LOOKING AT THE MOON

The anniversary of the 1969 moon landing always makes me think of my first visit to Italy, which took place in that year and I have written about it before on this blog. However, I could hardly believe that it was 52 years ago yesterday at 10.17 pm Italian time, if you focus on the moment Apollo 11 landed, or 52 years ago today, at 4.56 am if you  focus on the moment Armstrong set foot on the moon.

Here is another extract from my book, A Place Called Siracusa, in which I remember the night of 20th - 21st July 1969. I had been living with the Bianchi family in Bergamo and everything, including Italian food, was new to me. The wife had done a bit of matchmaking on my behalf and I had acquired an Italian boyfriend called Luca:

 It wasn’t only my tastebuds that were singing, though. It was as if all my senses had been awakened:  there were the sounds and the silences – the mad boys as their vespas roared by, the cacophony of sounds in the street, the silence of the convent opposite the apartment, punctuated only by bells. There was the smell of the food being prepared - often the aroma of ragù being prepared for lunch would drift up from another apartment from as early as 8 am. Then there was the delicate scent of vanilla that wafted through the air every time you passed a pasticceria and always there was the aroma of freshly-picked lemons.Touch - there was the tactility of Italy, certainly, but also the joy of touching Martina’s freshly ironed. crisp linen sheets, the velvet skin of peaches and apricots, the coolness of marble when you entered apartment buildings. And what a feast for the eyes this country was! In addition to all that, I had met with kindness everywhere.

When Dott. Bianchi took me to the Duomo (cathedral) in Bergamo I was rendered speechless by its beauty and when I first saw Milan Cathedral it was both its grandeur and its loveliness that stopped me in my tracks. When we went to Riccione and Rimini for a few weeks it was the blue of the sea; and it was the sheer majesty of the Alps when we went to spend a week at the Bianchi house there, in Foppolo.

Luca had followed us to both Riccione and to Foppolo, and it was in Foppolo that I found myself on the night of the moon landing, 20 July 1969.  Italian TV was playing songs about the moon late into the night and when they played "Guarda che luna" we all went out onto the balcony to do just that – look at the moon. We couldn’t believe there were men up there!  I only have to listen to the first bar of that song and I am nineteen again, standing back on that balcony in Foppolo, with the Alpine breeze cooling the night air and Luca's arm around me.

So here's to looking at the moon!

The book will be more widely available soon - watch this space!

QUIZ: SICILIAN PROVERBS - 22

A little light relief is needed and it's ages since we had a proverbs quiz, so why not have a go at matching these seasonal proverbs in dialect to their meanings?

1.  Marzu, mi rifaccio.

2.  Marzu tingi, aprile dipingi.

3.  Marzu pazzareddu, talìa u suli, e pigghia l'umbrellu.

4.  La luna di marzu règula sei misi.

5.  Marzu conza e guasta, né cuvernu cc'è che basti.

Embed from Getty Images

a.  There's no way to stop the breakages and  [subsequent] repairs needed in March.

b.  The March moon influences the moons for six months [ie., the weather of the March new moon period will influence that of the beginning of the next six months].

c.  In March I remake myself.

d.  Tint in March, paint in April [with spring colours].

e.  March is mad - if you see the sun, grab your umbrella.

 Highlight the space below to see the answers:
1c, 2d, 3e, 4b, 5a.

SABATO MUSICALE

All the talk about the moon this week made me remember this Gino Paoli song:

Gino Paoli - Io vivo nella luna

SABATO MUSICALE

It's that season again and everyone's down at the sea so.....

Pino Daniele - Mareluna

SABATO MUSICALE

Tonight we may all be able to see the "supermoon" so, with that in mind, here is a pretty song from the late Alex Baroni:

Alex Baroni - La voce della luna

ANOTHER TRAGEDY AT SEA

Two weeks ago I wrote about Neil Armstrong, my memories of that wonderful night of the moon landing and the songs that bring it back to me. Sometimes, from Sicily, the moon seems so near that I feel I could touch it but, as I look out at its clear light, I wonder how many desperate people are on the sea, heading, by that same light, towards the shores of Europe only to be apprehended and turned back or, tragically, to lose their lives in the attempt to reach what they see as a continent of opportunity.

Image: Wikipedia Italia

Last night, as I stood gazing at the moon from the comfort of my flat, it happened again and so far 56 survivors have been found after a 10-metre boat carrying between 136 and 150 migrants capsized - or possibly not, as we shall see - off Lampione in the Isole Pelagie, 12 miles from Lampedusa.  One body has also been found and among the survivors there is one pregnant woman. Survivors say that six children were on board.

The alarm was raised at around 6pm last night via a call by satellite phone from one of the passengers to the Port Authority of Palermo.  The Italian Coastguard immediately despatched crews to the area and they were quickly joined by Finance Police vessels.  As I write, these vessels, along with helicopters and three NATO ships are still searching the area. Some privately owned boats have also joined the search.

Strangely, there is no trace so far of the migrant boat. The Italian authorities say that this could be because it sank quickly or because the people traffickers who arranged the journey had deliberately left their passengers to swim or die near Lampione, then turned the boat around and headed back to Tunisia in it.  Police say that the situation will become clear as the survivors' stories are verified.

Image: Wikipedia Italia

La Sicilia Online is now reporting that eight migrants were found on and near Marettimo Island in the Egadi [Aegadian] Archipelago after their boat capsized early this morning.

I'll be thinking of these poor, frightened souls as I watch the moon over Modica tonight. 

MANY MOONS AGO....

As the world mourns Neil Armstrong I suppose the thoughts of many of those of us who are old enough to remember that extraordinary night in 1969 have been wandering back to where we were at the time.  I was in Italy for the first time in my life and have tears streaming down my cheeks right now as I remember the impression the country made on me, even then.  It was a love affair that would last a lifetime. 

But I was in the midst of another love affair too and I confess I was much more interested in snogging my Italian boyfriend than the technological feats being performed by NASA!  We were in Foppolo, in the Italian Alps and, after we'd watched the grainy live pictures, we went out on the balcony to look at the moon.  On TV, this song was playing:

Fred Buscaglione - Guarda Che Luna

I thought then, and still believe now, that it was terribly romantic of the Italians to play "moon music" while the rest of the world was trying to explain the science of it all....

My parents' generation were much more impressed than mine and the next day my dad called me in Italy - not an easy thing to do then - to check that I'd seen the news.  Back home my old grandpa went around scratching his head for about a year afterwards, remarking that he'd "never expected to live to see the day" whilst I, with all the coolness of a generation brought up with transistor radios and television, shrugged and said I couldn't understand why it hadn't happened before.  Only now do I appreciate what a "giant leap" that really was and how it made us believe that there were no frontiers. Women's liberation was to come in the next decade and barrier after barrier and icon after icon fell.  "Where did it all go, that hope?" one might ask now but to do so is not to belittle Armstrong's achievements or those of the men and women who came after him.

But that's enough philosophising - let's be Italian and get to the music!  Here's another favourite Italian song of mine that features the moon:

Renzo Arbore e L'Orchestra Italiana - Luna Rossa

Here's one for the ladies:  Before she was rich, sings the great Patty Pravo, she lived in phases like the moon with fantastic explosions of blue light:

Patty Pravo - La Luna


This one too was written, I believe, with women in mind.  If you don't "even want the moon" but just a little more time to yourself to dream, without waiting around for a man who has wronged you, this is the song for you!

Fiordaliso - Non voglio mica la luna

Who has not, at some time in their life, seen the moon as a "big pizza pie" and felt like this?

Dean Martin - That's Amore

This song sets me dreaming:

Ana Oxa - Bianca Luna

And now, because Francis Albert is of Sicilian ancestry....

Frank Sinatra - Fly Me to the Moon

and Mr Bublé is an Italian Canadian:

Michael Bublé - Moondance

Henry Mancini, of course, had Italian parents and we hummed this song of his throughout the moon landing decade:

Andy Williams and Henry Mancini - Moon River

The post would not be complete without Italy's sweetheart:

Sophia Loren - Guarda la Luna from Nine

Last night there was a glorious, golden moon over Sicily and I'm sure she was shining in tribute to Mr Armstrong.  I went out on my balcony and gazed at her as I did all those years ago in Foppolo.

Before I go, I've decided to slip this song in because my dad loved it and tomorrow would have been his birthday:

Dorothy Lamour - Moon of Manakoora

Goodnight, Dad and buon viaggio, Neil Armstrong, wherever you both are.

SABATO MUSICALE

Even the moon, we learn, has wrinkles.  Comforting though that notion may be, I remain an incurable romantic. Take it away, Renzo Arbore e l'Orchestra italiana, who are playing in Pozzallo tonight:

CINEMATIC PERFECTION

Moonstruck [1987] is, for me, the perfect film, for it has Italians, it has the moon, it has romance, it has comedy, it has Nicolas Cage being masterful and Olympia Dukakis being ironical and it has dogs!

I don't usually have much time for Cher, as the way she has had herself cut up in order to get a figure like a boy's is hardly a good role-model for women, but I have to admit that here she proves she can act and is wonderful.

Cage's line, "Now would you come upstairs - and get in my bed!" is beautifully delivered and the grandfather's line, "Someone tell a joke" is a masterpiece of comic timing.

If the film mocks Sicilians, it does so gently and certainly there are still mammas like Johnny's in Sicily - and sons like Johnny everywhere!

Here are my favourite scenes:

Moonstruck - Johnny in Sicily; Loretta meets Ronny.


Moonstruck - Ronny is masterful; Johnny answers a question.


Moonstruck - all is resolved.

WILTING...

I am late getting to my blog tonight on account of the return of the extreme heat, which we are told will last until Thursday. Unusually, there is not even much relief in the evening air at the moment. Many forest fires have broken out all over Sicily and I was amazed to read today that some of these are started deliberately, not only by "regular" arsonists but by part-time workers who want to be taken on by the forestry agency to put these same fires out! We do get some beautiful moons to gaze at from the balcony during this season, though, and here is my best attempt at a moon photo.

BITS AND PIECES

Just a few bits and bobs to tell you about this evening:

First, a post of Ellee's yesterday made me think about the location of supermarkets here: many are on the outskirts of the town and have large, flat, free carparks as in Britain, but my local one is underneath a block of flats and down the slope pictured. It is well signposted but you'd need to know that Conad is a chain of supermarkets to realise that that's what it is. You could miss quite a few businesses and offices here if you didn't keep looking up [and down] actually: Raffaele's is up the stairs in the second photo and you wouldn't know there was a hairdresser's there unless you happened to glance up and see the poster. [I once asked him why he calls his salon "yellow", by the way: apparently there was another hairdresser called Raffaele here years ago and when "my" Raffaele opened, he had his salon decorated in yellow and so he used that as part of the name to distinguish himself from his namesake. I think he also rather likes the word!]

Today is a sort of holiday for Carnevale: some businesses have been closed all day whilst others have not reopened this evening. There isn't much of a Carnival tradition in Modica: it seems, here, to be mainly a festival for the children. There will be some processions in Modica Bassa tonight but I'm not going down there as I don't feel like having water and that gooey stuff thrown at me, though I don't begrudge others their fun. Having just been out with Simi, I saw that we have a beautiful new moon, so in a moment I am going to fling the shutters open and gaze at it awhile , for, dear readers, if you have not seen a Sicilian moon, you have not seen a moon....

A less welcome visitor than the moon was a locust which decided to fly into my bathroom last night. I'm afraid I was much too intent on getting rid of the thing to photograph it! Perhaps I won't open the shutters right now, after all...

Now to a complete change of subject: there is to be a health initiative in Sicily so the already reasonable prices for fruit and vegetables are to be lowered. Portion sizes in bars are also to be reduced but no one seems to know yet how and to what. I'll let you know when I see evidence of this.

Going back to the supermarket, there were three power cuts in there while I was at the checkout yesterday [not, I think, their fault]. Even the door is electronically controlled now, so no one could get in or out during this time. As you can imagine, there was much shrugging of shoulders and uttering of "pazienza"!

And finally, for this post, "they made me do it" - blogger, that is; late last night they made me change to beta . This is my first beta post and I'm not quite sure what I'm doing - pazienza.