The slow pace of sailing aboard a luxurious brigantine to discover the beauties of Sicily
by Elena Barassi
From afar, the elegant lines of the three-masted vessel, bobbing in the waves with the ochre-coloured 16th-century bastions of Valletta rising behind her, have something magical and romantic that harks back to a bygone era. It is almost sunset when 27 men harnessed, they begin to move with the skill of an acrobat, combining strength, balance and flexibility, on knotted rope ladders, unfurling meters and meters of sails that billow in the wind. The Sea Cloud II, with 23 sails hoisted to the masts, is ready to set sail for Sicily. Launched in 2001, the brigantine is a tribute to the Sea Cloudthe iconic gift that Wall Street broker Edward Francis Hutton gave to his wife Marjorie Merriweather Post in 1931. It was Marjorie who made the world’s largest private sailing yacht, with eight cabins and 60 crew members and hosting royalty and presidents, a small floating world of luxury with gold swan-shaped taps and French antiques. Loaned to the U.S. Navy during World War II, then sold to a Caribbean dictator, whose playboy son enjoyed partying the vessel with champagne and Hollywood stars, it was later purchased
by the current owners and is now back on the world’s oceans. With such a glorious legacy, the Sea Cloud II fully embodies the golden age of sailing and, as the sails fill in the breeze and all around is silence and calm, you are transported to a refined bygone era. Only 47 cabins where canopy beds, period furnishings, marble bathtubs, fireplaces and large arched windows inspire relaxation. A privileged position for sipping a coffee at dawn, watching the sailing ship, completely manoeuvred by hand, slowly reach the mainland, on the lido deck you can read a book curled up on comfortable deck chairs, wait for the golden hour with the background notes of a piano and watch the dolphins dancing all around. A more meditative place, the library, with nautical books and period furnishings, is an invitation to fantasize about the book Fifty Places to Sail Before You Die, but the sight of the crew climbing the shrouds, scaling the 3 masts in perfect synchrony until reaching the highest point of the mainmast, is undoubtedly astonishing from the Sun deck, where, in 
navigation, you abandon yourself to the rays of the sun. Life on board is marked by delicious afternoon teas, sunset aperitifs based on champagne, fascinating reports held by expert historians on the places that will be visited during the trip but also by that intense and languid dolce far niente and by chats with the other guests about the various experiences and destinations to be reached on a sailing ship.
Discovering Sicily
Never banal, the excursions, in small groups, always have a deep connection with the territory, with the culture and also with the food and wine delights. In Trapani, the first port reached after setting sail from Malta, you can choose to enjoy the day in the clear waters of Favignana, but also to discover Erice, which perched on Mount San Giuliano seems to protect the city of Trapani from above or, alternatively, to discover the historic cellars of a Sicilian excellence, the Marsala. The arrival in the lively Palermo, shaped by Arabs, Swabians and Normans, is an awakening from a satisfying languor. Walking along the streets overlooking art nouveau, baroque and even gothic buildings is all a musical chatter, while
in the air there is an explosion of the scent of panelle and sfincioni. After visiting the Palatine Chapel, where Byzantine mosaics contrast with very rare Islamic paintings, the Cathedral, the monumental architectural complex where you can observe the 16th century façade, the late Baroque dome and the apse with Arab-Norman decorations and the neoclassical Teatro Massimo, the doors of the private residence Palazzo Francavilla open, overlooking Piazza Verdi and the Teatro Massimo. Here the beauty of this noble house emerges, especially in the rooms redesigned at the end of the 19th century by Ernesto Basile, who at the time was directing the construction of the Teatro Massimo. One after the other, the rooms of the Piano Nobile are discovered, from the Liberty library to the winter garden, a masterpiece by Giuseppe Enea, among Ducrot furniture, eighteenth and nineteenth century stretchers, fine furnishings, works by Patania, Capodimonte ceramics, spectacular chandeliers and even a period elevator that is still in working order, furnished with an internal sofa designed by the architect Basile himself. Sailing towards Lipari, the Meligunis (sweet, in Greek) you wake up at dawn to admire the never-sleeping volcano of Stromboli in all its magnificence. From afar, the largest of the Aeolian Islands looks like a painting with the fishing boats swaying in the sea, the plateaus surrounded by Mediterranean scrub and, in the center, the small village of Marina Corta. A maze of cobbled streets, from which you reach the Rocca del Castello, surrounded by mighty walls, the Belvedere Quattrocchi from which the gaze is lost on the horizon to conclude with a dip at the Papesca Beach, the superstar of the Lipari coastline thanks to the white color of the sand due to the residual presence of pumice stone. You walk among history in Syracuse, the largest city of the ancient world during its maximum splendor. Of which the Greek Theater located inside the Neapolis Archaeological Park, between the rocky sides of the 
Colle Temenite. But it is, without a doubt, the island of Ortigia, “u’scogghiu” as the Syracusans call it, that steals the heart. In the shade of the narrow streets that reveal a perfect fusion of different eras, including Greek, Byzantine, Aragonese, Renaissance and Baroque, you reach the Cathedral, built on a Doric temple dedicated to the goddess Minerva, with the sensation that this island is a world in itself, immersed in a suspended atmosphere. The last stop, Taormina, the most glamorous essence of Sicily, is the scent of orange blossoms and lemons, it is Etna in the background that rumbles and smokes continuously, it is the Greek Theater from which the view of the bay of Mazzarò, that of the Giardini di Naxos and the Strait of Messina, is to be contemplated in absolute silence. The arrival in Malta is, as in all other ports, acclaimed by a crowd of spectators contemplating her elegant silhouette, the polished brass, the teak decks, the tall masts, the sails caressed by the breeze that immediately bring to mind all the romanticism of a true windjammer of a bygone era.