September 25, 2012
No longer do I feel so completely alien.
My fellow villagers have welcomed me with grace and charm. I love them madly.
You’ll find these guys in their red chairs most evenings at their circolo operai, club for workers. (Be sure to stop and say hello when you come to town.)
Can you guess their jobs?
From left to right
Giovanni C: Gravedigger. His job does not make him sad, though he says it is wise to stay away from the cemetery at night, when souls take a walk.
Giuseppe C: Classics teacher at secondary school (and president of the circolo).
Giovanni M: Dogcatcher, retired.
Giovanni S: Bread baker, retired. They used to call him “Il Principe del Pane,” the Prince of Bread. He made 20 different kinds of loaves everyday. It was hard work, very hot in the summer, and he’s glad to be retired.
Pietro di S: Waiter. Retired.
Angelo E: Gravedigger. Works with Giovanni C.
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June 3, 2012
It’s the annual insanity that Sicilians call festa.
The village aristocrats overlook the piazza from the comfort of their balconi, watching us wait for San Giorgio the Dragon Slayer.
Inside the church, the young men chew their fingers, get pep talks from the old guys, and send up lionesque roars. This is how they get psyched up to haul Saint George and his rearing steed around town on their shoulders.
The frisky altar boys horse around.
Then with a roar, my dragon-slayer is hoisted into the evening air amid wild applause, tears, and a squall of confetti. Even I–a non-Catholic who barely knows one saint from another–have a pounding heart. (Saint George belongs to me!)
He prances around town for a while and then the pyromaniacs get to work.
They light the fuses for the gran finale con artistico e fantasmagorico spettacolo piromusicale. Balconies are jammed with people and kids are stacked on top of parents and grandparents. The whole village feels like it’s blowing up.
Cinders land in your hair and singe your arms; babies wail in fright. You stumble out of the piazza choking on the thick stench of gunpowder, rush home thinking “Sicilians are nuts!” and watch the rest of the show from the relative safety of your house.
The next day they’re at it again.
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December 17, 2011
Bright red, a rosso the color of Rudolph’s nose, is the leitmotif of the season here in Southeast Sicily.
 Political street theater in Catania on December 16, 2011
 Ms. Santa was handing out "gifts" of scrolled paper that read "Merry Christmas. Monti's government is gifting you a cut in your pension." (A better kind of protest than throwing molotov cocktails, as in Greece, don't you think?)  Powdered wig, rider and horse at Siracusa's Festival of Santa Lucia, December 13  Santa Lucia, martyred patron saint of Siracusa, December 13  The band at the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in Scicli, December 8  Onlooker at Feast of the Immaculate Conception in Scicli, December 8  Altar boy at Feast of the Immaculate Conception in Ragusa Ibla, December 7  Woman going to mass in Modica  Mass-going woman's shoes Click to subscribe to BaroqueSicily.
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To learn more about Monti’s austerity package for Italy, click here.
To learn more about Santa Lucia, click here.
August 9, 2011
Water runs again in our village fountains.
How many years were they dry? I’m not sure, actually, but this year the village coughed up around 250,000 euro to make them gush again.
These antiques now have a modern twist. See for yourself.
 Restoring Ibla's Fountains A large, wide basin at the foot of Ragusa Ibla where donkeys drank and women did the laundry is also under reconstruction.
Ragusa Ibla is lucky to have money for things like this, thanks to its status as a World Heritage Site. In the poor village of Cassaro about an hour away, a wall mural has replaced the old village fountain. It sort of breaks my heart.
 Casaro, Sicily ***
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May 12, 2011
An anonymous, solitary hour.
Lured by the promise of coffee, I step through vacant emptiness.
But what is this?
A dozing cowboy?
What crazy hope lured him here?
I sip a strong coffee.
Was he just a dream from that other life of mine?
When I go that way again, he’s gone.
***
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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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