Most streets lead to the sea

Here in Castellammare, most streets eventually lead down to the sea. Today this beautiful natural patrimony is appreciated and exploited for tourism and  general good living such as pleasure boats, fancy cafes and restaurants. It wasn't always so, however. The Sicilian, who according to Quasimodo, the poet who won the Nobel price for literature on 1959, and himself Sicilian, is an island inside an island,  and never looked at the sea with pleasure as it was the source of most tragedies. Putting aside the natural disasters caused by the sea to fishermen and others, the sea was the harbinger of invasions, pirates, and other deplorable events and outrages. As a result, a sort of ambivalence  and a sort of love hate relationship developed. Today of course the sea is seen as a great natural treasure and the source of wealth, although it is not yet fully protected environmentally as is should be, but things are improving along these lines.