December 25, 2015
Merry Christmas! Peace on earth and good tidings to you all.
Thank you, amici, for following my blog in 2015. See you in 2016!
xxxjann
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December 25, 2015 Merry Christmas! Peace on earth and good tidings to you all. Thank you, amici, for following my blog in 2015. See you in 2016! xxxjann December 9, 2015 When you get your university diploma in Italy, you are laureato (lau-ray-áh-toe), literally “crowned with laurel.” Some graduates still wear the bay leaf wreath, a tradition dating back to ancient Greece, when poets and scholars were so honored (thus “poet laureate” and Nobel Laureate”). I found this laurel-bedecked graduate wandering the streets with his Botticelli maiden. When he saw my lens, he pulled her in for a smooch, Latin-lover style. Long live laurels. Long live love, lads and lasses. Evviva l’Italia. *** Click to subscribe to BaroqueSicily.
November 14, 2015 Sometimes the headlines make me wonder: Is there any hope for us? Francesco and his mother dropped into my world by chance today to remind me that great big hearts outnumber the evil ones. I went into their shop to ask if I could photograph their bright bananas and sacks of potatoes hanging on outdoor walls. Sure, says Francesco. And just like that he strolls out with a classical guitar and breaks into song–some old Sicilian ballad. And out comes his mother, seduced by the sound, yanking off her apron. She joins in with her beautiful soprano. I go on my way when the song ends. A block later I hear: SIGNORA!!!! It’s Francesco, gesturing me back. He gives me two slices of Sicilian cotognata, a sticky-fruity autumn candy, and his huge smile. This pair sweetened my day, my life. A small kindness bestowed by chance–casualmente, as Italians say–can change the world. Commit random acts of love. Right where you live. *** Click to subscribe to BaroqueSicily.
October 12, 2015 They’re natives of the Americas, the mean spiky fruits. But prickly pear cacti have flourished in Sicily’s climate. You have to dodge them here–they rise 20 feet tall and come at you from all directions. Lured by a poster, we decided yesterday to celebrate the fruit I fear. The sinister plants lined the roadway, the asphalt bloody with fallen fruit. They paid homage to the fruit in the tiny town of Pedagaggi. They ate it fresh, candied, mashed into marmalade, and cooked into mostarda— something like prickly pear gummy bears. They drank it in liqueur. In my early innocent days on the island, I bought several of the fruits and blithely peeled them, glove-less. For days afterwards my fingertips prickled with pain, as I sat in the sun pulling out ultra-fine spines with a tweezers. I have shunned the fruit since. This bearded fellow explained that his hands are so calloused from the fields he has no need for gloves. But his wife came well-equipped. Every Sicilian has a story about American GIs in WWII, who plucked the fruit right off the plant and bit into it. This makes them laugh. Food festivals in Sicily always attract a biker crowd, clad in old denim and black leather. They’re always the life of the party. *** Click to subscribe to BaroqueSicily.
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