UNIFICATION DAY LUNCH

When I went to university to study French and Italian in 1968 I had an Italian lecturer who always used to remind us that Italy had only been a unified country for just over 100 years.  Little did I think that, almost a half century later, I would be sitting in a Sicilian garden celebrating the 150th anniversary of that unification!  

On our morning stroll, Simi and I had seen that all along our street people were sitting outside the bars enjoying the sunshine and the holiday atmosphere.  The town's pastry chefs had come into their own and Bar Cicara was displaying these lovely swans and other pastries with a patriotic theme:

I decided to take one of these special desserts along to Linda's but first let me show you the other lovely fare:

There were delicious antipasti

followed by homemade ravioli with a tricolore theme:

They are filled with aita [a kind of chard] and ricotta:

Then there was spezzatino of sausage, chicken and potatoes:

Of course, it would not be a Modican party without trays of dolcini:

And now here is the dessert of choux pastry buns covered with tricoloured  crema pasticcera that I found at the Pasticceria Delizie d'Autore which has recently opened in our street:

A worthy ending to a celebration meal, don't you think?

LOVE LETTER TO A COUNTRY - LETTERA D'AMORE A UN PAESE

My dearest Italy,

As I write this letter, there is no doubt that you have some troubles:  you celebrate the 150^th anniversary of your unification at a time when the very principle of that unification is in question,  you have a refugee crisis on your southern shores, the European economic recession has hit you hard, your ancient monuments are crumbling and in recent months you have been making world headlines for all the wrong reasons.

It occurs to me, therefore, that perhaps you do not realise how much you are loved; that there is an Italian dream just as there is an American one and that those of us who are lucky enough to live it, even for a short while, hold you in our hearts forever.

Your beauty is legendary, your food arguably the best in the world and as a cradle of civilisation you have no equal.  Those who criticise you for allowing some of your historic buildings to collapse cannot possibly visualise how many there are and, if you were to pump even greater sums of money into their upkeep, that would in all probability be judged harshly too, for sometimes it seems that you just cannot win.

You have a bureaucratic tradition which would frustrate a saint, public institutions which are famously inefficient and you make the best of laws for the best of reasons, forget to repeal the old ones and then wonder why the system does not work.  Yet you have remained a democracy since the end of World War 11 and have a  Constitution which bravely outlaws the excesses of that war and which should be regarded as a shining example by all who value freedom.  And you are loved.

You have given the world pizza, perspective, the  Fiat 500 and the Bialetti man.  I have yet to meet someone who does not wish that they spoke your language or someone who has spent time with Italians and does not wish that they could emulate their life style and priorities.

My lovely land, your great, collective heart and the kindness of your people have saved so many of us, so many times. So celebrate this great day with pride and go on teaching the world how to live.

I have loved you for such a long time and today I want to thank you for loving me back.

Mia cara Italia,

Mentre scrivo, è chiaro che sei nei guai:  festeggi l'150° anniversario della tua Unità in un periodo in cui il principio della stessa Unità è in questione, c'è una crisi di migrazione sulla tua sponda meridionale, la recessione economica dell'Europa ti ha colpito in modo particolarmente duro, i tuoi monumenti antichi crollano e recentemente hai alimentato la cronaca del mondo per motivi sbagliati.

Dunque mi pare che forse tu non sappia quanto sei amato; che esiste un sogno italiano tale quale quello americano e che le persone che hanno la fortuna di viverlo, anche per un breve periodo, ti tengono per sempre nel cuore.

La tua bellezza è leggendaria, la tua cucina è possibilmente la migliore del mondo e come culla della civiltà sei senza paragone.  Chi  ti critica per aver consentito al crollo di alcuni dei tuoi edifici storici non è in grado di immaginare quanti ne hai e se tu spendessi un sacco di soldi in più per mantenerli, anche questo sarebbe duramente criticato, perché a volte sembra che tu non possa mai vincere.

Hai una tradizione burocratica che potrebbe dare fastidio a un santo, hai delle istituzioni pubbliche celebri per le loro inefficienza e tu formuli le migliori leggi per motivi buoni, dimenticando di abrogare quelle vecchie e cosi chiedendoti perché il sistema non funziona.  Nonostante questo, sei una democrazia dalla fine della seconda guerra mondiale e hai una Costituzione che, coraggiosamente, condanna gli eccessi di quella guerra e che merita essere considerata un ottimo esempio per tutti gli amanti della libertà.  E sei amata.

Hai regolato al mondo la pizza, il disegno in prospettiva, la Fiat 500 e l'omino coi baffi della Bialetti. Non ho mai conosciuto qualcuno che non voglia imparare la tua lingua o qualcuno che, avendo trascorso del tempo con gli Italiani, non voglia imitare il loro stile di vita e le loro priorità.

Paese bellissima, il tuo grande cuore e la gentilezza della tua gente ci hanno salvato tante volte.  Allora, festeggia questo grande giorno e continua ad insegnare al mondo come vivere.

Io ti amo da tanto tempo e oggi vorrei ringraziarti di avermi amato reciprocamente.

SABATO MUSICALE

One of the best loved songs of the Risorgimento, as sung at the Sanremo Song Festival Unification Celebration, 2011.  The words were penned in 1848 by one Carlo Alberto Bosi who, seated at a table in a tavern in Florence, was inspired to write them when he saw a battalion of Tuscan volunteers marching past on their way to fight the Austrian invaders.  Nobody knows who put a melody to the words, which circulated orally.  I hope you like this song as much as I do:

Luca Barbarossa e Raquel Del Rosario - Addio mia bella addio

SABATO MUSICALE - VIVA SANREMO 3

The final evening of the 2011 Sanremo Song Festival is about to begin, so I'd better hurry up and tell you about last night's contest:

I was sorry to see these two songs eliminated, as the first is rather charming and the second gives me hope:

Of the songs remaining in the contest, here are three that I like and I'm posting the third especially for my friend Josep:

I think Natalie is a young talent about whom we are going to hear a lot more.  She looked much more relaxed last night, singing her song with L'Aura.

Now, ladies, don't men get on your nerves when they go for women with throaty voices?  Well, they're all crazy for Miss Giusy Ferreri in Italy:

My favourite song remains Vecchioni's Chiamami ancora amore, which I posted on Wednesday. I must say, I don't think the rockified version which Vecchioni performed last night did the composition any favours but I'm still rooting for it.

If Roberto Benigni was Tuesday night's hero, Robert De Niro was last night's for many women when he declared,

"I don't like skinny women".

Morandi, who had the unenviable task of interviewing the somewhat reticent actor, had Elisabetta Canalis on hand as interpreter, but the word "gentrified" defeated her. [Admittedly, it is unlikely to be in her "survival" vocabulary or among the sweet nothings she presumably whispers, in English, to Clooney.] The official interpreter had obviously been told to keep out of it at that point and it was an embarrassing moment. Keep twirling in the clothes, Eli and leave interpreting to the professionals!

I am happy to be able to conclude this post by reporting that, despite the miseryguts and spoilsports in the Lega, the Italian government has at last declared that 17th March, the anniversary of Unification, is to be a holiday and President Napolitano has praised Roberto Benigni for Tuesday night's oration:

"Roberto Benigni found the right words to express our national identity via symbols of the nation, its history and its flag."

ITALY MAGAZINE ROUND-UP - 23

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

In the run-up to next year's celebrations of 150 years of Italian Unity the Italian flag is being honoured in an exhibition in Rome . Twenty-four  of the country's top designers have been asked to contribute their interpretation of the tricolore and their creations form the highlight of the show.  Elsewhere the Unity celebrations have caused a row as the organisers of next February's Sanremo Song Festival argue over which songs to include on a night dedicated to the anniversary. 

Never mind:  Italian researchers have proved that a healthy sex life is good for us and  in more good news Italian footballing hero Roberto Baggio received a well-deserved award.

For my Patti Chiari column I wrote about Vincenzo Bellini and his relationship with the city of Catania and the pasta dish named for his most famous heroine.  The recipe is here, too.

Happy reading.

2011 GIRO D'ITALIA WILL PASS THROUGH SICILY

The Giro d'Italia cycling race has been on my mind since yesterday, when I wrote an article for Italy Magazine about an exhibition in Rome which commemorates the great champion, Fausto Coppi.

Today the Sicilian papers are excitedly reporting that the 2011 Giro will include a Sicilian stage but no one is quite sure where:  at first it was thought that the cyclists would race from Marsala to Cefalù but this has now been ruled out because the Mayor of Marsala says his town cannot afford to host the stage.  Most people now think that the competitors will race from Milazzo to the Rifugio Sapienza at Nicolosi, Etna and that Sunday 15th May will be the great day. The Rifugio is 1,900 metres above sea level.

The year 2011, of course, marks the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy, so it is fitting that the Giro should visit as many parts of Italy as possible and that in Sicily the cyclists will land at Marsala, as Garibaldi and the Thousand did.

What is certain is that the Giro d'Italia 2011 will begin in Turin, the first capital of the newly united Italy, on 7th May and end in Milan on 29th May.  The routes will be confirmed in Milan on 23rd October.