A GREAT DAY FOR DONNAFUGATA

One of my favourite places in the Province of Ragusa, the Castello di Donnafugata, was the centre of public and media attention on Saturday as the romantic setting for the wedding of the gorgeous Luca Zingaretti [of Montalbano fame] and his long-term partner, the Neapolitan actress Luisa Ranieri.

Among the guests were the actress Isabella Ferrari, Montalbano producer Alberto Sironi, the actors Cesare Bocci [Mimi Augello in the Montalbano series] and Peppino Mazzotta [Inspector Fazio] and, of course, the couple's one-year-old daughter Emma. There was a red carpet,  from which Mr Zingaretti greeted well-wishers, the castle walls were bedecked with soft lighting, the dinner was cooked by chef Ciccio Sultano and the cake was made by the Di Pasquale brothers of Ragusa's Pasticceria Di Pasquale.

There will be no immediate honeymoon as Mr Zingaretti is completing filming of a Montalbano series.  Although born in Rome, he says he always feels at home in Sicily.

Congratulations to the happy couple- I'm off to hurl myself on the bed and cry now.

ITALY MAGAZINE ROUND-UP - 13

Here is my personal pick of last week's Italy Magazine articles:

For my Patti Chiari column I wrote about our lovely Castello di Donnafugata in Ragusa Province.  This is not the Donnafugata mentioned in Il Gattopardo or the one in Marlene de Blasi's book!

Our blog of the week was Napoli Unplugged.  Do take a look at it because I am sure you will enjoy it as much as I do.

Our final summer romantic film set in Italy had to be a golden oldie so we looked at September Affair, a weepie with an improbable plot but great actors and a real tear-jerker of a theme song.

Italians, it seems, are rebelling against paying for supplementary services in hotels and, like me, many of them find minibar items to be overpriced.  Let's all rebel together!  In my opinion you can never have enough cookery books and here is one that I am determined to add to my collection, especially as the proceeds will go to the L'Aquila Earthquake Relief Fund.  My Dad [who was not religious] always said that if you wished to worship God, it made sense to do it among the most beautiful of His creations so I would love to see this tree cathedral near Bergamo. Finally, in the news section, we have two police tales:  the first made me chuckle and I loved this heartwarming story of a life saved by the swift actions of a blogger and the Catania police.  Let us hope that the young man concerned is receiving the help and support he needs now. 

I shall be participating in the Bloggers Unite World Suicide Prevention Day event tomorrow.

ICE CREAM OF THE WEEK

There's been some tough competition but the best ice cream of the past 7 days was this pistacchio and melon one at Donnafugata on Saturday.

A VISIT TO DONNAFUGATA - 2

To my delight, there were three traditional carretti siciliani on display at Donnafugata and I was able to photograph these to my heart's content. The following paragraph about Sicilian carts is from a previous post of mine, so regular readers may like to skip it:

The Ancient Greeks brought the concept of a cart shaped in this way to the island but the painting of the vehicles did not begin until the second half of the nineteenth century, the purpose being to protect the wood from the sun and rain. The tradition continued into the early twentieth century and the painting became more and more ornate so that even when the carts were used by farm labourers, they showed off the wealth of the landowner. Scenes from folklore and legend were most often depicted and the red and yellow colours of Palermo's flag were frequently used. Sadly, nowadays the carts are found only in museums and, sadder still, the last traditional cart painter in Sicily may very soon be forced to give up his work. The various parts of the carts are now collectors' pieces, especially the plaque underneath the cart bearing the painter's name.

This is my first attempt at a slideshow!

A VISIT TO DONNAFUGATA

The last time I visited Donnafugata the Castle was being restored and the grounds were also a mess so I was very happy to spend some time there today with Rosa and her husband.

I should explain that this is not the Donnafugata made famous by the film Il Gattopardo - that is in the Province of Agrigento. "Our" Donnafugata is here in the Province of Ragusa.

Disappointingly, perhaps, the Castle's name does not mean "The woman who fled" but is the result of a linguistic corruption: the 10th - 11th century Arabs, finding a fresh water fountain on the site, first built there and named it "Ayn As Jafat" ["Fountain of health"] and this became "Ronnafuata" in dialect and later "Donnafugata." However, there are romantics who still insist that Queen Blanche of Navarre ran away from a loveless marriage and was later imprisoned there, so you may believe whichever version you prefer.

The Castle that we see today is largely due to the work and imagination of the 19th century politician, Barone Corrado Arezzo de Spuches [1824-95] and, with its mixture of architectural and landscaping styles, is a fine example of that era's eclecticism. I think Corrado must have been rather a jolly baron!

Visitors are understandably not allowed to take photographs inside the Castle but you can see some images of the rooms here while this model gives an idea of the overall structure:



Now I'll let you enjoy some of the exterior views and some shots of the grounds [and us!]




The leaves from the fig tree above were used as postcards in the Baron's time!


Above: views of the "French garden". The scent of rosemary here is sublime.

Above: terrace views. I think Rosa should have appeared in yesterday's "finery" post, don't you? The picture immediately above was taken from the terrace.

Above: Rosa and hubby on the steps.

Immediately above: a "coffee house" in the grounds for the Baron's guests.
Below: grotto and behind it a small "temple" in the grounds.

Below: side and rear views of the Castle.

I hope you have enjoyed this first visit to Donnafugata. There will be more photos later today or tomorrow.

IL GATTOPARDO - A MODERN CLASSIC

I don’t know quite why, browsing in a bookshop in Pinner, North London in 1967, I picked up a paperback entitled The Leopard, a novel written by one Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. I was studying for A levels in English Lit., French and Spanish at the time, so had no specific interest in Italy. [How that was to change!] However, the book looked interesting enough for me to buy and when I got home and started reading it I was immediately fascinated. Since then I have read it many times in Italian, “taught” it and have, of course, seen the wonderful film based upon it, in which Burt Lancaster, as the Prince of Salina, gives the performance of his life.

Set in the Risorgimento, Il Gattopardo [= "The Leopard” because there was a leopard, serval or ocelot in the coat of arms of the author's family] is the story of the last years of don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina, who cannot come to terms with the changes in Sicilian society which the unification of Italy will bring.

We meet his nephew, Tancredi, who is expected to marry the Prince’s daughter, Concetta, but falls in love with Angelica Sedàra, the daughter of a rich but non-aristocratic politician, thus breaking poor Concetta’s heart. Tancredi’s marriage symbolises the transfer of power in Sicily from the aristocracy to a corrupt new middle class.

The novel is about all this and more and I have to warn you that I find the ending unbearably sad. Yet I believe it is a key to understanding Sicily today. Here is one of my favourite passages from the book. Regular readers of this blog will know which parts resonate with me!

Don Fabrizio explains his refusal of a seat in the new Senate: “ Be patient now, Chevally. We Sicilians have become accustomed, by a long, a very long hegemony of rulers who were not of our religion and did not speak our language,to split hairs. If we had not done so we’d never have coped with Byzantine tax gatherers, with Berber Emirs, with Spanish viceroys. Now the bent is endemic, we’re made like that…… All Sicilian self-expression, even the most violent, is really wish-fulfilment; our sensuality is a hankering for oblivian, our shooting and knifing a hankering for death; our languour, our exotic vices, a hankering for voluptuous immobility, that is for death again; our meditative air is that of a void wanting to scrutinise the enigmas of Nirvana……. I said Sicilians, I should have added Sicily, the atmosphere, the climate, the landscape of Sicily. Those are the forces which have formed our minds together and perhaps more than alien pressure and various foreign invasions: this landscape which knows no mean between sensuous sag and hellish drought; which is never pretty, never ordinary, never relaxed, as should be a country made for rational beings to live in…..Six times thirty days of sun sheer down upon our heads; this summer of ours which is as long and glum as a Russian winter and which we struggle against with less success. If a Sicilian worked hard in any of those months he would expend energy enough for three. Then water is either lacking altogether or has to be carried from so far that every drop is paid for by a drop of sweat… This violence of landscape, this cruelty of climate, this continual tension is everything…. I don’t deny that a few Sicilians may succeed in breaking the spell of the island; but they would have to leave it very young….[else] they will remain convinced that their country is basically calumniated like all other countries, that the civilised norm is here, the oddities elsewhere.”

If you are going to read Il Gattopardo, or have already read it and are interested in its author, I do recommend David Gilmour’s biography of Tomasi di Lampedusa, The Last Leopard, for this, too, is a story of an aristocrat at odds with his times.

Sadly, the Donnafugata mentioned in the novel has virtually disappeared and is not the one near here, but take a walk around Baroque Modica and especially Baroque Ragusa and you may sense, as I do, the ghost of the Prince of Salina echoing your every step. I am so grateful that I can do that every day now, if I wish!