“More” Sicily

The Greek temple of Concordia in Agrigento, Sicily.

The abiding artistic influence of Italy and the circularity of life are touchingly explored in “Inheriting Sicily,” an article by author and poet Honor Moore in the October 2009 issue of More magazine, on newsstands now.

My grandmother went to Sicily in 1954; Now, 55 years later, she was sending me, writes Moore, who also confides that she was seeking renewed inspiration after the rigors of a year-long book tour.

Her grandmother, the gifted Boston society painter Margarett Sargent, had toured Sicily long after her own career abruptly and tragically ended in the 1930s. But it was also in Italy — Florence in the early 1900s — that Sargent’s desire to create art was ignited. “She came back ‘crazy for Donatello’ . . .,” writes Moore, whose book about her grandmother’s life The White Blackbird , published by W.W. Norton & Co, is now out in paperback.

The view from the temples at Agrigento, on the southern coast of Sicily.

Moore’s descriptions, and Harf Zimmermann’s gorgeous photographs, of the seaside resort Taormina, (“said to be the most romantic place in Sicily,”) Agrigento’s Valley of the Greek Temples, and imposing Mt. Etna, brought back a rush of vivid recollections from my trip to Sicily in 2006.

The stunning northeastern coastline of Sicily viewed from mountaintop Taormina.

Have you been to Sicily? What spoke to you on this timeless island?