MAKING THE CUT AT SANREMO

Long-standing readers will know that I've always been a fan of the Sanremo Festival, which this year takes place on the evenings of  6th - 10th February. It is great entertainment, comprising, of course, the music but also humour, interviews with stars of stage and screen and other personalities and usually not a few scandals to get us gossiping. 

This year, however, I will have a special reason for watching because 27-year-old Damiano Adamo, a hairdresser from Modica, will be joining the hairstyling team for the Festival. At the end of last year, Damiano achieved his dream and opened his own salon in our town and now he has another reason to celebrate. I remember Damiano from another salon where he trained and I know that he studied at ANAM (Accademia Nazionale Acconciatori Moda) and also did a course at Vidal Sassoon in London.

Congratulations and good luck, Damiano and I'll be looking at the hairstyles particularly attentively this year. When you come back, like all of Modica, I'll certainly want to know which stars you met!

If you're visiting Modica you will find Damiano's salon in Via della Costituzione, Modica (RG).

SORRY, NASA, IT WASN'T US!

www.nasa.gov

I love NASA's  new "Black Marble" images of the earth at night, especially those of Italy. Milan is the brightest city shown in the images but I'm sorry to say that Modica was not responsible for the lights showing in this little corner of Sicily!

Yesterday my hairdresser told me that the shopkeepers on via Sacro Cuore had each chipped in €30 so that the street could have some Christmas lights. He nearly fell over laughing at my British naivety when I said I had thought the city council had put them up.

A SEWING TREE

Raffaele the hairdresser always has an original theme for his Christmas tree and this year it's a "knitting and sewing" tree. I should probably point out that he put it up before today's royal news broke from Britain so as far as I know, Raffaele isn't knitting any baby clothes!

DON'T PANIC, YOUR MAJ!

Don't panic, Your Majesty - Sicily Scene is ready for your Jubilee bash!

 I've got Jubilee toes

and it's amazing what you can find at Catania market:

By the way, my lovely hairdresser Raffaele would have been devastated if he hadn't received an invitation and, as I know you're very busy, Ma'am, I made sure you sent him one:

Cincin, Lilibet!

THE MARCH WIND DOTH BLOW....

...and it certainly blew over the weekend in eastern Sicily!  Cyclone Athos liked Sicily so much that it stayed for over 48 hours, uprooting trees, blowing down road signs, destroying roofs and making the heck of a noise about it all.  It was pretty scary, actually, and the worst weather I've known in seven years in Sicily.

As for the rain, well, it wasn't enough to stop a Cardiff girl going out and about as usual but I got splashed so many times by cars in the process that by Saturday evening I was considering starting a new life as a duck. "You can't walk home in this", said my hairdresser in the afternoon.  "Why not? It's only a drop or two", said I, thus convincing him, if he needed further convincing, that I am going dotty in my old age.

The main problem here is not the amount of rain but the fact that houses are not built to withstand it so this was the scene in my bedroom by Saturday morning:

By this time Modica's mayor had ordered schools to remain closed - Saturday is a school day here -  as had the mayors of several other towns.  Power lines were down in the countryside, boat services to the smaller islands were suspended and the 19 crew members of a tanker which had run aground off Capo Santa Panagia [Siracusa] had to be airlifted to safety by coastguard.

And soon we'll all be grumbling about the heat....

ABC - CHRISTMAS!

Raffaele the hairdresser always comes up with an original idea for decorating his Christmas tree and this year is no exception.

WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE? - A "LET'S BLOG OFF" POST

Every two weeks, the blogosphere comes alive with something called a Blog Off. A Blog Off is an event where bloggers of every stripe weigh in on the same topic on the same day. The topic for this round of the Blog Off is "What did you want to be when you grew up?"

In my life, I've wanted to be many things and I have achieved a few of them.  But the first career desire I remember expressing was to be a hairdresser, probably because I liked the word.  Making people feel good about their appearance still seems to me a worthy occupation and a survey conducted in Britain a few years ago found that hairdressers were among the happiest inhabitants of my native isle.

With my Sicilian hairdresser, Raffaele

Like most little girls, I went to dancing classes and for a while I wanted to be a dancer:

Then we all wanted to be pop singers like the teenage star Helen Shapiro.  My friends and I worked at lowering our voices long before a certain Margaret Hilda Thatcher thought of it.

Later I wanted to be a doctor, like the character Audrey Blake in the television series Emergency - Ward 10 but unfortunately I was hopeless at the sciences at school and soon discovered my linguistic bent.  And that rather sealed my fate for in those days the only career that anyone suggested to a female linguist was teaching.

I did actually want to teach by then, though and entered the profession willingly rather than drifting into it.  And despite several attempts to escape from the educational sphere, I have always ended up back in it.

In one of my many classrooms, c.1976

Another thing I wanted to be was a wife and mother but that destiny has eluded me.  In my youth, pregnant women sat around in smocks in cosy front rooms and were cosseted and I've always thought that that would be rather nice.  George Eliot said that it is never too late to be what you might have been and for some women science has made very late motherhood a possibility.  I do not wish to pass judgement on their decisions here but that path is not for me.  I have not, however, given up on the hope that one day I will meet someone who really loves me enough, for, like most people, I would like to be "first" with someone.

If I had not become a teacher I like to imagine that I would have become a journalist and in recent years I have been a columnist and been paid for it.  My remaining ambition is to become an author but if any self-publishing companies out there are thinking of spamming me with their details, please don't.  I'll do it "my way."

So there is still something I would like to achieve.... when I grow up.

Now for some nostalgia:


Emergency - Ward 10

Helen Shapiro - Walking Back to Happiness




Here is the complete list of bloggers participating in this round of the Blog Off:

SABATO MUSICALE - ITALIA, ITALIA

Picture the scene:  a small Sicilian town on the last Saturday morning of Italy's two-week summer break.  It is very hot and the streets are almost as deserted as they were on the ferragosto bank holiday itself.  The few shops that are open on the modern via Sacro Cuore are offering massive discounts to get rid of their summer stock but even with these, they are empty.  In the supermarket there are only three customers and you can see that the staff are itching to get to the beach. The two cars that are illegally parked right outside a bar go unnoticed for now as our local vigile is sheltering from the sun in the perfumery and is enjoying himself chatting to the young lady assistants.  Raffaele, my hairdresser, who reopened for a few hours yesterday, had said I could go back for a comb-out at twelve today - this is the only time of year when you need to make what passes for an "appointment" - but had called an hour before to ask if I could go earlier so that he and his staff could all escape back to the Marina.  Grumpily, I go and he greets me with,  "You have the sea in your eyes" so what can a girl do but melt?

The economy continues to go down the drain, the rest of Europe panics but the Italians, who know that all things pass, are still at the beach - living.  I love you, Italy.

And I cannot let August pass without reposting the quintessential summer song.  Take it away, signor Paoli:

Gino Paoli - Sapore di sale

HEARTS OF GOLD

My dear friends Jean and Gino truly have hearts of gold so it was with great pleasure that I attended their golden wedding anniversary party at the Marina di Ragusa on Friday night.  Jean and Gino have been living happily in Sicily for 17 years and Gino, as you may imagine, is of Italian descent.  

The party, appropriately for around 50 of Jean and Gino's friends,  was held in the elegant, covered courtyard of a restaurant which has the original name of Stasera pago io! ["Tonight I'm Paying!"]

The generous antipasti came plated and were very prettily presented. [There was melon under the Parma ham.]

Then there was wild asparagus risotto

and pasta with speck and mushrooms:

The main course was fillet of beef in a mushroom sauce

served with a side salad:

There was a refreshing macedonia for dessert

before Jean and Gino cut this beautiful cake, which had been made in a tiny, nearby pasticceria:

I wonder if they remember the first time they did this?

Unlike Will and Kate, Jean and Gino repeated the kiss several times for their friends - and for themselves!

The cake tasted every bit as delicious as it looked:

Every guest received one of these beautiful bomboniere [wedding favours]

decorated with a crystal bunch of grapes and containing golden sugared almonds:

Here is your intrepid blogger with Jean, Gino and our friend Linda of whom I've written many times on this blog:

Yes, that's a chignon I've got for the occasion, courtesy, of course, of Raffaele the hairdresser and I know he won't forgive me if I don't show you the back!

And now I'd like you all to join me in a toast: To Jean and Gino, our golden couple.  May you enjoy many more happy years together.

YOU KNOW IT'S HOT IN SICILY WHEN ....

You know it's hot in Sicily when...

1. British-style, the hot weather makes the front page of the local newspapers, though the headline is not "Cor, what a scorcher!" but "Afa!" [heatwave].
2. There are power cuts throughout the morning as everybody hits their aircon buttons.
3. There is absolute silence in the afternoons.
4. You hear cicadas at noon.
5. The older women carry fans.
6. Everybody is buying anguria [watermelon] and....
7. .... the greengrocer provides a parasol for his angurie.
8. You walk into your hairdresser's and find him and his staff sprawled out on the various sofas, fast asleep!

ENGLISH DAY AT RAFFAELE'S

English lessons [via yours truly] tea and even shortbread biscuits [from the local Lidl] were on offer at Raffaele the hairdresser's "English Day" yesterday.

For those of you who would like to know what to say at an Italian hairdresser's, here is a quick guide.  You can see some more vocabulary and try our "hairdressing word search" on the English International School, Modica blog.

What to say at the hairdresser’s – Cosa dire dal parrucchiere

I’d like to make an appointment, please – vorrei prendere un appuntamento

Monday – lunedì

Tuesday – martedì

Wednesday – mercoledì

Thursday – giovedì

Friday – venerdì

Saturday – sabato

at eleven o’clock – alle undici

at half past eleven – alle undici e mezza

at quarter to eleven – alle undici meno un quarto

at quarter past eleven – alle undici e un quarto

How much does it cost for …. ? -  Quanto costa per …. ?  [vedere la scheda di vocabulario]

How do you like your hair? – Come li asciughiamo?

Not too short – non troppo corti

Can you just trim the ends? – Può tagliare solo le punte?

With the fringe to the right / to the left  - con la frangia a destra / a sinistra

With the ends going under / up – con le punte sotto / insù

Can you do a comb-out, please? – Può fare la pettinata, per favore?

Thank you - grazie

Raffaele's salon is at:  yellow Parrucchiere,  via Sacro Cuore 6, 97015, Modica [RG].  

Tel: 0039 0932 906879.

A TOUCH OF CLASS

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Having espied a picture of a certain much coveted wedding invitation online, I printed a copy on good card, wrote my hairdresser's name on it and presented it to him.  He immediately put it on display in the salon and all that afternoon, clients came in, gaped at it and then exclaimed,

"E vero? Sei invitato, Raffaele?!"  ["Is it true? Are you invited, Raffaele?!"]  

I just sat there, making the occasional nonchalant reference to la mia amica, la regina.

I also printed copies for some of my young students, one of whom expressed her surprise at the invitation's restrained format thus:

"Ma è così semplice!"  ["It's so simple!"]

"That's class, honey", said I.

CHRISTMAS CASSATA

Who could resist a slice of very special cassata, brought from Palermo, at Raffaele the hairdresser's yesterday?  Not me!

SIGNS OF CHRISTMAS

Tomorrow is the Immacolata Holiday, when Italians traditionally decorate and get ready for Christmas.  In Sicily in particular, a crib is set up in nearly every home.  The figurines are often family heirlooms and the baby Jesus is added to the scene on Christmas Eve.  These days more and more families have a Christmas tree too and I see more Santa figures around than I did when I arrived five years ago.  These scenes have cheered me up this week:

I always know it's time to get decorating when Raffaele the hairdresser puts his tree up!

I liked this fellow in Modica Bassa:

A Sicilian winter scene: café tables on a terrace, Christmas tree surrounded by winter fuchsias and a palm tree - all in the December sun.

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"!

THE MAIN ATTRACTION

Raffaele's new puppy, Ciccio, has stolen the show in the salon.

SWEET TEMPTATIONS

Just look at these beautiful bags, handmade in Modica, which were on sale at Raffaele the hairdresser's on Saturday:

Mine's the cream one with the brown flowers - or it would be, in better times.   Which do you prefer, ladies?

And how's a girl supposed to get her summer shape back if Raffaele keeps offering treats like these pastries

and chocolate-coated strawberries?

These mini semifreddi even have sticks made of chocolate!

 

 

Alas, there is no hope....