ALL I WANT FOR XMAS....

Football's - and my - favourite Sicilian naughty boy, Mario Balotelli, has some difficulty when it comes to gift-wrapping and blames being left-handed:

But give the guy a break - he's probably never had to do it! In Italy you hardly ever have to gift-wrap as almost all shops will do it for you, at no extra charge, all year round.  I brought this roll of festive wrap with me from Britain seven years ago [having been at that "might as well throw it in" point with the move] and I think it's going to last a few more Christmases yet:

If that team manager of yours  [you can tell he's Italian too by the elegant way he ties his scarves] would like to gift-wrap you, Mario, I'll be very happy to unwrap you on Christmas morning.  Sigh....

IT'S A WRAP

It became necessary for me to buy a small suitcase and I just  have to show you the wrapping:  a gap for the handle at the top, an opening at the bottom so that you can trundle your purchase home and, once you do get home, you can use the wrapping as a clothes cover!

Italian ingenuity at its best.

THE SWEETEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT....

A belated but much appreciated gift from one of my six-year-old charges this afternoon:

What, I wonder, can be inside this carefully wrapped package?  [You may just be able to see that my name is written on it.]

It contains the sweetest presents ever!

There is a little note, too.  [I have blanked out my young student's surname, for obvious reasons.]

Guess who was the most hugged little boy in Modica today!

SALE E PEPE

Looking for a birthday present for a friend this morning, I reflected that I would never have the pazienza to work in an Italian shop. As I've mentioned before, the assistants will gift-wrap for you at no extra charge, and very pretty the packages usually are. I'm hopeless at gift-wrapping: I end up with sellotape stuck to the furniture, the edge of the scissors, my fingers, my clothes, the floor and even Simi [who usually literally sticks her nose into the paper for good measure]; sellotape everywhere, in fact, but on the package.

The trouble with buying presents is that I always see something that I just must have for myself as well and today I couldn't resist these charming shells, made into cruets and using buttons as the sprinklers. As if I need more cruets... The ones on the stand are what I put out when I'm entertaining and you may notice I've got red pepper, not black, in there. This is because many Sicilians believe black pepper to be bad for them. The green ones next to these are just functional, for when I'm cooking and don't want to use coarse seasalt and am using white pepper. The "cows" are to cheer me up and the cruets in the centre were a souvenir from Nevada. I bought the "prickly pear" set on one of my first visits to Sicily. I was going to collect cruets at one time, but I haven't the pazienza for that, either. And I'd need a new dresser to put them in!

Now I'm waiting for James to come over and berate me for buying something I don't need...

A PARADOX

Looking back at the week's posts, it occurs to me that I have been rather grumpy and it's nearly a week since I posted a food picture! I haven't even been down to Eurochocolate, as the cold, damp weather has caused a flare-up of my arthritis. [I will try and get to the festival tomorrow or Sunday.]

Thinking again about the bureaucracy that has irritated me this week, I never cease to marvel at the Italians' ability to put up with the waiting, form-filling and literal rubber-stamping that accompanies every single transaction, not to mention their tolerance of inefficiency! The different attitudes that the Italians and the British have regarding this is perhaps best summed up by a conversation I had with friend Irma about that persistent bugbear of mine, the post office: "Oh, I go back at siesta time if the queue is long", said Irma. Apart from the fact that going back later, without a car, to an area of the town in which I have no other errands to do would be very inconvenient for me, my instinctive reaction is that it is not for me to go back when the queue is shorter, but for the post office, as a public service, to operate efficiently whenever it is open.

Yet it is this very patience and forbearance, along with attention to detail, which make Italy the country it is: Little shops survive because Italians have the patience to go to them and maybe the many pleasant courtesies that you exchange as you carry out your day to day business come about precisely because you just have to talk and ask questions during all the long transactions! Anything you buy will be gift-wrapped for you free of charge upon request and this practice continues because Italians care about detail and are willing to wait while it is done. [It can often take a very long time, as the shop assistants are fussy about the finished look of their packages; I have often seen them decide that one is not pretty enough and start all over again!] Would we in Britain, at Christmas, say, be prepared to wait while the parcels are wrapped, over and over again, at shop after shop? I doubt it, with our frenetic lifestyles.

I just wanted to end the week by reiterating that I happen to love this fascinating, beautiful and often exasperating country!