Sunday, August 5, 2018


July 29th, 2018


Kelley




Hi everyone! My name is Kelley Stilwell. I’m going to be a senior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and I’m studying Forensic Science with minors in Chemistry, Math, and Political Science. Although today is the fifth day of the field school, a couple of the other girls and I went to Dublin and Rome. So for us, it’s actually Day 12.






Today, we went to the town of Piraino. Piraino is a small mountain town of roughly 4,000 people on the east corner of the island. (It’s roughly 81 miles east of Palermo and 37 miles west of Messina for the geographically inclined. 


The view from Piraino




When stepping off the bus, we were greeted with the hot, humid, Sicilian air we are slowly getting accustomed to. We had a short walk to the local church where our mummy studies of the day would begin. While waiting for our guide, Marcello Mollica, one of our teachers, Dario, and fellow student Amber Knight played some classics on the piano. Both were very shy about it, but they eventually started taking requests. Our guide arrived as the church was getting ready to start service. Apparently, churches have services on Sundays. Who knew?






In order to make the most out of the day, we walked to the local bar and ordered some granite. There Marcello began telling us about the crypts and the local legend of the martyr buried there. In 1544,  Giovanni Scolarici was killed during a raid while defending sacred documents from invaders. His remains were lost, but the locals still hold his name close to their hearts for his sacrifice.  
The cross inside the church







The crypt itself was build in 1771. It’s made up of three main rooms. One is an embalming chamber, the other two hold spots for bodies to lay. Originally, there were 32 bodies but six disappeared. Today, Marcello studies 26 of them. 






Once the service was over, we were able to view the mummies for ourselves. The staircase down was steep and narrow. Priests had to carry bodies down this in order to get it to an embalming chamber which wasn’t much bigger. In order to get into the room, I had to duck. The rooms where the bodies were kept were bigger but that’s only because the coffins had been removed. If the coffins were still in the room, I would have had to shimmy around the outskirts. 






We didn’t stay down in the crypt for very long since we had such a large group with us. Marcello has some other people with him who also wanted to see the mummies. Climbing the stairs back up, we waited for everyone to have their change to get up close and personal with the dead. During this time, the BBC showed up to conduct their interviews with Karl and Dario.

Once everyone had their fill of mummies, Karl and Dario went to do their interviews. Alessandra took the rest of us to some sightseeing towers and some lookout points. The views were incredible! 




Us in Piraino



But not as incredible as the people I get to travel with ;)






Once the interviews were done, we went to the beach. The water was the one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. It was crystal clear and even when the sand was 10 feet below, I could still make out details on the floor. It was exactly what we needed after a long hot day.


Piraino beach




Although, the field school isn’t exactly what I expected, I couldn’t ask for a better experience. I’m learning a lot about Catholicism and the importance of mummification in Sicilian culture. I couldn’t ask for a better set of instructors or a better set of travel mates. They have made this experience truly unforgettable.

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