Baroque nights

“Are we going by vespa?  There might be no parking there” Vincenzo says while deciding which shirt to wear. He knows I love moving by my vespa. A car is an option for me for long distances or when storming.  We also are late for our funky birthday party at centro storico (1).

Late November  and we are still blessed with mild weather. Not much traffic. We are driving slowly, enjoying a warm breeze over our faces. As we approach its historical center, the black lady appears with its lava stone Baroque-style palazzos, the ruins of its Greek and Roman theatres emerging from the decadent atmosphere of the narrow streets, built after a Mt Etna devastating eruption and a disastrous earthquake wiped out most of the town in 1669 and 1696. For our Baroque-style, we have been listed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. I’m afraid we do not fully understand the importance of such an honourable mention, nor our politicians use it to enhance our touristic potential. Our indolence is stronger than our shrewdness.  

“Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck are just arrived, guys!” Jerry shouts out hilariously,  looking at us arriving on the back of my vintage-style moped-saddle. Somehow, we remind him of the Oscar winning movie Roman Holidays starring Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn riding a vespa in Rome.

The best part of driving a vespa is you can easily free yourself out from our heavy traffic and park wherever you need. So, I’ve  parked just down the scalinata Alessi, where the Niewsky, our party venue, stands halfway along the flight of steps. One of the few real institutions in town, a very unusual place for a birthday party, it matches our freakish guest of honour well. 

 

“This place still retains the same Che Guevara-Buena Vista Social Club-smoky-shabby atmosphere it had in late ’80s” Enzo notices while greeting old and new friends. It was back on 1986 when Saro, its out-and-out communist  owner, opened the Niewsky, the first pub in town, giving rise to a new trend of reclamation and renewal for our centro storico. In a short period of time, the youth seized the area, clubs and restaurants invaded smoothly the sleeping Baroque buildings. Nightlife rescued our streets from blight and crime, the local movida was so intense and vibrant to be compared to the Madrilenian one. This was the primavera Catanese,  a sort of permanent spring which gave the city and its people pride and identification for about a decade.  

It’s Thursday night and both the Niewsky and scalinata Alessi  are packed with people.  Indoors, men and women around their  ‘40s having their organic dinner, no Coca Cola, only red wine sipping. Outdoors, students camping out along the steps drinking beers and mojitos. Our Baroque nights speak a blend of European languages; Italian, Spanish, English, French. The Erasmus exchange project among UE universities  for students’ mobility is the tangible heritage of our primavera Catanese.

Memories flow back to my Erasmus experience in Rotterdam in ’93 and I feel like suffering from Peter Pan’s syndrome of eternal youth.

Gripped by misrule and impasse today, Catania goes through a very difficult period. But its nights still throbs with life.

(1) Centro storico = historical centre

28 dead people, 9 missing. We are all guilty.

(Ansa)

This morning, the Cathedral of Messina gave hospitality to the solemn funerals of 21 of the 28 victims of the severe rainstorm which caused a lethal landslide in Giampilieri, a suburb south of Messina, and involved the small town of Scaletta Zanclea and several other tiny villages named Altolia, Briga and Molino built on the slopes of the Peloritani Mountains, along the Ionian Coast in Sicily.

A girl of 5, young brothers of 22 and 23, elderly people in their 70s and 80s, a Romanian lady, this tragedy affected all families, all ages.
Sorrow, despair, anger, flood of tears. Friends, relatives, we are crying for one of our beloved.

Representatives of the Italian State all standing out in front to say goodbye to the victims: the Prime Minister, the President of Regione Siciliana, Ministers and members of the Parliament, their face contrite and grieve in front of the cameras.

This has been called "the announced tragedy" as many in Sicily and Italy, as announced were the dead people after the earthquake which destroyed the town of L'Aquila several months ago, as announced were the victims of the Vajont in 1969. 

(Ansa)

We are all guilty.

We citizens are guilty, as we are too used to live ignoring rules, laws and duties. 
We are too used to elect politicians who honestly care nothing about their citizens, their territory, the real need of the communities they represent. We are too used to let these people trampling on our rights, ignoring undertakings, pursuing and achieving goals which often seems to be closer to their own interests then to those of their communities. We are too used to accept abuses of power of any kind. We simply forgot to be an active part of the society and we acts as powerless, becoming spectators of ourselves and our lives.

(AP Photo)

Politicians are guilty. 
There are many ways to carry out one's own role and  task. They simply have chosen the worst one, voluntarily misinterpreting their mandate and all duties belonging to it. Many of them are well-meaning, straight men. Others are not trustworthy, they are not up the job people have given to them. But we keep electing them, our eyes blind, our hands over our ears, we don't dare to open our mouth. Except when a tragedy arrives and breaks violently our silence.

(Ansa)

The State is guilty as most of the time the our State is simply absent. 
Laws and rules are not applied. Faults and negligence are not verified. Penalties are not undergone. This State seldom foresees a strategy of preventive measures. 
This is the State of the unpunished and unpunishable people, except for the poor ones.

(Ansa)

28 dead people, 9 missing. We are all guilty, waiting for the next national tragedy.

For not to forget  

Watch videos on Utube 

 Scaletta Zanclea: the disaster on Utube 

Sicily or how to survive when travelling The Godfather’s land and experience the best of it

If your are taking this title seriously and what you expect is to have a serious survey on how to survive on what you expect to be the mafia land, I’m sorry you will be disappointed.
If you are taking this title seriously and what you expect are useful tips and tricks for discerning travelers in Sicily, you’re on the right way.

Bias
Prejudices about Sicily are still alive and die hard. If you think yourself as a traveler, Sicily is the perfect destination to get a challenged about. Mafia? Yes, it’s true, it’s our major problem and no, you will never meet a true mafioso on your way, real life in Sicily is not Michael Corleone’s . Don’t mistake mafia with ordinary delinquency, the same you will find everywhere else in the world.

Culture and places
Sicily, the world in an island? "… A landscape in which it is possible to find what on earth seems to be made to seduce eyes, mind, imagination…". Guy de Maupassant was very impressed by Sicily during one of his Grand Tour in Europe.
A culture shaped by centuries of dominations. We had the Greek, the Phoenicians, the Romans, the Barbarians, the Arabs, the Normans, the Swabians, the Angevins, the Spanish and their Bourbons. Each of them left in Sicily their heritage, their way of living, food, architecture skills, and each of them contributed Sicily to be the place where the world met and till meets. A holiday in Sicily is a journey to the roots of the world, a journey to a rich source of nature, history and culture, melted into a small triangle of land in the centre of the Mediterranean Sea. Greek archaeological parks and open-air theatres located in impervious and strategic positions, Imperial age villas widely decorated with precious mosaics, Arab gardens, Norman castles and cathedrals with gorgeous byzantine decorations, opulent Baroque-style historical centers and noble palazzos: thanks to its cultural and architectural Babel Sicily is the view of time.

People and  folklore
Mourning-dressed women and short moustache men? Ah, that’s one of my favorite bias! Sicilians are blond, red, black, brown-hair, short, tall, dark and blue-eyes, beautiful women, handsome men, fashion-addict or shabby youth. If you travel inland and visit remote villages it may happen you to meet old mourning-dressed and wrinkled women with a black head scarf or old moustache men lolling out at the main square reserving you a piercing and questioning glance or a frank smile. Sincere local folklore waiting for a shot. Sicilians are daring and wits like the Muslims were, elegant and knowledgeable like the French, resolute like the Spanish. A bit of every civilization still lives in us.

Thanks to this heavy past of dominations, Sicilians are open, generous and nice people. They are skeptical, surly, sometimes rude, definitely parochial people, certainly not well disposed to queue and respect rules of any kind, truly disorganized by nature and, at the same time, able to voice a smart cleverness, adaptability and a talent to solve the most tangled problems. As we are lazy bones, we seldom turn this talent to everyday life, unless we are really fed up with something and our private life is somehow strongly involved. Sicilians are people of strong contradictions in the land of contradictions.

Bear in mind that “let’s meet at noon” does not necessarily mean noon "sharp”: we do have a wide-ranging concept of time, so we tend to be never on time. Sicilian mind is flexible.

Heavy traffic? Remember, when driving the rule seems to have no rule. So, unless you would like to turn on you travel into a real surviving camp along Sicilian roads, be careful about the idea of renting a car to drive on your own. Road signs are optional so, get ready to make a GPS your very best friend for the rest of your journey. Don’t be upset if double parking or park on sidewalks is so common: we like to challenge people’s patience and get them fit with a daily gymkhana (local folklore or civil chaos?).

But if walking or driving your car you simply ask about directions or you are in trouble, be sure you’ll find generous people ready to help you one way or another. Speaking no English (most of the people still don’t) is not that important, they know the way to let you understand the point. Sicilians are theatrical people.

Be open, flexible and generous and you’ll make the most of them.

Food and Wine
Be on a diet? What a fool you are thinking to watch your weight while in Sicily! Here, food is serious topic. If you are a foodie-kind of traveler you’ll risk an overdose.

Blessed with a fertile land, a mild climate and a shining sun, Sicily produces a large variety of top quality raw materials and staples which give rise to an incredible range of delicious dishes, unique specialties and savory table delicacies. Sicilian cuisine is the perfect resume of centuries of culinary traditions and cultures. The Arabs left us the fish-based couscous you should taste only in Trapani area and as well as a large use of honey in confectionery, the sweet and sour, saffron, spices and raisins. The French gave us sauces, gateaux and their refined elaborations. The Spanish, their sumptuous presentations, salads and frittata (tortilla).

Then, the Monsu came, the French chefs cooking for the Bourbons and the local noble families who elaborated their Sicilian haute-cuisine style.

You can eat everywhere, anytime.

Bars serve a lot: typical pastry items for your breakfast out are the ravioli (a sweet pastry filled with ricotta cheese and drops of chocolate), cornetti filled with nutella, white or chocolate cream or jam, fried iris filled with cream or soft graffe with sugar dusting on the top. From spring to fall, you cannot miss the queen for breakfast, the frivolous granita (a kind of creamy sorbet made of several tastes such as almond, pistachio, coffee, mulberry, peach, lemon, chocolate) served rigorously in a transparent glass con panna (cream) e brioche. Catania offers the best throughout the island.

Not to mention the terrific tavola calda, our quality fast-food, a large selection of snacks like arancini, pizzette, cartocciate and scaccie which are a useful alternative to a proper meal. A world to discover.

Street-food is quite common especially in Palermo area where you can meet folks selling suspicious local dishes such as pane ‘ca meusa (bread filled with spleen) or stigghiola (entrails). Leave out your prejudices, street-food is safe and tasty.

Dining out at typical trattorie is a joy for food beginners and refined connoisseurs. Whether you like it or not, you will be thrilled by hundreds of appetizers and starters, dozens of different types of pasta, fish dishes and sea-food, meat tasty morsels. No matter where your personal taste leads you, caponata and parmigiana are absolutely the Sicilian cooking -must.

Desserts deserve a chapter apart; you cannot be your way back home without experiencing cannoli and cassata.

Sip a glass of wine from our quality native grapes such as a Nero d’Avola, Inzolia, Cataratto, Nerello Mascalese, or wash your meal with a Sicilian Chardonnay or a Merlot.

When in Catania, stops at a chiosco and order a seltz, limone e sale, a mandarino al limone or a chinotto and deal with a new soft-drink experience.

Stroll about local markets: polychrome and rowdy - that’s our Arab attitude, but don’t think to bargain – you’ll be right in the pulsing heart of the town, plain people immersed into their everyday life. Just mind your wallet and never forget your camera!

Nightlife
Going out at weekends? Sicilians enjoy life and local movida is intense and vibrant.

Catania is the nightlife queen. Catanesi people think there is always a good reason to chill out, seven days a week, twelve months a year. No agenda, they usually improvise. No matter if you are single, gay or who your fellow traveler is, get a Lapis and see what’s on.

Palermo is fine, too, but Palermitani tend to have that snobbish attitude to live a close party friendship with respect to the Catanesi who love receiving new friends with open arms.

Ease off, you're in Sicily! Buon divertimento!

Frivolous granita? Something you cannot do without it

Are you planning to visit Sicily? Are you a foodie-kind of traveler?

There is a list of local food and delicacies you cannot miss. Granita, arancini, cannoli and cassata are top on the list and if do not taste at least one of them you cannot proudly say "I was in Sicily"!

Let's start with granita, my favourite. What is funny to me is reading worldwide accredited and reliable guides writing that granita is made with ice and syrup. I suppose those writers have never been to Sicily or have never tasted granite in Sicily to talk and write nonsense.
It is true that in the past people used to prepare granita with snow and lemon juice, this was typical of Messina area, while Catania dignified the "minnulata" a granita made exclusively of almonds.
Born originally in Messina, granita is diffused all around the island. It is a kind of sorbet, the basic recipe includes water (not ice!) and sugar to which several ingredients are added to characterize its flavor: lemon, almond, strawberry, coffee, chocolate (it matches perfectly with the almond one), pistachio (try it in Catania area!), mulberries, peach, just to mention some.Bars and cafès rigorously serve in a transparent glass and you may ask to add some panna (cream) on the top or at the bottom of the glass (this is used in Messina area where they add panna both at the bottom and on the top of the coffee granite) and match it with a fragrant brioche. So, while in Sicily ask for "granita con panna e brioche"!

Granita is a true masterpiece of Sicilian cooking and the favourite piece for summer breakfast (don't be afraid to have a granita any time during the day, you will see local people have lunch with it or eat it at midnight!).
Believe me, it is absolutely a must, a frivolous titbit you will never forget!

In Sicily the method to make it is completely different from the north of Italy where they use to make ice, crush it and then add the flavour. Here, bars and cafes use a special machine with blades able to keep moving the liquid at a very low temperature so avoiding it to solidify. A high percentage of sugar in the liquid favours the preparation of a sort of cream which is the granite itself.

Now, you wonder, can we do home-made granita? Definitely yes!

Ingredients
Serves 4/5 people

½ a lt of lemon juice (use 8/10 organic lemons only)
½ a lt of water
500 gr of caster sugar
Grated lemon peel (1/2 organic lemons are enough)
A steel bowl

1. Grate the lemon peel and then squeeze the lemons to prepare the juice.
2. Boil the water and let it rest until tepid, then add sugar, lemon juice and grated lemon peel. Let it cool.
3. Pour it in the steel bowl and put it in the freezer. Stir the liquid every 20/30 minutes using a fork or a whisk so to avoid its solidification.
4. When the liquid becomes grainy, granite is ready. Serve it in transparent glasses with tea spoons and fresh cream.

Buon appetito!

P.S. The brioche recipe will be posted at soonest!


© Text and pictures by Doriana Briguglio

Easter delights for senses

It would be easy to say I made these small cute pastries but it wouldn't be true. These are masterpieces of the ancient tradition of the Sicilian convents and are made by the gentle and skilled hands of old nuns whose recipes will maybe disapper with them.

My good friend Aldo Grasso, I've already posted about him and about his Enoteca di Sicilia, did a great job. He is a taste hunter who travels aorund Sicily to seek and find out stories and recipes of our culinary traditions. Easter travel is undoubtly the most interesting one made to discover that great cutural heritage hidden into the kitchens of the convents. Pastries and desserts of Holy week come from cloisters located mostly in Western Sicily: Mazara del Vallo, Alcamo, Erice, Agrigento, Palam di Montechiaro, Mistretta. These pastries are true masterpieces of the culinary art, some of them dating back to the Midde-Ages. Made basically of Sicilian almonds, sometimes filled with pistach or citron, they offer a perfect balance of taste, fragrance and sugar. Aboslutely hand-made, there is no space for industrial production.
For those of you who see themselves as taste hunters I strongly suggest to order these unique Sicilian delicacies, a great delight for adults and children!

Enoteca di Sicilia
Viale Africa 31
95100 Catania (Sicily, Italy)
T + 39 095 7462210
E enotecaregionale@tiscali.it

Picture & text © Doriana Briguglio

Easter or theatre?

Is there any other place in the world where feast and theatre are strictly weaved together to celebrate the Holy Week? If yes please, I would like to know.

I've recently made a plan for some friends of mine coming from US and willing to travel to Sicily during Easter holidays. I suggested them to visit those villages and towns where those days going from Palm Sunday to Easter Day are plenty of both sacred and profane rituals. A very unsual journey into the hidden atmospheres of the Christian faith and the theatrical celebration of Easter.

I sent them some pictures and links about places and performances and ... they were shocked! Excited! Exhalted by the idea of actively participating to those celebrations both as actors and audience, as most of the local people do!

Every town and every village participates to Easter feasts with its own rituals deriving from usages and customs, from ancient traditions in which it is not always possible to find out origins and motives.

The list of those places is rich but I would like to mention some of the most interesting ones, those I find most picturesque and fanciful:

- The Holy Week in Enna with its climax on Good Friday

- The Procession of the Misteries in Trapani again with its peak on Good Friday

- The Devils' dance (Ballo dei Diavoli) for Easter Day in Prizzi, Palermo area

- The Judaeans' feast (Festa dei Giudei) for Holy Thursday and Good Friday in San Fratello, Messina area
- The Diavolata for Easter Day in Adrano, Catania/Mt Etna area.

Which of the above pictures refers to the above-mentioned feasts?

If you happen to imagine a travel to Sicily and maybe plan it, take into consideration Easter Week and enjoy with us our celebrations! Don't forget to celebrate with the right Sicilian Easter menu (I will post some recipes at soonest) and chocolate Easter eggs!

And in the meanwhile, learn how to say Happy Easter in Italian:

Buona Pasqua!

© Text and pictures by Doriana Briguglio

In Sicily, every Saint has got his/her pastries!

I was at Enoteca di Sicilia a couple of days ago and my good friend Aldo showed me a typical pastry of the period named seno di vergine (virgin's breast). I've made a quick research and realized how in Sicily every Saint is strictly linked with some special pastry or dessert.

Today, the 5th of March the city of Catania celebrates her patron Saint: Agatha. To tell the true, the feast in her honour starts on the 3rd of March and goes on evey day, 24 hrs per day, ending usually on the mornig of the 6th. But, I will post more details about this incredible and huge sacred attraction.

The brown pastries is named seno di vergine, virgin's breast (I'll revert back with a specific post about it), the white one is more specifically St Agatha's breast. Both have the shape of a breast and accordingy are usually made in different sizes with the tipples made of pastry or candied cherry. The green ones are named St. Agatha's olive and made of marzipan.

To understand what is behind the pastries showed in the picture, first I have to tell you briefly about the life of St. Agatha.

She was of a rich and illustrious family, and having been consecrated to God from her tender years, triumphed over many assaults upon her chastity. Quintianus, a man of consular dignity, bent on gratifying his lust, imagined he should easily compass his wicked designs on Agatha's person and estate by means of the emperor's edict against the Christians. He therefore caused her to be apprehended and brought before him at Catania. On her appearance, Quintianus gave orders for her being put into the hands of Aphrodisia who, with six daughters, all prostitutes, kept a common stew. Quintianus, being informed of her constancy after thirty days, ordered her to be brought before him. The virgin told him that to be a servant of Jesus Christ was the most illustrious nobility and true liberty. Quintianus offended at her resolute answers, commanded her to be buffeted and led to prison and then to be stretched on the rack, which torment was usually accompanied with stripes, the tearing of the sides with iron hooks, and burning them with torches or matches. Then, enraged to see her suffer all this with cheerfulness, he commanded her breast to be tortured, and afterwards to be cut off. At which she made him this reproach: "Cruel tyrant, do you not blush to torture this part of my body, you that sucked the breasts of a woman yourself?

© Text and picture by Doriana Briguglio

Slow Food Presidia: 29 good, clean and fair reasons for travelling to and around Sicily

I was surprised and incredulous the first time I I run up against a Chinese garlic at a famous local chain of supermarkets. "What the hell I have to do with a Chinese garlic?". Made in China, when I expected to find a Made in Italy or better a Made in Sicily, since we produce top quality varieties. I was really very disappointed. Nevertheless, it was late, I needed it and I bought it as I had no alternative. Let me tell you that I got really pissed off when cooking I realized that, apart from its pefect shape, it stinks. I threw it away.

It's like buying Chinese pasta or Chinese lemons! In Sicily! No way, at least for me.

During Christmas time, I went to Aldo at Enoteca Sicilia to buy some wine and I left with a with a typical treccia d'aglio, a plait of original Sicilian garlic from Nubia, a Trapani town district. It's named the red garlic, it is tasty and smells properly. I was happy and satisfied!

This aglio roso di Nubia (red garlic from Nubia) is part of the Slow Food Presidia in Sicily whose goal is to protect products at real risk of extincion, connected to a group memory and cultural identity, produced in limited quantities using traditional methods, of high quality and respecting environmental and social values.

Food tells a lot of a territory and its people's culture, it tells about its roots, its present time and its future.
Sicily has a heritage of specialty agrifood products rivaling with any in the world.
Slow Food (for those who still do not know about Slow Food it is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world) has focused 29 Presidia in Sicily (based basicly on bread, oil, cheese, vegetables, seafood) achieving an impressive result by promoting and coordinating dialog between small producers, helping to create a sense of social solidarity and contributing to local economic and social development.

Food might be a good excuse to travel or might be a chance for a proper travelling style.

If you are a foody kinda traveller you have 29 good reasons for travelling to and around Sicily. The map of the Sicilian Presidia reveals how diffused these produtcs are in the region and therefore how close still is the relationship between pastoral agriculture, biodiversity, tradition and economic development.

While visiting the top tourist Sicilian sites such as Taormina, Mt Etna, Catania, Aeolian Islands, Noto an Syracuse, the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, Palermo and Monreale, Trapani and Erice, take a map of the Presidia with you and add a visit to local producers or restaurants using the Presidia products, just to mention some of them:

Red Garlic fron Nubia (Trapani), caper from Salina (Aeolian Islands), onion from Giarratana, cuddriredda (sort of bread) from Delia (Agrigento area), lentils from Ustica island, Interdonato lemon type, Maiorchino cheese from Novara di Sicilia (Messina area), almonds from Noto, black bread from Castelvetrano, peaches from Leonforte (Enna area), pistach from Bronte (Etna area), provola cheese from Nebrodi Mountains, sea salt from Trapani, black pork from Nedrodi Mountains.

Your travel will be enriched with tasty memories and unforgetable images of our island.

Buon viaggio e buon appetito!

Picture: "Red garlic from Nubia" © Doriana Briguglio