Sicilian charm on a September day

“I loved the island as one loves a grown-up who plays with us.” This line by Gesualdo Bufalino, taken from his gripping masterpiece *La Diceria dell’Untore*, springs to mind when travelling in Sicily in September. The milder temperatures, in fact, put the soul in a better frame of mind to trust that one will encounter one ‘maravigghia’ – a marvel, in fact – after another. The first is the walk one can take – long and magnificent, as Cesare Brandi described it in his essay *Sicilian Archaeology* – within the Selinunte Archaeological Park, a route that begins at the Case del Viaggiatore, skirts the Greek temples, continues towards the mouth of the River Modione, takes in the Demetra Malophoros complex and the Case Gaggera, and ends at the rural buildings where citrus trees, figs and the first palm trees, giving life to a project combining aesthetics and ecology implemented by the Selinunte Archaeological Park and Planeta, which thus chose to celebrate the thirtieth vintage of its Chardonnay.