Sicily. The Isle of the Culture Anyone visiting Sicily ought to do a day trip to see the prehistoric burial sites: Monte Bubbonia (near Gela), Avola, Cava dei Servi and Cava Lazzaro (in the Syracuse area). The one's easiest to get to is that of Avola, some twenty kilometres south of Syracuse on the eastern coast of the island. The building is surrounded by thick and wild vegetation seems, at first sight, to be made of one enormous "chalk slab" of varying thickness. On the surface of the slab, ten small rectangular hollows are to be seen. Travelling from Gela to Piazza Armerina, rises a high hill called Mount Bubbonia. The monument is in aposition that notably overhangs an area of flat land that is surrounded by hills. Made of colossal splinters of rock, with no significant modifications, the dolmen is rectangular in shape. The original architectural idea was without doubt a small chamber tomb, also to be found in Sardinia and in Apulia. Lastly, Cava dei Servi and Cava Lazzaro dolmens, placed in Syracusan territory. Both monuments are semi-oval in shape and formed by rectangular slabs fixed into the ground. Sicily, because of her geographic impressiveness right in the middle of the Mediterranean, attracted every type of cultural experience, passing on the effects to those areas that were influence, both to the north and the south. For this reason, it is an island full of mystery. Excellent book, to read!

James L