BOOK REVIEW - "LA MIA CASA E PIENA DI SPECCHI"

When I first settled in Italy and started watching Italian cookery programmes, I wondered who the striking, well-dressed woman who often appeared as a judge was, for there was something very familiar about her. Then I saw  her surname on the credits - SCICOLONE - and this was familiar too. Scicolone, Scicolone.... of course! This was the birth surname of Sophia Loren and Anna Maria Villani Scicolone is her sister.

In Britain, as an Italian teacher who had always followed the Italian news, I knew of the politician Alessandra Mussolini but I hadn't realised who her mother was. Anna Maria Scicolone's first husband was the dictator's fourth son, the jazz musician Romano Mussolini and Alessandra is their daughter. The marriage failed, largely due to Romano Mussolini's womanising but it is clear from Maria Scicolone's writing that she always held him in great affection.

I decided to find out more about Maria Scicolone and my chance came when the film of her autobiography, La mia casa è piena di specchi, [My House is Full of Mirrors] was shown on Italian TV a couple of years ago. In this film, Sophia Loren plays her own mother. This was not the first time she had done so, for there is an English language film of her life [Sophia Loren - Her Own Story], but this Italian version focusses on Maria's story.

After I had seen the film, I read Maria Scicolone's book of the same name and found it a fascinating and very honest tale: It is not a chronological  autobiography but is divided into chapters describing the sisters' young lives in Pozzuoli [Campania], their relationship with their determined but domineering mother, Sophia's rise to fame and Maria's struggles to obtain an education and be known as someone other than "the sister."

Maria, like Sophia, was the illegitimate child of Romilda Villani and Riccardo Scicolone but, whilst Riccardo recognised Sophia as his child, he refused to acknowledge paternity of Maria, who had to be locked away in her bedroom during his visits and saw him only through the keyhole. But there came a time, some years later, when Riccardo needed money. Romilda said she would help him if he would recognise Maria as his child and thus it was that she took the Scicolone surname.

Romilda and Maria had a troubled relationship, as mothers and daughters often do, but they loved one another dearly. Romilda didn't want Maria to continue with her studies before she was legitimised, because of the shame this might have brought upon the family, and afterwards she seemed to have thought it was too late and was also probably jealous. Maria, though, was, in her way, as determined as her mother and went on to obtain a degree in literature in 1976.

Maria often travelled with Sophia and Carlo Ponti and in Hollywood became interested in cookery. She writes of the friendships she formed with several Hollywood stars, including Cary Grant and Frank Sinatra and later she wrote a recipe book based on the meals she had enjoyed at their homes.

I was fascinated by Maria's account of her relationship with Benito Mussolini's widow,  the formidable Donna Rachele, who seems to have had a soft spot for the naive and lonely young girl and taught Maria to cook the dishes of her region.

Hospitalised for depression after her divorce, Maria fell in love with her doctor and has a happy second marriage.  

My one issue with the book is the lack, on Maria's part, of any censure of her deceased father-in-law's political ideas. That said, "Sophia Loren's sister", as she was known for so long, might have appeared, to the world, to have everything. This book charts her long and difficult search for autonomy. 

La mia casa è piena di specchi - wedding scene

BENVENUTI A POLLICA?

If Thursday night, until a few weeks ago, was "sexy chef night" on Italian television, Tuesday night now promises my "treat of the media week" in the form of the return of the two fictional chefs from the north and south of Italy respectively, Carlo Conforti [Fabrizio Bentivoglio] and Paolo Perrone [Giorgio Tirabassi] in the second series of Benvenuti a Tavola.

By the end of the first series, the rival chefs' wives had become friends, constantly exasperated by the antics of their husbands and forever trying to keep the uneasy peace between them.  The beautiful Pilar has left the Conforti restaurant but another [alas] beautiful Hispanic cook-cum-waitress has joined the Perrone establishment. High-school lovers Alessia and Federico have gone their separate ways in order to continue their studies and the romantic focus is now on Perrone's younger daughter. Popular Sicilian comic Teresa Mannino, presumably busy on Zelig Circus, has also left the cast for now. Renato, Conforti's sous-chef and fellow-conspirator, has been grieving for Mannino's character Lucia but has become the reluctant carer of a very cute dog. He becomes less reluctant when he realises there is money in the offing as a reward for his trouble but wait, Renato! Your boss wants some of that money and last week proposed a merger of the two restaurants to Paolo Perrone. "Mai" ["Never"], said Perrone but later, due to another Conforti plot, he is persuaded. Perrone makes it a condition of the merger that the two families travel to Pollica [in Salerno Province, Campania] to sign the agreement, as the only notary he trusts lives there and this is where some real-life controversy began the day after the episode was aired last week:

As I watched the episode, I was enchanted by the scenes of Pollica and decided to add the little town to my list of places I have yet to visit in Italy. I was also amused by the Perrone family's elderly relatives, who, declaring that they had had little forewarning of the visit, apologised for the modest food they were about to put before their guests. They then, of course, unveiled a feast fit for several kings and I had to smile as that is exactly what would happen in Sicily. Having gone to all this trouble, the elderly lady cooks sagely nodded and said they hadn't liked Conforti all along when it was revealed that he was trying to trick Perrone.

But what's this? In the next day's news, there was the Mayor of Pollica, Stefano Pisani, lamenting the fact that the "Pollica" scenes were not shot in Pollica at all.  Mr Pisani was careful to say that he does not want to cause any argument - he just wishes to point out that he thinks the production team had lost an opportunity and he would like to invite them, with all the actors, to spend some time in the "real" Pollica and get to know its beauty, its nearby blue-flag beaches and, most importantly, the local food. He assures the TV team that the Pollichesi would accord them a fantastic welcome.

Never mind, Mr Pisani - Pollica is still on my list!

Note:  I can't find any videos from the second series on youtube but there are some clips on this page of the programme's website.

OF MORTAL COILS AND COINS

Bidding ends today for the concession to run Modica's municipal cemetery:  yes, in these hard times even death is being privatised and cemeteries are being sold all over Italy.  In one town in Campania, as we have seen, citizens are simply not allowed to die!

The Modica cemetery is full and bereaved relatives are having to bury their loved ones elsewhere, despite the fact that 1,200 citizens have each already paid a 50 percent deposit on a burial plot in their home town.

The company which wins the concession will be able to manage the cemetery for 26 years but representatives of Italy's three biggest trade unions in the town are, understandably, against the scheme.  They say that a council-run cemetery is a fundamental need of all citizens, on a par with their need for a water service.  And the citizens themselves?  According to local reports they do not much care who runs the cemetery - they just want  it to be expanded and to be managed efficiently.

Meanwhile one business that does not appear to have been hit by the economic crisis is that of undertaking and it was strange to see a row of fairy lights outside one funeral director's premises at Christmas.  Another undertaker whose premises are near my home has his drivers sitting outside, gossiping while they wait for custom [which always comes] in all seasons, weather conditions and at all hours - all hours, that is, except those of the siesta for no one in Modica, it seems, is so inconsiderate as to shuffle off this mortal coil during siesta.

On a cheerier note, you may like to read my article on the causes of longer life expectancy in Sicily for Times of Sicily today.

SICILY, USA?

So anxious are certain Italian politicians to rid themselves of what they regard as the "burden" of the South that one of their number, Mario Borghezio of the Lega Nord,  has suggested that Sicily and Campania be sold to the USA.  The idea that Sicily might become a US state dates back at least to the end of World War 11 and the era of Salvatore Giuliano so its resurgence in another unsettled period is hardly a surprise.  But let's take a light-hearted look at what the idea could mean in practice:

As far as I know, no one, this time round, has asked the Americans if they want to buy but their arrival might speed up transactions at the post office.  On second thoughts, the narrow street that is home to the Modica Sorda post office is far too narrow for all the indigenous cars whose drivers insist on entering it so I can't quite see Cadillacs managing the parking. Most of Modica's streets would have to be widened, in fact, and I think the Modicani would be accommodating about this, understanding as they do the necessity of driving wherever they want to go.

The only time when it is permitted not to drive is during the passeggiata, which takes place after work but before dinner on weekdays and any time after siesta until dinner time on Sundays.  This is when men and women parade in their finery along a set route and when you reach the end of the street or promenade you turn around and walk its whole length again.  It is also where boy meets girl, man courts woman, local gossip is exchanged and fashion trends are set.  It is essential, ladies, to throw on as much bling as possible and the men will blend in once they get used to wearing trainers with suits.  [The trainers, by the way, must be by Gucci.]

But we are jumping ahead, for our happy band of American administrators will need to take a siesta after all that driving and competing for parking spaces, followed by lunch. When they wake up, it will not be time for dinner, as at home, but to head back to the office for a few hours.  Then, having fulfilled their passeggiata duties and survived until the earliest possible hour at which a Sicilian might consider dining - at around 8.30 pm - they may be relieved to know that Sicily does have its own fast food in the form of focacce and arancini.  [Modica even saw off a McDonald's a few years ago so it is better not to mention Big Macs here.]

Pizza, though, is definitely not fast food and should you decide to go out for one you will have to show pazienza while it is cooked in a traditional, stone oven.  It will occur to no one to offer you an aperitvo during this considerable wait so you will have to do what the locals do and order a plate of chips to fill both the time and your stomach.  You are expected to consume one whole pizza each, not between you but don't worry because when it comes it will be so delicious that you will have no difficulty.

Afterwards you will take another passeggiata as you move on to a bar known for its pastries and you might even get to bed at around 1 am or later on Saturdays.  Oh yes, the pace of life might be slower but believe me, you will need all your energy!

Talking of the pace of life, the pace of Italian bureaucracy, as everybody knows, is even slower. No sale has been agreed and I think that, in Sicily, we 'll be happily staying exactly as we are.

NO DYING - BY ORDER

This "late" news tonight is not a Sicilian story but it's too good not to share with you and it does come from Southern Italy:

In a country where the mayors of small towns have been introducing some absurd and incomprehensible bans over the past couple of years, the Mayor of Falciano del Massico, a town of 4,000 inhabitants in Caserta Province [Campania] has issued the "ultimate" prohibition - he has forbidden the town's citizens to die.  

You may, like me, be wondering what exactly the punishment will be for those who dare to flout this new law but this is not known. 

The problem is, you see, that Falciano del Massico was a hamlet of neighbouring Carinola until 1964.  In that year, the town gained its autonomy and own administration but the one thing it did not gain was a cemetery.  The boundary changes meant that the cemetery became the property of the Carinola administration and it is now full.

The Mayor of Falciano del Massico, Giulio Cesare Fava, says he issued the ban to draw the attention of the relevant authorities to the town's plight and he has certainly drawn the attention of the media!

Funnily enough, recently a "friend" of mine has been telling me that I should start thinking about my funeral arrangements, despite my reassuring her that I am not planning to leave just yet.  I think I'll tell her I am going to live in Falciano del Massico.