My first trip to Sicily in 1998 was more devoted to meeting my Sicilian relatives than searching for insulators. The fact was that even if I wanted to go hunting for Sicilian insulators, I would not have time for it. I spent most of the trip meeting over 100 of my Sicilian relatives and eating one delicious seven course meal after another.

I decided very early on that it was not going to be that way this time. Planning the trip with my father and two kids, who all accompanied me on the trip, I reserved time on the itinerary dedicated to me for the pursuit of insulators. My father has a particular distaste for insulators stemming from my childhood hobby of bringing home bucket after bucket of insulators from the nearby New York Central Railroad. However, seeing the opportunity to enrich his grandchildren with Sicilian culture, he had no problem taking the kids with him while allowing me to go off on my own.

After crossing the Straits of Messina on the overnight train from Rome, night gave way to day and I had my first opportunity to look for those crown jewels of the mythical island of Sicily. Of course I was torn between observing the spectacular Mediterranean coast line, the coastal mountains and insulators. Being a veteran insulator hunter and collector, I was able to take in the scenery and spot insulators simultaneously. 

From my previous observations, I had concluded that there is very little evidence that glass or even porcelain insulators were ever used for telecommunications. Nonetheless, I spotted what looked like a communications pole line, with three or four cross-arms, paralleling the rail line at some distance. Unfortunately for me as a glass collector, the insulators were all white porcelain. I spent the remaining time on the train checking-out various high voltage transmission lines, all replete with green and clear glass multi-parts of various sizes and green or clear glass suspension insulators.

After arriving at the city of my relatives and spending several days making the rounds and eating delicious seven course meals, it was time to break away and see what I could discover. So, I took my father and my kids to the bus station and sent them to Palermo for the day.

Having no idea of where to find any insulators, I drove to the next town over in a small Fiat my uncle kept on hand for visitors. Like most European roads, Sicilian roads do not necessarily go directly from one town to the other without meandering several miles in between. Nonetheless I found my way there and back and on the way back I saw the shimmer of glass on a downed pole. I pulled the car over and found a pile of wooden and concrete poles where the power company had recently replaced a line. I was able to retrieve two CD 1055 green glass spools on the end of one of the poles. The other poles were outfitted with CD 522s in green and clear glass but pieces were all that was left of them. 

Having packed the spools away in my backpack and headed down the road again, it occurred tome that I had been looking up at the insulators in use and that maybe I should concentrate on looking toward the ground. Almost immediately I started seeing piles of concrete poles along side the road. Unfortunately I only found two more spools.

Mid-August in Sicily is the time of year the farmers burn their fields to free up the soil for plowing. Their practice is to set the fires and walk away allowing the field to burn by themselves. The fires burn everything in their path including in-service wooden poles. They also bake the insulators on the downed poles. Several times I had a CD 522 or a spool in my hands, only to have the pieces shatter upon my attempts to remove them. 

One of my Sicilian cousins, Giovanni, is an electrician who had given me two CD 522s on my last trip. Upon visiting him and his family, I discovered that he had already gotten me five insulators, one glass CD 677.7 MIVA T-bar, two white porcelain T-bars and two other white porcelain pieces. While I was very grateful for his efforts, I told him that I was more interested in the glass pieces than the porcelain ones. 

Nine glass t-bars from Sicilian buildings and 
photo (below, left) of how the t-bars were installed.

Feeling bad about not having gotten me more glass pieces, the following morning Giovanni picked me up in a borrowed truck and ladder and we drove into town. Once in I town, we started plucking the abandoned glass T-bars off the side of buildings. It was a normal summer day in town, typical of any Sicilian city, with old women dressed in black carrying on their daily chores, pensioned men walking the streets in jackets and ties discussing the politics of the day and children playing games. It was no surprise that, being out of the ordinary, we attracted a bit of attention to ourselves. 

Downed pole from narrow gauge railroad.

Street light with four glass spools and a glass guy wire strain.

Most of the spectators simply watched. However an old lady about four feet tall and dressed in black approached us suspiciously. As my Italian was not quite good enough to answer her let alone understand what she said, I thought I would let my cousin handle this one. Very calmly he told her that the "lights" were being upgraded and that we were removing the old equipment. She was not satisfied with the answer provided to her but after getting no where with my cousin she spouted what I assumed was a expletive in Sicilian dialect and walked away frustrated. We retrieved nine glass T-bar's that day.

Later in the trip I had another chance to get away so I drove to a spot I saw on one of our excursions - an old narrow gauge steam rail bed. I walked along the bed for miles looking for evidence of an old pole line and trying to imagine the old steam locomotives hauling sulfur down from the mountains to the ports. The pungent smell of wild fennel in the air and a gentle Mediterranean breeze made up for the 100 degree plus heat. I found the remnants of a pole line but no insulators other than pieces of white porcelain.

CD 375 FIDENZA multiparts.

On the return trip, I drove through a town where I noticed a unique street light arrangement. The lights were spaced every hundred feet or so suspended from guy wires attached to the buildings on either side of the street. The power feed ran from light to light paralleling the street. At each street light were four green glass spools carrying the power feed. The guys were insulated by green glass block guy insulators, the likes of which I had never seen before. Neither the spools nor the blocks were in the Albers/Woodard book.

Some of the interesting porcelain pieces found  on the outside walls of old buildings  including a t-bar and a "spook".

Power poles with a mixture of glass and porcelain. . .		and a beautiful group of four purple CD 522s!

After taking some pictures, I drove around a bit thinking I might find a junk pile of these pieces, but I had no such luck.

Toward the end of my stay in Sicily, I spotted a downed high voltage pole with six green glass multi-parts. Why the pole was there is a mystery to me because there were no other power transmission facilities in the area. The multi-parts were all CD 375 FIDENZAs. I would have liked to grab all six of them, but having noticed the disgusted expression on my father's face and the thought of lugging the things around, I grabbed one, took a picture and continued on my way to a scheduled sightseeing excursion leaving the remaining five pieces behind. 

On the return train ride to Rome, I caught a glimpse of several CD 522s in purple and spotted what appeared to be a CD 128 on the side of railway building. Soon thereafter I spotted another CD 128 in light blue on the side of a railway shed. Having no other option, I made note of the locations leaving any retrieval of such pieces to a future trip. 

As with any other vacation, this trip to Sicily was too short and consequentially too little time was spent on my favorite pastime, hunting for insulators. The future looks bright, though. I recently received a call from a cousin who was so intrigued with my search for insulators that he has already retrieved several more pieces which are in transit to me at this time. Needless to say, I can't wait to see them.