SKYWARS UPDATE - 2

In Italy the regional election results promise us more of Mr Berlusconi, part of Nero's Palace has collapsed in rain and in the South we are all going to be swept away by a tsunami.  What is more, British expats living here will not even be able to cheer themselves up by watching a bit of blood and gore in the TV series "Casualty" as they await  Armageddon for, as I wrote here, Sky Italia removed the popular BBC Entertainment channel from its platform on 1st March.

Sky Italia, however, reckoned without the "spirit of the blitz" and the facebook group, "Bring Back BBC Entertainment" now has over 1,000 members who do not rest on their laurels but bombard Sky Italia with mail, emails and phone calls every day.  Sky continue to claim that they were unable to reach an agreement on contract renewal with the BBC but, from correspondence members of the group have received from the BBC, it is quite clear which company is at fault!  When Sky decided to add an Italian poker channel to its Italy platform group members were, to say the least, unimpressed.

Sky Italia quite simply does not wish to invest in quality programmes and assumes its subscribers are content with sport, sport and more sport, unpopular films and nonsense channels like the poker one.  The company clearly does not listen to its customers and deserves to lose business, which it seems to be doing fast.  I have been waiting for a promised phone call from Sky since the beginning of the month.

The BBC, on the other hand, has listened to its clientèle and is trying to find another platform for its entertainment programmes in Italy.  Meanwhile, in response to requests from members of the facebook group and others, it has made the popular series "Eastenders" available on the internet.  This is a great victory for the facebook group and I am happy for the "Eastenders" fans.  My own addiction, however, is to the hospital dramas "Casualty" and "Holby City" so please, BBC, make these available on the internet too!

We are, of course, aware that there are other ways of receiving BBC programmes in Italy but they all cost money and I feel that I have paid Sky enough and have a contract with them which runs until September.  I took the Sky package five years ago on the understanding that BBC Entertainment was part of it and I intend to fight on until I get it back.

If you are on facebook, do join the "Bring Back BBC Entertainment" group and help us fight an uncaring company which is totally unconcerned with quality.

A little of what I'm missing....

SILVIO THE SECOND

I'm nursing a sore throat so will leave the Italian regional elections to sort themselves out tonight.  Meanwhile, I thought you might like this article of mine published in Italy Magazine last week:

A 36-year-old metal worker from Ghana has named his son, born in 2005, after Silvio Berlusconi, Adnkronos reports. Anthony Boahene, who has lived in Italy for eight years, says he is not very political but admires the Prime Minister “as a person” and likes his style. He also says that he understands Mr Berlusconi’s tough line on immigration.

The five-year-old boy was brought from Africa to Modena [Emilia-Romagna] by his father in February and Mr Boahene registered the child’s name as Silvio Berlusconi Boahene as a gesture of gratitude for his own “permission to stay” in Italy.

Little Silvio is proud of his name though his teacher, it seems, is less so, having declared that the child will be known simply as “Silvio” at school. The Prime Minister has no greater fan than his namesake, who not only supports Milan but adores Mr Berlusconi’s electoral campaign broadcasts on TV. He even believes that Silvio the politician is really his grandfather, says his father proudly.

Mr Boahene wants his son to study politics to prepare for his eventual life as President of Ghana or Italy. There’s nothing like confidence in the future!

Would you name a child after a politician?

THE PALM LADY

She has been there all week, the palm lady, sitting at the side of the road, deftly weaving fronds into objects of beauty.  She sets up her stall long before the morning rush hour begins, and she is still there as everyone hurries home for lunch.  She carries on braiding and plaiting, adorning her  finished palms with ribbons of all colours, through the silent siesta hours and as the shutters go up again for the evening reopening.  As darkness defeats her, she stops, but she is there again the following morning, bright and early.  On Sunday she continues her dexterous craft and only when the bells for the last Mass of this Palm Sunday morning have sounded does she pack up her wares for another year.  I hope she is having a rest.

THE RIGHT TIME

In 45 minutes the clocks officially go forward in Italy and my digi-watches will be showing the right time!  Some of you may remember I bought these in the summer:

Well, I can't read the stupid, tiny white print on black paper that masquerades as "instructions" so I have no idea how to adjust them.  But in 45 minutes they'll all be accurate! Isn't that clever of them and doesn't everything come to a girl with "pazienza"? My inability to read the print has nothing to do with my age, of course....

SABATO MUSICALE - MINA

Well, it's still Saturday in the UK, the USA and lots of other places in the world!

This week it has to be Mina, Italy's first lady of pop, who celebrated her seventieth birthday on Thursday.  Here's my article about her for Italy Magazine:

Mina, Italy’s Queen of Pop, is seventy years old today. The event is being celebrated in the music world everywhere and Mina has already received birthday wishes from Barbara Streisand, Quincy Jones and Lisa Minelli, Ansa reports.

In Italy there are TV and radio specials, including a documentary on Rai Storica, “La Tigre di Cremona”, to be broadcast tomorrow at 09.20 and 18.20. Mina’s albums from 1994 – 2009 are to be reissued on vinyl and there is an album of previously unpublished photos here.

Anna Maria Mazzini was born in Busto Arsizio [Lombardy] in 1940. Later the family moved to Cremona. She first sang publicly in club whilst on holiday in 1958 and after that she started performing rock and roll with various bands. She soon refined her style and became known for her versatility. She dominated the Italian pop scene throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

Her personal life was not conventional, however, and she was banned from Rai in 1963 because of her relationship with a married man. Rai also banned several of her songs, which dealt with contemporary issues such as religion and sex. But love songs, which Mina performed dramatically, were the most popular with her public. Her ballad “Grande, grande, grande” was performed all over the world and was a hit for the British singer Shirley Bassey.

Mina has not performed in public since 1978 but she has never stopped singing: she releases an album every year and in 2009 her version of “Nessun Dorma” was the theme song of the Sanremo Song Festival. This unconventional version was criticised by many in Italy. Do listen and let us know what you think:

To date, 98 of Mina’s albums and 70 of her singles have been listed in the Italian charts. Her son, Massimiliano Pani, tells Ansa that the diva is very unsentimental, having once thrown away a telegram from Sir Paul McCartney. The famous blue dress she wore to sing “Le mille bolle blu” at Sanremo also went in the bin. Mr Pani puts this down this to his mother’s refusal to take herself too seriously and her determination to look to the future.

Italy Magazine wishes you “tanti auguri”, Mina.

Who is your favourite Italian singer?

What’s your favourite Italian pop song?

CHICK, CHICK, CHICK, CHICK, CHICKEN.....

Easter pastries at Raffaele the hairdresser's today.

Now for some fun with these guys

and with Dolly:

A HAPPY POST

From a rant to something that makes me happy - well, several things that make me happy, actually.  First of all, I am delighted to have received the "Happy Award" from my friend fullet in Catalonia.  Thank you, fullet.

Now I have to pass the award on to the authors of ten blogs that make me happy.  Only ten? There are lots of blogs that make me happy, but, since I must limit the number I mention here, I'm going to award some of the Italian bloggers.  I'm about to cheat and pass the award on to eleven wonderful blogs about Italy, though!

1.  Romancing Italy
2.  Ciao Amalfi
3.  Bella Baita View
4.  Rubber Slippers in Italy
5.  Holly Berry's World
6.  Bell'Avventura
7.  Gatto 999
8.  lost in Sicilia
9.  loveSicily
10. italy tutto - top blogs on italy
11. A Welshie in Italy

Visit any of these blogs for a great read!

LITTLE LIDL RANT

It is rare to meet with discourtesy when dealing with staff in shops or public service offices in Italy.  The Post Office may be slow and the Water Office inefficient, but nobody in either office is rude.  In Modica's Lidl, however, finding myself without a euro in change for the stupid trolley deposit, I just had the following exchange:

Me to cashier:  Excuse me, could you change these 2 fifty centesimi for a euro for the trolley?

Cashier:  No, there aren't any euros.  [Not , "I'm so sorry, signora, but I don't have any change.]

Me:  Well, can you suggest something?

Cashier:  What can I do, if I haven't got any, I haven't got any!

Me: Well, can you call someone?

Cashier:  Who can I call, signora?

Why didn't I say, "the bloody manager"?!

By now, I'm extremely angry as a male customer is just standing by agreeing with the cashier.

Cashier:  Take a couple of carrier-bags and put your purchases in those, signora.

Me:  I can't carry everything round the store!

Cashier: Oh, there are some customers outside, now.  Ask them, signora.

So I go outside and change my centesimi-pieces there.  I think there are two factors at play here, the first being that there is still enough of the Brit in me to remember service in British supermarkets, a sector with so much competition that staff will do anything to retain customers [except for Marks & Spencer, who are extraordinarily stingy with carrier bags].  The second is that Italians always prefer to ask anyone other than a member of staff or an official for help.  

OK, now I'm armed with a trolley and I complete my purchases. I go to the check-out and it's the same guy again:

Cashier [pointing to the end of the counter]:  Put the trolley there and put everything in it.

I avoid saluting and clicking my heels to attention and follow orders. I put a few things in a carrier before putting them in the trolley.

Cashier: In the trolley first, signora.

Now at last I lose my temper:

Me:  I'm not stealing things, you know.  Why are you being so rude to me this afternoon?

This brings cringing apologies, which I accept.

I did think of ringing Lidl HQ as soon as I got home and possibly losing the young man his job, but I seem to have become Sicilian enough not to do that.  A rant here will suffice.

One thing everyone who deals with the public in their job should learn is this:  A little discourtesy can ruin someone's day, just as a little courtesy can make it.

QUIZ: SICILIAN PROVERBS - 15

A proverbs quiz for Friday night and these are all about old age, a subject much on my mind lately.  Just match the proverbs 1 - 6 with their meanings a - f:

1.  A li vecchi cci màancanu li forzi e ci criscinu li pititti.

2.  Cui vecchiu voli campari, a bon'ura voli accuminzari.

3.  La vecchia 'un voli jocu, voli pani, vinu e focu.

4.  Lu dimoniu sapi assai pirché è vecchio.

5.  'Na vota si gabba la vecchia; appressu vota vi chiuj la porta.

6.  Lignu vecchiu megghiu adduma ma cchiù prestu si consuma.

myspace layouts

a.  The devil knows a lot because he's old.

b.  Old wood burns better but turns to ashes quicker.

c.  The old have less strength and a bigger appetite.

d.  An old lady doesn't want games.  She wants bread, wine and a fire.

e.  You can only swindle an old lady once;  after that she'll close the door in your face.

f.  If you want to live into old age you have to get up early.

Highlight below this line for answers:
1c, 2f, 3d, 4a, 5e, 6b.

COME AND BUY

Traditional cart selling nuts, dried chestnuts and pumpkin seeds in Modica Bassa on Sunday evening.

THE STORY OF "LIGHT"

Most of you know that I am not religious.  However, I do believe that there are some very special people in this world and that some things are inexplicable.  If it is faith that explains them, who am I to argue?  This is an article of mine which was published in Italy Magazine on Monday:

An Italian girl who died in 1989 at the age of eighteen is to be beatified on the 25th September this year. Beatification is an important step in the process towards sainthood and allows the person to be honoured by a particular group or in a particular region.

The Venerable Chiara “Luce” Badano was born in 1971 to Ruggero Badano, a truck driver, and his wife Maria Teresa Caviglia in Sassello [Liguria]. The family was hard-working and pious and Chiara was an open, friendly child who always cared about others, particularly the elderly.

When Chiara was nine years old, she joined the Focolare Movement, which works for unity between faiths. Though profoundly religious, Chiara was not “perfect”: she was strong-willed and, when she became a teenager, like teenagers all over the world, she argued with her parents about matters like what time she should be in at night. There were tears, too, when she failed some school exams. Chiara enjoyed walking, tennis, swimming, dancing and singing. Her original ambition was to become an air hostess but later she felt that her destiny was to become a missionary.

One day, when she was playing tennis, she experienced pain in her shoulder. Her doctor did not think it was anything serious and neither did Chiara. But the pain refused to go away and Chiara was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma at the age of 17.

At first she displayed a positive attitude, believing that she had a good chance of beating the disease because she was young. However, the cancer spread quickly and Chiara was admitted to hospital many times, undergoing painful surgery.

Eventually she accepted that she would die but this did not stop her helping others while she was in hospital. Of her need to rest, she said,

“I’ll have time to rest later.”

She corresponded regularly with Chiara Lubich, the founder of the Focolare Movement, and it was Lubich who gave Chiara the name of “Luce” [“Light”].

As Chiara’s hair fell out after chemotherapy, she said,

“For you, Jesus”

and when she lost the use of her legs she declared that she would rather go to heaven than walk.

Chiara’s friends visited her in hospital but soon realised that it was they who needed her and not the other way round. Chiara gave them courage and did the same for her doctors. She gave all her savings to a friend who was about to leave on a mission to Africa and said,

“I have nothing left but my heart and with that I can always love”.

She refused morphine for pain relief as it affected her lucidity and she offered her suffering to Christ, whom she referred to as her “bridegroom”. Convinced that she was going to Jesus, her last words, on 7th October 1989 were,

“Be happy because I am happy”.

With her mother Chiara had planned her funeral as a “wedding ceremony”. Two thousand people attended and she had asked them not to cry. Chiara’s tomb is now a place of pilgrimage.

Chiara “Luce” Badano will be the first member of the Focolare Movement to be beatified. Last year Pope Benedict approved a decree attributing the healing of a young boy with meningitis to her intercession.

Do you have a favourite saint?

"SHINE SICILY" - A TOUR OPERATOR WITH A DIFFERENCE

I am writing this post on behalf of ShineSicily.com .

Do you feel inspired to visit Sicily after reading some of my blog posts? I hope so and now I am going to introduce you to a tour operator who can help you. My new friends, Boris, a Sicilian living in Barcelona, and Marta, who was born in that lovely city, run a small travel company called ShineSicily and I think you will love their informative, user-friendly website, which has fabulous photos of Sicily.

As its name suggests, the company specialises in tours to Sicily but also organises trips to Sardinia, another breathtakingly beautiful island. Boris tells me that they don't have an English version of their web pages about Sardinia yet, but it is coming and, of course, Boris and Marta will help you if you contact them with a view to visiting Sardinia.

"What is different about ShineSicily's tours?" you will be wondering by now. The fact that it is a specialist tour operator means that you can expect tailor made holidays planned by people who have an in-depth knowledge of the locations they deal with, but this is not unique in the travel business. What I think singles ShineSicily out as a tour operator with a difference is that Boris and Marta personally select the hotels and services they use. They go to meet the owner of a hotel or restaurant, have a leisurely coffee on the premises and get to know him or her, slowly, as is the Sicilian way. And they remember their first impressions and how they felt, for that is probably how their clients are going to feel, too.

But Boris and Marta do not just add the name of a service provider to their list and leave it at that: They build up a relationship, continue their visits and take note of changes, always with the needs of their clients in mind. The service providers become a sort of " extended family " and they, together with Boris and Marta, are always on hand to give clients advice and personal tips.

You can choose from itineraries called Authentic Sicily, Rural Sicily , Charming Sicily or a tour to the Aeolian Islands and the company can help you whether you are looking for an organised tour or wish to travel independently.

ShineSicily keeps its prices competitive by operating online only. In this way, says Boris, the company can offer you "efficiency, personal service, rapidity and technological innovation". If you are interested in one of their tours, just contact the company by email or phone for a personal tour proposal. Oh, and while you're over at their site, do check out the "interesting facts" it gives about Sicily. I've learnt a lot myself by looking through some of these and now I'm off to read some more.....


ShineSicily.com
Email: info@shinesicily.com
Telephone: There is a Skype link on the site.
Fixed UK telephone line: 0044 20 71930139
Barcelona office: 0034 93 51 47 831

Click here to see an example personalised tour proposal and here to see customer feedback.

NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL CANNOLI!

- As displayed in a bar in Modica Bassa.

WORLD POETRY DAY

To honour this day, here is an article of mine which was published in Italy Magazine on Thursday:

Alda Merini - A Gift of Love

Photo from fOTOGLIF

Alda Merini, who died on 1st November last year, was one of Italy’s best loved poets and now her four daughters have created a new website in memory of their mother, who would have been 79 on March 21st.

The website is extremely user-friendly and even if you do not know much Italian, you’ll be able to enjoy photos and paintings of Merini, videos, poems, aphorisms, publication lists and the Tuscan singer Giovanni Nuti singing the poem “L’albatros”.

Merini’s daughters, Emanuela, Barbara, Flavia and Simona tell the story of their mother with touching candour and write of their own pain and confusion at being separated from her during Merini’s long periods of depression. Merini in fact advised them not to admit to being the daughters of “that madwoman”. Although their relationship with their mother was complicated and often sad, Merini’s daughters show their love for her with this gift.

March 21st is also, appropriately, World Poetry Day and this year in Milan the event will be dedicated to Merini. A plaque will be unveiled at Merini’s home at via Ripe di Porta Ticinese 47 at 15.30 on Sunday. The plaque will read,

“Ad Alda Merini. Nell’intimità dei misteri del mondo.” [“To Alda Merini. In communion with the mysteries of the world.”]

At 16.00 on Sunday at Santa Maria delle Grazie al Naviglio the actress Valentina Cortese will read from Merini’s “Magnificat, un incontro con Maria”. At 21.00 there will be a recital of Merini’s poems at the Teatro Dal Verme.Entrance is free but booking is advised via email:Info@sagapomusic.com

The new Alda Merini site is still being developed and its creators intend to add an interactive section and a newsletter to which readers can subscribe.

Also in honour of the day, I am happy to be able to publish a new Antonio Lonardo poem here:

OTTIMISMO

Ha voluto guidare,
sempre, la propria vita
nei tortuosi meandri
dell’incerta quotidianità
nella ricerca della luce.

Ha inseguito i numerosi
segreti, perennemente vibrati
dalla misteriosa clessidra
e ne ha scoperto il percorso
diventato luminoso.

Ha combattuto la paura,
appostata negli appuntiti
angoli d’inattese difficoltà
ed ha seguito il volo dei gabbiani,
scortati da amici delfini.

…Fino all’ultimo orizzonte…

OPTIMISM

He always wanted to steer
his own life
in the tortuous labyrinths
of daily doubt
in search of light.

He pursued abundant
secrets, endlessly rippling
in the mysterious hourglass
and he found
a luminous journey.

He fought fear,
as it waited on the jagged
corners of unlooked-for hardship
and he followed the flight of gulls
guided by their friends the dolphins.

... As far as the last horizon...

[My translation]

Thank you, Antonio and Happy World Poetry Day!

You can read other posts about World Poetry Day by clicking here.

PER LA DOTTORESSA DI SCICLI

The beautiful little town of Scicli, a 15-minute drive from Modica, is a community in shock following an horrific crime which took place there on Wednesday - Thursday night: A 53-year-old woman doctor was on duty in the town as that night's guardia medica [emergency doctor] and was alone in the old palazzo where the emergency surgery is located. The building has no video entry system. At around 8.30 pm two North African men arrived at the premises and asked for medicines, which the doctor gave them. The men left but in the early hours one of them returned and rang the doorbell. The doctor saw his silhouette through the glass door and only opened it a fraction in order to talk to him. The man then forced the door open, attacked the doctor violently, raped her and broke her leg. Before fleeing he took the 200 euros that she had in her handbag.

The doctor was admitted to hospital first in Scicli and then in Modica. She was discharged on Thursday evening.

We are all appalled in this normally safe Province of Ragusa as, indeed, are people all over Italy. The Imam of Scicli has called the attack "a crime against man and god" and I can only echo those words. On Wednesday 24th March there will be a torchlight procession in Scicli to show solidarity with the doctor and her family and to say "No" to every form of violence.

I would like to offer this in place of "sabato musicale" tonight. Dottoressa, siamo con Lei. We are with you.

Zucchero e Pavarotti - Va, pensiero

PANTS-DOWN PROTEST

To start the weekend on a lighter note, here is a short article of mine that was published in Italy Magazine yesterday:

Fifty or so town hall officials in Rome decided to protest against the slow bureaucratic process of the city’s 2010 budget by pulling their trousers down on Monday.

They carried banners saying that the city’s Mayor, Gianni Alemanno, of Mr Berlusconi’s Pdl Party, had “reduced them to their underwear”. Other banners criticised the abandoned state of parks and public gardens and blamed the number of homeless people in Rome on the current administration.

The workers suspect that the budget is being delayed because it contains unpopular taxes. They are concerned because no new projects can begin without the release of the 2010 budget funds.

Quite why the officials thought their “show a leg” protest would be effective is anyone’s guess. But hey, it got the photographers round!

DENISE - AN ITALIAN TRAGEDY

I've been following the Denise Pipitone case since I arrived in Sicily in 2005. This week the case has taken a new turn. This is an article of mine which was published in Italy Magazine today:

How Denise Pipitone might look today.

The 2004 disappearance of Denise Pipitone in Sicily was so strange that she has been dubbed “Italy’s Madeleine McCann”.

On 1st September 2004 Denise, then aged four, was playing outside her house in Mazara del Vallo [Trapani] while her mother was preparing lunch. She was last seen at 11.45 am. By noon there was no trace of her.

On 18th October 2004 a bank security guard saw a child who resembled Denise in Milan. The child was with a group of people who appeared to be travellers or Roma. The guard called the police but the group left before they arrived. The guard took a videoclip with his cellphone and in it the child speaks to a woman in the group in Italian. Denise’s mother, Piera Maggio, told the press that she believed the child was her daughter and a police analysis of the clip found physical resemblances to Denise but it was not possible to confirm the child’s identity.

Since then, as in the Madeleine McCann case, there have been many unconfirmed “sightings”, most notably of a child found on Kos in 2008. However, DNA tests confirmed that the woman looking after that child was her biological mother.

Piera Maggio has never given up her efforts to find Denise and she was largely responsible for the passing of a law making the abduction of a minor without demanding a ransom a crime in Italy and for an amendment imposing more severe penalties.

Now, however, the case has taken on an upsetting and sinister twist: Denise’s 22-year-old stepsister, Jessica Pulizzi, has been indicted on charges of complicity in kidnapping and her trial began, in her absence because of illness, yesterday. Jessica’s mother, the first wife of Piero Pulizzi, is also under investigation. The hypothesis is that Jessica Pulizzi abducted Denise in order to avenge Piera Maggio, the woman she blamed for the break-up of her parents’ marriage. Pulizzi’s former boyfriend is also being tried for giving false statements to the prosecutor.

Meanwhile Piera Maggio’s agony continues.

THANKS, KATHY!

Besides creating recipes, I love adapting recipes and making them "my own". I love it even more when I hear that someone has adapted a recipe of mine! My friend Kathy of The Garden Cat Cottage has done just that with my chicken and aubergine recipe and she is so clever that she has made this video of the process:



I think it's a great idea to make this in a crock pot [slow cooker] and I'm going to add zucchini next time I make it. Aren't Kathy's dogs cute, too?

TOLERANCE

This little plot outside a shop near my home is carefully tended by the ladies of the shop, so they were, unsurprisingly, angry when someone started to dig up the flowers at night. A week or so ago this notice appeared. I'm sorry the writing, which has weathered a few storms over the past few days, isn't clear in the photo. It reads,

Don't steal the flowers - thief!

And then, in a typically Sicilian gesture of tolerance, the ladies have added,

If you ask us for some, we'll give them to you.

In another nearby shop, a recently vacated furniture store, one bed, with bedclothes, has been left in the middle of the ground floor. And there someone sleeps every night, very cosily tucked in so that you can only see his woollen hat on the pillow, clothes neatly folded over the one chair that has also been left behind, in full view of anyone who cares to glance at the shop's window. [He is still there at 10 am.] How he gets in, I don't know, for there is no sign of any forcing of the door. The owner, who has not moved far away, must know about his nocturnal visitor by now, for news travels fast in small towns and I can only suppose that, in another gesture of tolerance, he has decided to turn a blind eye. I have neither the heart nor the wish to invade the sleeping man's privacy by taking a photo for he probably gets little of it. He is doing no one any harm and "There but for the grace of God go I...."

WHAT I AM NOT DOING

I am not "singing in the rain" like Ernie Wise here, but feel more like Eric Morecambe at the end of the clip:



When it rains in Modica, it really rains and, because of a drainage system which can only be described as "unique", you need your wellies to cross the road! It's all Persephone's fault, of course...