“To have seen Italy, without having seen Sicily… means that you have not seen Italy at all !
Because Sicily is the essence of everything.”
Goethe
Fascinating in its contrasts.. beautiful, wandering, loud, sweet, wild, strict, welcoming, deeply religious & dangerously erotic ! If she were a woman, she would have the form of Monica Bellucci… spreading her clothes while bending down & the whole world goes “nuts” ! She doesn’t want to provoke, it’s her nature… that’s how she was born !
And then those smells that pour from the open kitchens with the fringed curtains… basil, tomato, garlic & olive oil in complete harmony ! A faster, more exciting & delicious cuisine – in its simplicity – does not exist in the whole world… or is it just me ? Anyone who is lucky enough to have family, friends here (I feel grateful for that ! ) or even decided to go for the “living with locals” experience, cannot fail to be impressed by the hospitality of the locals who almost “suck” you in one of those endless family, Sunday tables that can turn you into an eater & drinker freak ! Babies, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, uncles, cousins, grooms & brides crowd around a bustling table to enjoy pasta con tenerumi, anelleti siciliani, rigatoni alla norma, spaghetti con le sarde, insalate di mare, caponate, spiedini , cannoli, cassate, martorane & granite al limone !! All this together in a pan-wildness of flavors for all tastes & every palate ! For sure, these will sound unfamiliar to you in relation to what you know as “authentic” Italian cuisine ! Well, these are recipes that you find – basically – in the Italian south, with which the “affluent” north does not want to have any relationship… Believe me, the confrontation between Italian North and South has no comparison with any equivalent one of other Mediterranean countries (including Greece & Spain). The conflicts are not limited to jokes or anecdotes related to the local folklore of each region, but to their very national identity, roots & origins ! Mamma mia… !!
Sicily, therefore, the largest island of the Mediterranean & a land that was stepped by the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Saracens, the Arabs, the Franks and of course the Normans ! Undoubtedly, the island is a “melting pot” of cultures, architecture, religions, monuments, culture, arts & letters of all its conquerors and settlers ! Ancient Greek temples, Byzantine monasteries, Norman castles, Muslim palaces, Catholic churches… everything, but this place lived through it all, which is why it is at the same time “rough & explosive”, like the volcano of Etna that “wakes up” every now and then and it roars, so that this place is never quiet, that it always has something unexpected to look forward to… as if the tranquility does not suit this land !
“Restless” places, however, also give birth to “restless” children… those who didn’t leave with the packs to distant America in the early 1900s, stayed behind struggling with the absolute poverty of an arid place. And that’s how the Mafia was born.. poverty tested their rather “loose” moral barriers of those who stayed behind, looking for “alternative” ways of living ! The presence of Cosa Nostra always hovers over the island and is still a “state within a state” in every neighborhood & city (without, however, ever becoming obvious or annoying to foreigners & tourists !) A unique “discord” in the Sicilian serenity of everyday life, the sirens of the police patrol cars that always accompany judges, prosecutors, prisoners & prosecution witnesses, being under 24-hour protection. Sicilians, moreover, still mourn the prosecutors Giovanni Falcone & Paolo Borsellino, who bravely raised their stature in Mafia criminality & fought heroically to cleanse the place that gave birth to them & hurt them so much.. Always aware of the danger running, managed to implement changes in legislation, penalties and the dismantling of criminals linked to the Sicilian mafia channels, before falling “heroically” into the murderous ambushes that shook not only Italy, but also the entire international public opinion ! In 2006 “Time” magazine included them in the list of International heroes of the last 60 years, while the Catholic Church officially declared them “martyrs”.
In any case, Sicily lives the life that is visible and the “other”, the one that it diligently hides.. The real traveler should explore Sicily “both from the easy and from the tough side”, in order to “understand” it and at the end -for sure- will end to love it ! Through the hanging laundry in the slums, the loud voices, the tight hugs, the alleys where the little ones learn to love football, while Cosa Nostra is trying to “recruit” them… There, in those same neighborhoods and in every house that prays daily to the grace of Padre Pio (top religious figure of the Catholic Church), while they make sure “not to get involved in the lives of others and mind their own business”, where the honor, the cohesion and the respect for their own “famiglia”
is above all, even the laws (which ones, did we say ? )! There in the same houses where the divine music of Nino Rota & Ennio Morricone can be heard from “The Godfather” to “Cinema, il Paradiso” themes ! Where Norma’s opera with Maria Callas’ “divine” voice, gets mixed with the voices of the juicy, almost erotic (like Botticelli paintings) Sicilian mothers who go out on the balcony to call their little ones for food… and when they come they first tuck into their mothers’ aprons that smell basil, always first comes the basil.. !
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