One of the stops we made on our walking tour of Mazara was at the Museum of the Dancing Satyr.  The museum is housed in the deconsecrated church of Sant’Egidio, which was incredibly ornate, as you will see in the photos below.  What captured our interest wasn’t so much the church, but the story behind the discovery of the bronze Dancing Satyr, believed to date to the 3^rd or 2^nd century BC.

On March 4, 1998, while Captain “Ciccio” Francesco Adragna, a local fisherman, and his crew were hauling up shrimp, the torso of the sculpture came up along with it.  Seven months prior, while also fishing for shrimp, the leg of the sculpture was entangled in the net and broke off.  Francesco spent the next seven months returning to the area in search of the remaining statue.

After visiting the museum and seeing the statue, which itself was a memorable experience because of the back story, our tour leader (also “Francesco”), escorted us into a theater for a surprise.  Ciccio Francesco came to speak with us about his adventure discovering the sculpture!  After his slide show presentation, we were able to ask questions and learned he and his crew were rewarded 600,000 euros for their discovery.  Of that, 250,000 euros went to the owner of the boat, and he personally took home 60,000 euros.

At 65 years old, Ciccio Francesco retired after 50 years of professionally fishing the waters off Mazara.  He spends some of his retirement time hosting Overseas Adventure Travel groups for lunch at his home, averaging about 200 lunches per year.

We didn’t know this until after his talk, when he showed up as one of the hosts while the 16 of us were divided up into three groups to go to our home-hosted lunch.  Bruce and I, along with three other people, were assigned to Ciccio Francesco, and he drove us to his home.

Joining us for lunch was Francesco’s girlfriend, Angela, her daughter, Lea, and his grandchild, Carlotta, age 7.  Lea, a 26-year-old pharmacist, took the day off from work and joined us so serve as translator.  Her English was impeccable!

Here, then are scenes from the remainder of our day in the Kashah of Mazara:

(For all photos, click on the image for a full screen view.)

More scenes from the day:

Cathedral of 1000 Angels

Coming up next: SICILY & AMALFI COAST #10: SEEING SALT PRODUCTION & MOTORING TO MOZIA