Castelmola
It's said "A name and a character are consonant eachother" It
works on a place name too.
For instance, "Mirabeau" which is consist of two Latin words,
Mira=View and Beau=Beautiful, means the place with great perspective. "Miramar"
(Mira=View and Mar=Ocean) means the place having great ocean view. You
can image even the place where you've never been with the names.
So when I asked the name of the village on top of the strange shaped hill
for local people, I believed I heard "Casamira(House with great perspective)".
Once I heard such a beautiful name and saw the magnificent view, there
was no reason for rejecting to see it. So I headed for the village. When
I got to the top of the hill, I had absolutely magnificent panorama in
front of me. I saw the town of Taormina below like a landing of stairs
and then far away to the Ionian Sea.
The land form around Taormina has a lot of attraction indeed from altitude
below 0m to 500m. The lowest attraction is under water of beautiful Ionian
Sea which is famous for Besson's movie "Le Gran Bleu". To the
contrary, the highest point must be there, the village on top of hill.
No better name than "Casamira" after words, I thought.
However I reconfirmed the name of the village with map later. It's not
"Casamira" but "Castelmola" Latin originated word "mola"
means "mill stone" I discouraged my bad hearing.
The village is called Mill stone hill(or castle) after all. It doesn't
sound so beautiful, does it?
OK, never mind even if it's Mill stone hill. I would like to live on such
a unusual location.
Apr. 2010
Today's piece
" Castelmola " Taormina, Sicily, Italy 1994
Funeral procession |