TEMPTATION

I do not normally make rash promises but I think it is safe to say that this is my last Ferragosto -moaning post of the year.  [For those of you who are not regular readers, the period around the 15th August holiday drives me insane, because virtually every place I want to go to is closed, in some cases for weeks on end.]

It came to my attention that the Giornale di Sicilia is holding a photographic competition on the theme of "Summer in Sicily" and, had I taken the photo below this summer instead of a few years ago, I would have been tempted to enter it. The photo shows two bars and a rosticceria, all closed for at least two weeks [and one of them for a month]. That pretty well sums up the Ferragosto state of affairs, even in 2016.

However, it would have been very mean of me, wouldn't it?

For those of you who are interested, the competition is on Instagram and the closing date for photos is 21st September. The hashtags are:

#estateinsicilia2016
#gdscontest
#igerssicilia

A selection of the photos will be published in the 26th September edition of the Giornale di Sicilia and yes, I will be buying it, for I'm sure they will all be beautiful.

AN EXHIBITION

Some regular readers may remember this photo from last year. It was taken by my friend the photographer Luca Migliore and is part of his 11 Donne project.

Luca will shortly be holding an exhibition of the photos in Ragusa and in connection with this, there is an artiucle about them in the Corriere della Sera online supplememt, Io Donna. The introduction says that although Italy is suffering a "brain drain" at the moment, there are people, like the women featured in the photos, who have chosen to move here. The bit about me partially recounts the story of my reunion with my birth sister Jill [although they have the name wrong - never mind].

I am again honoured to have been photographed by Luca and to be in the pictorial company of such interesting women.

PROF

I am honoured to have had my portrait taken by photographer Luca Migliore 

and to feature in his 11 Donne ["11 Women"] project here.

Grazie, Luca!

THE VOICE OF THE EARTH

Photo:  Simone Aprile
Reproduced here with kind permission of Simone Aprile

Tonight I would like to introduce you to a new friend of mine, the photographer Simone Aprile and to his colleague the musician and video maker Giuseppe La Rosa.

Simone was born in Siracusa but moved to Milan with his family as a child.  There, he studied photography at the Istituto Riccardo Bauer but his greatest professional influence was Sandro Sciacca.  Simone has worked for several prestigious magazines, including Vogue.  Now he has returned to the South, where he is able to combine his two great loves, photography and Sicily, in the Lab House Studio in Modica. Simone says he feel close to Sicily wherever he is in the world.

Giuseppe La Rosa graduated in Film, Music and Theatre studies from the University of Pisa.  One of his first projects was a television programme called No Parking which was shown on over 50 channels and later he made a video on educational and social policy for Pisa City Council. He now works full-time as a video and documentary maker and his work has won prizes at both Italian and international festivals such as:  Hors Pistes 2010 [Centre Pompidou, Paris]; Sottodiciotto Film Festival 2009 [Turin]; Lampedusa Film Festival [ finalist]; Zone Video 7 [small] and Barilla Short Film Awards [special mention].  In 2009 Giuseppe founded Mojito Film Productions and began working with the Torinese director Daniele Segre.

Over the past few days people lucky enough to be in Modica have been able to see Simone and Giuseppe's exhibition, 'Nzuliddu.  The name is a dialect form of Vincenzo and the show chronicles, in photographs and sound, a year in the  life of 'Nzuliddu the countryman.  This is the story of "a man and his roots", roots that are in danger of being forgotten, for 'Nzuliddu's routines are determined by the land he works and its rhythms. We see him at work and at home, observe his energy and his tiredness, every day from sunrise to sunset. The show is an important memoir of a humanity that is disappearing and is intended as not only a "gift" to the next generation, but as a homage to Modica and the countryside that surrounds it.  It represents, quite simply, say Simone and Giuseppe, the "voice of the earth."

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.