Saudi Arabia? The land of sand over oil? The Bush family’s favorite Middle East hangout? Birthplace of hijackers? Hotbed of Arab intrigue?

Why would the mayor of Providence go there? What is there on the Arabian Peninsula that has anything to do with Rhode Island’s capital city?

OK, so those picketing Providence firefighters can be aggravating sometimes and really put a crimp in the enjoyment of public office. It’s probably nice to know you won’t be confronting their lingering displeasure for a few days.

But Saudi Arabia?

And I’m sure it makes for a much easier, more comfortable morning to know that The Buddy Cianci Show has not been picked up by WOIL-FM in beautiful downtown Riyadh.

But Saudi Arabia?

All right, all right, you’ve never been able to get the theme from Lawrence of Arabia out of your head and you remember those wonderful times wrapping yourself in a beach towel and doing your best Peter O’Toole during family trips to the beach.

But Saudi Arabia?

And maybe Haven Brothers doesn’t offer a supremo falafel.

But Saudi Arabia?

Yeah, that’s where he’s gone. Mayor David Cicilline has not followed a long Providence tradition in taking some time to visit the largest oil exporter in the world — home to Mecca and Medina, the two holiest places in Islam.

Cicilline and some other mayors were on one of those trips that seems to have nothing to do with running an American city. That’s probably because it doesn’t.

But they’ve gone because they can, and the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Washington is picking up the tab and the U.S. Conference of Mayors says it’s all about exposing the mayors to the economy, culture and government of Saudi Arabia.

And that exposure translates into what exactly for Olneyville and Silver Lake? Obviously, the mayor is not returning with thoughts of adopting the Saudi monarchy to municipal government. Is he?

Perhaps there is some sense that, with all of Providence’s problems solved, the Middle East is an obvious place with which to share the good feelings and many triumphs of the Renaissance City.

Still, this is a strange one. The Providence-Saudi Arabia connection has never been much talked about. News of the trip actually seemed to claim less attention than the spat over who would fill in for the mayor while he was away.

Rhoades Alderson, the mayor’s communications director, said yesterday that the mayor could make some contacts for commercial exchange on the trip.

But short of a couple of super tankers headed up the Bay filled with buck-a-gallon gasoline, that exchange is probably not going to resonate in a big way with the people in Mount Pleasant.

And Alderson said he was not aware of any plans to open a WaterFire franchise on either the Persian Gulf or the Red Sea.

The mayor is back in the United States and will be back in Providence today. He had no sooner set foot back in the USA than he was off to Orlando, Fla. where he joined School Supt. Tom Brady at an education forum.

For the globetrotting mayor, the forum might actually offer something he can bring back home.

Plans have yet to be announced for the mayor’s speech on the hometown benefits of his trip to Saudi Arabia. But when it is scheduled, many and perhaps all of the members of Providence’s Saudi Arabian community will surely want to attend.

bkerr@projo.com