ANOTHER MENTION

For those of you who read Italian, my post about tourist attractions in Modica being closed for Ferragosto has attracted the attention of the Corriere di Ragusa:

Thanks for the mention, guys!

SICILY SCENE'S REVIEW OF 2013

As I've mentioned many times, it's been a bad year for me, so let's start with this:

My personal disaster of the year

It's been a year in which I've lived through several personal disasters but when my fridge seemed to give up the ghost recently it was the last straw and the air turned a very deep blue around here! 

But on to something more positive....

My gadget of the year

This contraption for slicing onions is a godsend! 

It comes from Lidl Italia, who, as purveyors of dried cranberries, have disappointed me this year, it must be said.

My books of the year
[not necessarily books published in 2013, but a selection of books that I've read this year]:

At the beginning of the year, I enjoyed the second volume of Cardiff man Ken Follett's Century Trilogy, Winter of the World.  Volume three is due in September and I am looking forward to it. But come on, Ken bach, can't you hurry it up a bit?

I also loved Simon Mawer's The Girl Who Fell from the Sky.

Malala's autobiography, which I read in Italian, was compelling.

For Christmas I received this and Simi and I are enjoying perusing it every evening:

My cookbook of the year is this one, by Italy's "sexy chef" Carlo Cracco - recipes, new ideas, tips and a true masterclass.....

.... which brings me to ....

My TV programmes of the year

Number one has got to be Masterchef Italia and the third episode of the third series goes out on Thursday night. That's two hours of compulsive viewing for me so for the time being I won't be posting here on Thursdays, folks!

Italian TV often gets slated but Rai does turn out some interesting drama series. Of the 2013 offerings, I thought one of the best was Volare - La Grande Storia di Domenico Modugno. Perhaps it's because I can remember how, even in Britain, we all went around humming the song!

I've become addicted to Downton, via a friend who is kind enough to lend me her DVDs. I have watched some episodes in Italian, but let's face it - Maggie Smith's withering lines need to be delivered by Maggie Smith.

Monday nights at 11.30 find me tuned to Sky News UK for the press preview by Kevin Maguire and Andrew Pierce ["Toryboy"]. The banter between these two really cheers me up and I am waiting for them to get their own series.

My recipe of the year

Of the recipes I have invented myself, the winner is this pasta dish.

Post of the year on this blog

The most-read post of 2013 was not about Sicily at all, but about my memories of visiting the Verdi locations in the Emilia-Romagna.

My non-feminist of the year award

The neighbour who obsessively dusts her clothes line was a contender and the young fiancée of a certain Italian politician comes close but I have to hand the award to Miss Miley Cyrus [assuming she can stop twerking for long enough to receive it].

Words I don't want to hear in 2014

Twerking and the name of she who does it; phubbing [ignoring people to look at your mobile phone all the time and I don't want it done to me, either]; decadenza because the expulsion of Mr Berlusconi from the Senate took forever and succeeded in keeping him in the headlines; scontro [clash] because in Italy there's always a scontro somewhere in public life. How about a helpful and peaceful incontro [meeting] instead? Pazienza - a word that should be banned from the Italian language, especially in connection with public transport in Modica! And I don't want to hear any more of Darrell, Pip, Rob or Helen [all on The Archers].

My hopes for 2014

That there be no more tragedies like this.
That there be peace.
My personal hopes are to be held, understood and not judged and to be granted more time with my precious dog, Simi.
May the New Year be kind to all of you and your loved ones, too.

And there's a hand, my trusty fiere,

And gie's a hand o' thine;

And we'll tak a right guid-willie waught

For auld lang syne.

Buon anno a tutti!

VERGOGNA

I was happy to bring you some good news about Modica on Monday but Sicilians' ability to shoot themselves in the foot was in evidence again the very next day when it was reported that 106 out of a total of 126 employees at the town hall had been regularly cheating their employer, the city council. 

The list of misdeeds is endless:  employees were allegedly getting colleagues to clock in for them, going out to the bar or the hairdresser's during working hours, sitting in the car park listening to music instead of working and even, in one case, resetting the clocking-in machine. Some of these employees had already been under investigation for absenteeism.

The Mayor of Modica has let it be known that he considers the Council of Modica to be an injured party in the case.

Vergogna - Shame on those who have brought this lovely city into disrepute.

A HIGH-FLYING DISH

I've always loved caponata and now this dish is set to become a real high-flyer when Luca Parmitano from Catania, who is to become the first Sicilian to journey into space, takes some with him on his International Space Station mission in May next year, reports the Palermo edition of La Repubblica.  

The recipe to be used is the brainchild of chef Filippo La Mantia and, as he uses neither garlic nor onions in his version, it was found to be very light when tested at Cape Canaveral three years ago. Thus this dish has been chosen to represent Sicilian cuisine on the mission.

Major Parmitano, who is currently training in Russia, will spend six months on the ISS after taking off from Baikonur in Kazakhstan.  The mission logo, designed by Ilaria Sardella from San Giorgio Ionico near Taranto [Puglia], features an image of the earth in the colours of the Italian flag, reports La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno. Norberto Cioffi, an engineer from Pantigliate near Milan, came up with the mission's name which is, in homage to the Domenico Modugno song, Volare.

What other music could I post tonight?

Domenico Modugno - Nel blu dipinto di blu  [Volare]

A TALE OF BARD POWER

"For I am proverb'd with a grandsire phrase"

- Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Sc. 4

Image:  http://www.wpclipart.com/ 

These days, with freely available information from millions of sources only a click away and a "copy and paste" button to enable us to share it with whom we will, there is, justifiably, much discussion about copyright, intellectual property and attribution.  A young man from Milan has learnt about attribution the hard way and, if not exactly "proverbed", he and his fiancée are certainly experiencing [if not enjoying] their "fifteen minutes of fame".

The 38-year-old man had just arrived at Milano Centrale railway station after a seven-hour train journey and was longing to be reunited with his 23-year-old fiancée.  To tell her so, he sent her a text message, quoting some lines from Romeo and Juliet but without citing his source.  The young lady interpreted the message as a suicide note and immediately called the police, who rushed to the station, quickly identified our romantic hero  - who was calmly strolling along minding his own business - from his fiancée's description and surrounded him.  

It was soon apparent to the police that the young man was not in a melancholy frame of mind and he, although shocked, thanked and apologised to the police, then ran off to be with his fiancée and calm her.

We do not know exactly which lines he had used but I think we can guess, don't you?  In any case, the moral is clear: always cite your sources!

My source for this story is Corriere della Sera.

THAT'S NOT AMORE

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This is not a Sicilian tale but I'll recount it here because I've always been interested in the way in which love, when it ends, leaves so much bitterness.  Perhaps it is because we knew, or thought we knew, the other person so well  and we cannot bear the thought of charms we once adored being used on someone else.

Sometimes bitterness turns to vengeance and that is what happened in the case of a couple from Piacenza [Emilia-Romagna] who had been separated for two years.  The husband, in an attempt to hurt and humiliate his wife, obtained a blank car number plate, forged the numbers of his wife's car and stuck them onto it.  Then he borrowed a similar car to the one owned by his wife and went driving at very high speeds in it, several times, on roads where he knew there were speed cameras.

Needless to say, his wife was not pleased when she received, through the post, ten fines amounting to €1,500 and a letter telling her that her driving licence had been revoked.  Police in Fiorenzuolo d'Arda, examining photos of both cars, were finally able to confirm that the car that had been driven at dangerous speeds did not belong to her .

L'amuri è comu 'n çiuovu, si 'u scippi ci rresta 'u pirtusu.

Love is like a nail - when you take it out, you're left with the hole.

- Sicilian proverb

Real love, of course, does not die - I remain convinced of it.

OF DESPERATE TIMES AND DRASTIC MEASURES

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Desperate times, it is said, call for drastic measures and selling one's own mother on ebay would be drastic by most people's standards.  That is exactly what a Sicilian seller hopes to do, though and in the advertisement, placed on 30th August, the mother in question, who apparently does not baulk at the prospect of singing a lullaby at 3 am.,  is described as "new, unused, unopened and undamaged".  The seller goes on to say that she is an excellent cook whose speciality is sweet dishes, open-minded and a good listener.The unfortunate lady also has a university degree and speaks five languages.  

"Why is she up for sale, then?" you may ask.  Well, the seller hopes to exchange her for his or her dog, a ten-year-old Staffordshire Bull Terrier who disappeared from Castelluccio in Siracusa Province on 15th August.  Any money raised from the "mamma sale" will go towards offering a reward for the return of the dog or to ENPA [a national animal charity] in Catania.

Bidding at the moment stands at €4.50 and there is one day left to bid.

GOING POTTY - 2

Visualizzazione ingrandita della mappa
Click top arrow to see proximity of Città del Vaticano

Following Friday's story of the policeman arrested for growing 17 cannabis plants in his barracks, today we learn of a 21-year-old man from Rome, with previous convictions, who was growing nine marijuana plants on his balcony in via delle Fornaci, a stone's throw from the Vatican City.  A stray branch, blown into the street, had alerted police.  

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Going potty in a different way were the 100 or so unfortunate passengers, including both Sicilians and Norwegians,  who landed at Palermo's Aeroporto Falcone e Borsellino on a flight from Oslo on Monday afternoon:  upon leaving the plane, they were led into a room next to the Customs post where they were abandoned, in a temperature nearing 40 C and with no openable windows, doors or air conditioning, for at least 30 minutes.  The bus that should have transported them to "Arrivals" never arrived and when some of the passengers tried to go back out through the door by which they had entered the room, they were forced back by baggage handlers because they were setting foot on the runway.  

By this time the elderly passengers were desperate to sit down - there were no seats in the room - the babies and children amongst them were becoming distressed and other passengers urgently needed to use a restroom.  Others were anxious about missing connecting flights.  Several tried to call for help on their mobile phones but no help was forthcoming.  

Finally, after some of the passengers had banged loudly on the locked glass doors and shouted at the tops of their voices, a man in uniform arrived and opened them.  However, recognising him as the same official who had led them into the room in the first place and then forgotten them while he spoke on his mobile phone, several passengers became angry with him and one, who took a photograph of him, was accused of insulting him.

Come, come, Palermo :  this is hardly the way to encourage tourism, is it?

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PATRIOT OR PURLOINER?

It is 100 years today since Vincenzo Peruggia [1881 - 1925] stole the Mona Lisa or Gioconda from the Louvre and I have told his story here.  The painting was recovered two years later and Peruggia's defence was that he had acted out of patriotism, believing that the painting belonged in Italy.  He served only a minimal prison sentence and later went back to France where appropriately, perhaps, he opened a paint store.

Yesterday his birthplace of Dumenza [Varese, Lombardy]  honoured him by staging a play called Il Processo a Vincenzo Peruggia  [The Trial of Vincenzo Peruggia] by Giovanni Epis as part of its summer festival.  The play's director, Simone Toffanin, believes that Peruggia was a patriot but the Mayor of Dumenza has his doubts and says he does not want the town to be famous only as the birthplace of the man who stole the Mona Lisa.

What do you think?  Was Peruggia a patriot or a purloiner?

GOING POTTY

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What a day Thursday was for those whacky news stories that can only, it seems, happen in Italy.  For those of you who may have missed them, I'll summarise them here:

The first giggle was over the tale of a somewhat optimistic Viterbo [Lazio] police officer who was arrested by his own colleagues for growing no less than 17 cannabis plants in his barracks.  [The carabinieri are military in Italy.]  Maybe he had been relying on a law, passed by the Italian Supreme Court in June, under which we are each allowed to grow one cannabis plant, for personal use, on our own balcony or terrace.  I don't suppose even a barracks has 17 balconies and one has to admit that the unfortunate officer was - well, pushing it.

Basilica di San Salvatore al Monte, Firenze
Image:  Wikimedia Commons

No sooner had I stopped laughing at that than news came through of a group of monks in Florence who, having had two precious Bibles stolen from their Basilica, were praying for the thief to be punished ..... by an attack of diarrhea.  I wonder how long he'll stay on the run?

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More seriously a survey of the five largest EU countries reported yesterday that Italian housewives are the most unhappy in Europe:  the economic downturn has worsened their situation and it is harder than ever for them to find adequate child care - assuming, that is, that they can find employment in the first place. In addition, 95% of Italian men have never so much as emptied a washing machine - we do not know whether they have ever loaded one but the odds are not brilliant - 70% have never used an oven and most do not help at all in the house or with bringing up children.  Half of the women interviewed said they regretted getting married and most, sadly, regretted having had children.  The antics of the Prime Minister, who is deemed to be setting a bad example to a generation of men who hardly need his encouragement,  were the last straw for many of the women.

Ruth Orkin: An American Girl in Italy - 1951

Then, late last night, came a surprising and delightful item of news:  Ninalee Craig,  the American Girl in Italy of the famous and iconic Ruth Orkin photograph at last spoke publically about the circumstances in which the picture was taken and how she felt about it.  It seems I was wrong when I wrote about the photograph here, which just goes to show what can happen when you judge one era from the viewpoint of another, but I am pleased to know that Ninalee was happy on that long-ago day and it was nice to end the evening on a positive note.

A TALE OF TWO CULTURES

Corso Umberto, Modica Bassa, by night

Depressing though it is, I feel duty-bound to take time out from the Sicilian summer in order to comment on what has been happening this week in my own country and, in so doing, to make a comparison or two:

As I watched the horrific scenes in London and other UK cities I, like many others, wondered whether the parents of those involved knew or cared what their children were doing but I was even more shocked when the media broadcast police messages entreating those parents to check where their offspring were:  in what kind of country do parents have to be TOLD, late at night, to find out where their children are?

"In a country where the family structure has broken down, where the left / right / centre political parties have ruined education, where there is too much emphasis on material possessions, where there is lack of opportunity and where there is nothing for kids to do":  all these and more have been suggested as answers and there is probably some truth in all of them.  

But then I consider the situation of young people in Sicily and I realise that these responses are too glib and too easy:  it is true that the family structure is strong here but people are generally poorer and young people study for years with little or no hope of finding work, unless they know someone in an influential position or are able to inherit - yes, inherit - a public job.  Yet they seem content to go on studying and education is valued for its own sake.  Nothing to do?  In preparing teenagers for English oral exams, I often ask them what they do on Saturday evenings and the answer is invariably, "I go to the Corso [Modica's main street] and I walk up and down with my friends."  And that is exactly what they do, contentedly, Saturday night after Saturday night and when they have finished walking, they go home.  They do not set fire to buildings, go on the rampage and terrorise the rest of the town's population.  They do not blame others for their situation - though they would be justified in showing anger towards certain politicians - but continue to study in the hope that one day their qualifications will get them somewhere and that they themselves may eventually be instrumental in bringing about peaceful change in their country.  In other words, they are culturally and politically aware.

Last night I listened to a Sky News debate in which one panel member said that the rioting young people were angry because their elders were concerned only about what had happened to property and not about several recent murders in London which had gone unreported and, he implied, largely uninvestigated.  There could, again, be an element of truth in this and I found myself beginning to nod before I thought, "Just a minute - these kids live in a democracy.  There are peaceful means of demonstrating anger available to them and more opportunity to put their case to millions of people, via new technology, than there has ever been before."  Part of the tragedy is that they seem unaware of these peaceful methods of drawing attention to their cause.

I do not want to be drawn into the education system side of the issue:  as a former UK high school teacher, I have seen my profession become a political pawn and successive governments have all been as bad as each other in this respect.  I will say, though, that I fear for a system and a culture that fail to value the arts in general and I despair at the ugly and violent results of this policy.

Events in Britain this week are not representative of British culture, nor are they manifestations of a sub-culture or even a "yob culture";  they are, instead, an indication of what can happen where there is no culture.

TERESA, THE UNCOWARDLY COW

Sicily Scene loves an animal story with a happy ending so tonight I am delighted to bring you the tale of Teresa, the uncowardly Sicilian cow:

Teresa made national headlines in May when she escaped from a farm in Castiglione di Sicilia [Etna].  So desperate was she to get away that she followed the River Agrò until she reached the sea at Messina.  There, she threw herself into the Strait and started to swim towards Calabria.  She was rescued a mile out from the Sicilian coast by the joint efforts of the Italian Coast Guard and Fire Service.

Once rescued, Teresa's troubles were not over, however:  there had been cases of brucellosis on her farm and she seemed destined for the slaughterhouse.  But Teresa's doleful eyes had softened hearts all over Italy and, after a campaign by animal rights groups, facebook supporters and others who admired her courage, today it was announced that she is to go to a petting zoo in Messina Province where I am sure she will make many new friends.

THE BLACKBOARD BUNGLE

Long ago, when I was a young and idealistic teacher, I unwittingly "inspired" an Italian friend to enter the teaching profession.  "And you continue to speak to me?!" I exclaim whenever she reminds me of this and I marvel even more at the fact that, thirty years later, she remains remarkably unscathed by her experiences at the chalk face.

Sadly, the same cannot be said of a primary school teacher from Palermo who tonight finds herself accused of "abuse of the means of correction" for reprimanding a pupil who had forged the signature of one of his parents on a note he took to school.  The teacher calmly explained to him that it is wrong to forge a signature and that adults who do so can be charged with a crime.  So traumatised was the child by this telling-off that his parents' lawyer is considering suing the hapless teacher for damages of €34,000. 

I don't think Doris had this kind of trouble, do you?

DESPERATE TIMES, DESPERATE MEASURES

The negotiating skills of flying squad officers and a Provincial Councillor were instrumental in averting a suicide on Tuesday when Bruno Nativo, a former school porter, threatened to throw himself off the balcony of the office of  Ragusa Province Education Authority.  

Mr Nativo, who had chained himself to the railings of the building for the previous six days, had been protesting because his work contract had not been renewed but when no one seemed to be listening, he made the threat to end his life.  He had, in fact, been employed as a school porter in Vittoria for five years but was dismissed when it emerged that he had lied in a declaration stating that he had committed no criminal offences;  it was found that he had committed several minor offences such as driving without a licence.  Mr Nativo was later reinstated after appealing to an industrial tribunal but in August last year his annual contract was not renewed.

The last straw for him was to be told that he would no longer receive any unemployment benefit and, as he has a wife and three sons, two of whom are disabled, he decided to make his desperate protest.  On Tuesday he said he wanted to speak to the Prefect of Ragusa Province and came down from the balcony after he was promised that the Prefect would be informed of the situation.

Those in public jobs should not, of course, lie in their declarations to their employers but how different is what Mr Nativo did to exaggerating a little on a CV, which we have surely all done at some time in our lives?  Personally I think this man has suffered enough.  What do you think?

FOUND AFTER 30 HOURS - THANKS TO A DOG

Dementia-related illness is, because of this and subsequent events, a subject close to my heart so it is good to be able to share with you, tonight, a patient's story with a happy ending. What is more, it is a story of which Simi the dog wholeheartedly approves!

When Michele Giannone, an 87-year-old from the nearby town of Scicli, went missing at around midday on Saturday, his two daughters were quick to  raise the alarm as their father sometimes has memory difficulties. Carabinieri and municipal police immediately launched a search and they were joined by 66 men and women from Italy's Civil Protection Service plus one other very important helper - Kyra, a two-year-old labrador.

As soon as Kyra arrived on the scene, she indicated to her owner that the area to search was a path along the Modica-Scicli river and, despite an erroneous report that Mr Giannone's body had been found in the local cemetery, where he often went to visit the graves of his loved ones, officers and volunteers kept searching while Kyra kept excitingly wagging her tail and barking.

Finally, at 3.45 on Sunday afternoon, Mr Giannone was found, lying face-down in the water.  At first his rescuers feared the worst but Mr Giannone was alive, with grazes all over his body and signs of frostbite.  He was rushed to a local hospital and was later transferred to Modica's Ospedale Maggiore.  He would not have survived another night in the cold.

Mr Giannone's rescuers held a celebration and who do you think was the most feted guest?

Photo: http://www.corrierediragusa.it/

Update:  Mr Giannone's condition is now said to be critical and my thoughts are with him and his family. Whatever happens, I think the positive side of this story is the fact that literally no stone was left unturned in the search for him and that a whole community showed that it cares about its elderly and most vulnerable citizens.

NEWS FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY

Like people all over the world tonight, I am watching the news from Chile,  holding my breath as each man reaches the surface and then crying as he embraces his family. I also find myself gasping at the feats of engineering and technology which are being achieved and, of course, admiring the bravery and resilience of miners and rescuers alike.

Coming from a country with a mining history, I am thinking ,on this night, of all my compatriots who lost their lives in the bowels of the earth and I cannot help wondering how many of them would have been saved had today's technology been available to them.

I would like to quote this passage from one of my favourite books about Wales, Richard Llewellyn's How Green Was My Valley:

"There is patience in the Earth to allow us to go into her, and dig and hurt with tunnels and shafts, and if we put back the flesh we have torn from her and so make good what we have weakened, she is content to let us bleed her.  But when we take, and leave her weak where we have taken, she has a soreness, and an anger that we should be so cruel to her and so thoughtless of her comfort.  So she waits for us, and finding us, bears down, and bearing down, makes us part of her, flesh of her flesh, with our clay in place of the clay we have thoughtlessly shovelled away."

Sicily, of course, has a history of sulphur mining, so this island is no stranger to the hardships suffered by mine workers.  Child labour was used in the sulphur mines until well into the twentieth century.

As the world watches and hopes, I feel sure that the Chilean miners have earned a special place in Welsh and Sicilian hearts.

TRAGIC GELA MOTHER RELEASED

Image: Wikipedia

In April I reported for Italy Magazine on this tragic story, in which a mother from Gela drowned her two autistic sons.

After investigation, 31-year-old Vanessa Lo Porto has been released from house arrest and the only constraint on her freedom is that she will never be allowed to live in Gela because of the sensibilities of her former husband and his family.

On that terrible day in April signora Lo Porto had recently lost her job, her marriage had broken up, she was caring for an autistic son and had just received the news that her younger son was also autistic.  When she walked into the sea with her boys, says the court, she was not mentally capable of intending or wishing to murder them.  In her confused and depressed state of mind, she could think only of saving them from lives of misery such as she was enduring herself.

It is my belief that the full consequences of depression are still not widely understood and my heart goes out to this poor woman.

Judge not that ye be not judged.

ITALY MAGAZINE ROUND-UP - 12

Casa Natale di Luigi Pirandello

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

Let's kick off with a story that Simi liked, about the dog lifeguards that patrol Italy's beaches.  She wants to learn to jump from a helicopter!  Still at the sea, how would you feel if you went bathing and found a Roman cargo boat? 

Interior Minister Roberto Maroni caused much outrage last week when he promised that Italy would be even tougher than the French on the Roma.  ["Roma" is a term often used by the Italian media and politicians to refer to Romanians as well as to the nomadic peoples of Europe.]  The issue is still being hotly debated.

I decided I would like to see this festival but no way would I take part!

For my personal Patti Chiari column, I continued the story of how books brought me to Sicily.

I hope you enjoy these stories.

ITALY MAGAZINE ROUND-UP - 10

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

First of all, if you fancy visiting another Italian Mediterranean island, from an armchair or for real, here are ten things to do in Sardinia.

While in Italy, you may want to have your hair done, so here is a guide to what to say at the hairdresser's. Talking of hairdressers, for my Patti Chiari column I interviewed the one and only Raffaele!

Our summer film was a golden oldie , The Battle of the Villa Fiorita, in which Maureen O'Hara was very wayward, but who could resist Rossano Brazzi?

Of the news stories, perhaps the most controversial was Vogue Italia's  running of fashion shots inspired by the Gulf oil disaster.  After the previous week's news of a brilliant surgeon who may leave Italy because of his frustration with the country's bureaucratic procedures, it was good to be able to write about an equally brilliant young doctor who is returning, with Harvard funding for his research.  I liked this tale of two towns at war over an eel and would love to see this exhibition.  Finally, the moral here seems to be, "If you're going to cheat on your lover, leave the dog out of it"!

ITALY MAGAZINE ROUND-UP - 9

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

Our summer film was the romantic comedy Only You.  I just love Robert Downey Jr's nonchalant humour in this film.

Our blog of the week was that'sArte.com.  If you love ceramics, you'll love this blog!

If you want to visit small towns or villages in Italy you should take a look at this article.

For my personal Patti Chiari column I wrote about the gentle, unassuming Modican author Raffaele Giardina, who made his home in Britain.

And my favourite news story of the week was this one.  It's nice to know that there is still time for a little fun in the Camera dei Deputati!