Words of Light and Hope from Muriel Rogers

Words of Light and Hope from Muriel Rogers

Sicily

I hear the quiet put! put! of the old tractor. It must be time for breakfast. Life has settled into a gentle, regular pattern in the vineyard. I am part of a small group studying nature in Sicily. We are living in a beautiful old house (partly a museum to vineyards) on a working vineyard. The day starts early with a nature walk around the vines or helping to check the moth trap to see what has visited us overnight. The farmer arrives at 8am, dressed invariably in dungarees and starts up the old tractor, always eight o’clock on the dot. After breakfast we board the minibuses and spend the day exploring before returning to the courtyard at 4pm for canapes and numerous bottles of wine to taste while we talk about the day.

Today is Thursday and we don’t know it yet but by the end of the day everything will look different. We are told that when we meet in the courtyard at 4pm we need to be dressed tidily as we have been invited out to dinner, where and by whom we don’t know. 4pm arrives and we all board the minibuses and set off – where? We discover we are driving through Syracuse, through the pedestrian centre of the ancient city. Two policemen flag us down and indicate we should turn left and drive through some large gates. They tell us the Baron is  waiting for us, as indeed he is, minus the dungarees on this occasion, wearing a crisp smart suit instead. We have just driven through the gates of the Baron’s palace!

By the end of the evening we have had a guided tour of the palace, been to see a rare Caravaggio painting, learnt that the vineyard farmer is not just a Baron living in a palace, he is also the head of the knights of Malta (originally known as the Knights Hospitalier) and one of the world’s experts on the artist Caravaggio.

Be careful about making assumptions about people you know little about, especially older people. Who knows the details of their life   experience and talents!