“Caltanissetta,
28 April [1787]. At last we can say we have seen with our own eyes the
reason why Sicily earned the title of ‘The Granary of Italy.’ Soon after
Girgenti, the fertility began. There are no great level areas, but the gently
rolling uplands were completely covered with wheat and barley in one great
unbroken mass. Wherever the soil is suitable to their growth, it is so well
tended and exploited that not a tree is to be seen. Even the small hamlets and
other dwellings are confined to the ridges, where the limestone rocks make the
ground untillable. The women live in these hamlets all the year round, spinning
and weaving, but during the season of field labour, the men spend only
Saturdays and Sundays with them; the rest of the week they spend in the valleys
and sleep at night in reed huts."—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Italian Journey, in Selected Works (Everyman’s Library, 1999)
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