December 7, 2010
A while back I groused about driving in Sicilian hill towns—about the narrowness of lanes and the stone walls that jump out to smack your side-view mirrors. Could you squeeze through these streets? I asked.
Now I’m going to show you what I mean. I’m piloting; my husband’s holding the Flip out the window. Put your seat back into full upright position and store your tray table. (click here for video)
By the way, this is the “road” I drive to reach my house.
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You have till the end of tomorrow, December 8, to enter the random drawing to win Robert Camuto’s Palmento: A Sicilian Wine Odyssey. Just post a comment on any of my blog posts. Click here for more information. I’ll name the winner in my next blogpost. Thank you all for playing!
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October 30, 2010
“They pour themselves one over the other like so much melted butter over parsnips,” writes D.H. Lawrence about Sicilians in Sea and Sardinia. “So terribly physically all over one another.”
“And that is how they are.”
I love melted butter over parsnips. How about you?
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 D.H. Lawrence lived in Sicily (Taormina) from 1920 to 1022. Here is a 1922 New York Times article about his life there.
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October 5, 2010
I meet Mister No Money on the streets of Giarratana—a small town known for its big onions—under a canopy of goose-down clouds. He doffs his hat and blinks eyes round and red as sun-dried tomatoes. “I am Giuseppe Scarso. In Sicilian my name means No Money.” His face cracks open into a bright smile. “And I really have no money!”
Nomen est omen.
His pal is Mister Happy (Signor Felice).
 Mister No Money & Mister Happy My plumber is Mister Horse (Cavallo); my neighbor Ms. Painted Eyes (Occhipinti); my ex-landlord Hector the Onion (Ettore Cippola); my hunky banker Mister Love (Amore).
Names lifted from some fairy tale.
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September 17, 2010
“Can I take your picture?” I ask the phalanx of guys warming themselves in the sun.
“Sure,” says the baby-faced man in the foreground. “But hurry up. We’re all on our way to the cemetery.”
That’s Sicilians for you. Curious dark humor.
History’s to blame. Tyranny. Plague. War. Famine. Earthquake. Poverty. Excellent cadavers. Having survived all that, you’d be telling black jokes, too.
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For some more black Sicilian humor, read Camilleri (if you like mysteries), or Pirandello’s “The Oil Jar and Other Stories” (see my review here), or see the wonderful (long) Taviani Brothers’ film Kaos (Chaos), based on four of Pirandello’s short stories. The village scenes in Kaos were filmed in my town!
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September 8, 2010
Throw away your black glasses, guys, and get with the program. White is the new black, at least when it comes to eyewear.
Italians always have the last best word on design, so you can bet these will soon be popular in Peoria.
How Italians love their glasses. Don a pair and voilà: you’re an aviator, Grand Prix driver, star.
Women here are wearing them, too. And you, dear Reader? Maybe you’re already wearing white?
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Here’s Lucy, a reader from Canada, who’s been wearing white for quite some time–she got them at the Dollar Store!!! Way to go, Lucy!
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All photos and text on BaroqueSicily are Copyright of Jann Huizenga ©2009-2015, unless otherwise noted. Material may not be copied or re-published without written permission. All rights reserved.
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