"IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD THE TIP..." - A "LET'S BLOG OFF" POST

Every two weeks, the blogosphere comes alive with something called a Blog Off. A Blog Off is an event where bloggers of every stripe weigh in on the same topic on the same day. The topic for this round of the Blog Off is "If you can't afford the tip, you can't afford the meal."

The excellent Vecchia Aidone restaurant
in  Enna, Sicily

Back in Britain I had a friend who refused to tip.  This used to irritate and embarrass me no end whenever we were out together but over the past few years I have softened a little towards her stance.

In the UK, unlike in the US, tipping is not obligatory.  You may get some surly looks in certain restaurants if you don't tip but the only person likely to yell at you for your omission is a London cabbie.

Whilst I used to round up taxi fares to the nearest pound in Britain and tip in restaurants provided the service had been good, I rarely tipped my hairdresser because the tip, added to the already high cost of his attention, would have rendered my visit to him prohibitively expensive. It is also a British convention not to tip the owner of a salon.

Not so long ago in Britain the postman, newspaper delivery boy or girl, refuse collectors and the milkman all expected tips at Christmas and these were usually given ungrudgingly by householders. I am even old enough to remember when we had coalmen and the coalman, too, got his tip.  But then there came an era when all these good folk started knocking on doors to ask for their "Christmas box" and I'm not sure that people gave it quite so willingly from then on.  Having been away from Britain for nearly seven years I am uncertain about the extent to which this custom continues, but it is rarer these days because there is more rotation among workers and local populations change faster than they used to.

Here in Italy, too, tipping is a matter of choice:  it is appreciated but not expected as a right in bars and restaurants and I even know of waiters and barmen who will hand back a proffered tip to a customer.  Why? Because taking the trouble to present even the simplest order elegantly and providing good service with a smile are regarded as routine duties and not as frills for which the customer has to pay a hidden "extra".  There are, however, a few public conveniences [restrooms] in tourist spots which the unfortunate traveller will find hard to exit without leaving the "optional" tip!

My friend in Britain felt that the tipping habit was resonant of the aristocrat distributing largesse and that its continuance actually stopped workers from fighting for better remuneration.  I have some sympathy with this view and regard tipping as being on a par with the boss who always buys his secretary a frivolous Christmas present rather than paying her the proper rate for her work.

To sum up, in a tipping culture I want a choice in the matter of whether I tip or not but I would really like to see the custom abolished. It is a social minefield and a throwback to the class system.  Pay everyone a decent wage instead!

Below is the full list of bloggers who are participating in this week's Blog Off:

TO SEE A FINE LADY

Ever since the Venere di Aidone or "Aidone Aphrodite" was brought back to Sicily in March, I've been longing to go and see her and on Saturday, reader, I made it.

Aidone, a town of 5,176 inhabitants, lies peacefully in the hills of the Province of Enna beyond Piazza Armerina.  Nearby is the Greek site of Morgantina, from which not only our "fine lady" but many other precious statues and objects have been stolen over the years.  The Venere was returned under an agreement signed by the Aidone and Getty Museums in 2007 and it must be emphasised that the Getty Museum's administrators have always denied acquiring the statue illegally. It was also in 2007 that experts proved that the statue was sculpted from "Ragusa stone".

Museo Archeologico di Aidone

My friend and I expected the little town to be crowded but, despite the presence of a goddess in their midst, life seemed to be going on as usual for the citizens and we were the only people in the specially renovated Museum.  

We passed through two rooms of other interesting antiquities before coming upon the Venere and in one of them a pair of smiling Acroliti, representing mother and daughter in Greek mythology, are displayed.  Only their faces, hands and feet remain but a mesh frame represents their bodies, they are seated and have been tastefully dressed.  These two figures were returned to the Museum from the US in 2009 and I have beside me a booklet which shows their faces as the box in which they travelled to Aidone was opened there.  I am sure that, upon their homecoming,  they are smiling more than usual. 

In the centre of a third room stands the Venere and I must say she is breathtaking:  So fluid are her robes, so majestic her pose and so calm her gaze that I have no doubt that this is a very confident goddess.  The body is of the famous Ragusan limestone though the exposed flesh is of marble and the lady's hair was probably of bronze.  Archaeologists have dated the statue to 420 - 410 BCE.

There are some who believe that she is not Venus but Demeter or her daughter Persephone, who both feature prominently in Greco-Sicilian myth, and there are others who believe she is Hera.  But I am sure she is a voluptuous Venus from an era before Botticelli brought misery upon Western women by portraying the goddess as tall, blonde, long-legged and slim.  

A reminder of our own era came as I spotted, among the ancient Greek hair ornaments, links from chains and fragments of pottery in one display case, a 100 lire coin from 1978.  This was found as illegally excavated land at Morgantina was being refilled.  In my opinion the Museum staff have done well to preserve it, for it is likely to be worth far more than all our euros soon!

On to lunch and, on the recommendation of the Museum staff, we repaired to the Vecchia Aidone restaurant:

The zucche must grow well in Aidone!

Would you like some grappa?

I hate ironing but I'm sure I would hate it even more if I had to use this!

There were homemade strozzapreti ["priest-strangling" pasta] with a sausage, wild fennel and tomato sauce

followed by veal stew for my companion

and rabbit braised in white wine with fennel and herbs for me:

Then there was a delicious mousse of fichi d'India [prickly pear] ....

...  all of which set us up nicely for our journey through the Enna rains back to Modica.  We were quiet as we travelled, thinking of "our" goddess and the tales she could tell.  Bentornata, dea.

BUON VIAGGIO TO A SPECIAL LADY

A very special lady known as the Aidone Aphrodite or the Venere di Morgantina leaves California for Sicily today.  The fifth century BC statue, whose story is here, is, at last, coming home and will arrive in Sicily some time between tomorrow and Friday.

The statue is travelling in three pieces and on 21st March experts from the Getty Museum will fly to Sicily to put her back together.  

Her presence is likely to change the town of Aidone, where a special place is being prepared for her at the Museum, forever as it will become a major tourist attraction.  A joint ticket for the mosaics at Piazza Armerina, the archaeological site of Morgantina and the Aidone Museum is already being planned.

The lady has an as yet unspecified date with President Napolitano and I can't wait to go and welcome her home myself!

RETURN OF THE LADY

I, for one, will be heading for Aidone in the spring to welcome a certain lady home.  This is my article about her for Italy Magazine this Tuesday:

Aphrodite Comes Home

A fifth century BC statue of Aphrodite is to return to its place of origin in Sicily during January following a long international argument and numerous analyses by experts. The “Aidone Aphrodite”, probably sculpted between 425 – 400 BC in Morgantina [Enna] was stolen in the second half of the twentieth century and was illegally sold to a London company. In 1986 it was acquired by the John Paul Getty Museum in the United States for $10 million. The Getty Museum’s administrators have always denied acquiring the statue illegally.

In 2001 a Sicilian court sentenced eighty-year-old Renzo Canavesi to two years’ imprisonment and imposed a fine of 40 billion lire for his part in removing the statue from Italy. Half of this figure represented the estimated value of the statue and the other half “moral damage” to the State of Italy.

The 2.2 – metre high statue is unusual for its period in that it is highly finished on all sides. Most statues of its time were finished only in front. The body parts of the statue are of marble but Aphrodite’s drapes are represented in calcareous stone. Some experts believe that the statue represents Persephone or her mother Demeter, who were both much venerated in Morgantina, rather than Aphrodite. The Getty Museum disputed the statue’s Sicilian provenance for some time but in 2007 experts proved that the stone used was from the Siracusa-Ragusa area of Sicily.

The statue is being returned under an agreement signed by Italy and the Getty Museum in 2007. It is the last of 40 antiquities to be returned to Italy by the Museum. The statue will be dismantled into three parts for the journey and a seismic wave isolator has been built to protect it from earthquakes once it arrives in Sicily.

Sebastiano Missineo, the Sicilian Regional Councillor for Culture, visited the Getty Museum to view the statue yesterday. He said that a special site will be prepared for it at the Archaeological Museum in Aidone. In the meantime, the statue will be displayed at the Palazzo dei Normanni in Palermo for Easter and will afterwards be moved to the Chiesa di San Domenico in Aidone.