THE GATES OF THE SEA

As much on land as underwater is this tour of Sicily, its coasts and its history, for Diole wanders far in his progress to the past. From the Straits of Messina, to Cefalu, Patermo, Trapani, Eryx, Motye, Selinante, Agrigento, Gela, Syracuse, Acireate and Taormina, his submarine ""kingdom of silence"" is as rewarding as the earthly reminders of dead civilizations and the loneliness of diving equals the loneliness of the ruins. The classic cultures, people and events, ghosts of the marine past, are imbued with his hypnotic concentration; dally happenings on his travels bring his trip back into the world of the living; his reflective philosophy is expanded as he contemplates the mystic relationship of man and the sea. Almost a psychic investigator, Diole here indulges a certain intoxication of that, for those with a devotion to antiquity, will be heady stuff. For the ordinary skin diver, this may prove too exquisite.