise" spreads more widely than the original source. But that, of course, doesn't justify the perversity of the Court's decision or the clumsiness of the law.
It's hard to tell how much all this is caused by the ignorance of "powerful" people who don't understand what the net is and how it works - or by an insidious desire to repress freedom of opinion and control sources of information. But the fact is that, no matter how disguised, repressive intentions exist even in the most free and open societies - and watchdogs need to be consistent over time, with constant observation of how things evolve, not just short-lived "indignation" over an occasional episode, soon to be forgotten while abuses continue. And we should never forget that censorship isn't only evil, it is also stupid.
Cassandra (1996)
http://gandalf.it/free/casseng.htm
Bad legislation - again (05.2001)
http://gandalf.it/offline/off37-en.htm
Italy - blog condemned for clandestine press (only in Italian,16.06.2008)
http://punto-informatico.it/2321322/PI/News/italia-blog-condannato-sta...
"Clandestine press": an unacceptable decision (only in Italian, 9.09.2008)
http://www.mcreporter.info/stampa/c_ruta2.htm
Only a journalist can run a website in Italy? (21.05.2008)
http://blog.andreamonti.eu/?p=64
(Contribution by Giancarlo Livraghi - EDRi-member ALCEI Italy)
Fonte: http://www.edri.org
Pagina: http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number6.18/stupid-law-italy
