My son loves knights and dragons. He keeps begging me to buy him one of these marionette puppets, he would be drooling if he saw this big guy. I love the Pupi Siciliani as a form of Sicilian theatre that originated in the 18th Century and retold epic battles and tales of old. It nearly…
Continue reading ➞ Postcards from Sicily: Pupi
Small town life is always insidious, the reality in Sicily is ever more so. Not only do you find everyone knows about everyone else’s business but they have been sticking in their noses for generations and so if you are a newcomer you will be a target for gossip. I’ve been living here for a…
Continue reading ➞ Political intrigue in small town Sicily
I stumbled upon Vitaliano Brancati quite by accident in a bookstore at Messina. I was attracted by the title of one his books, I discovered after he was quite a prolific novelist and later his most famous novel Il Bel Antonio was developed into a movie starring Marcello Mastroianni, which became a classic of Italian…
Continue reading ➞ Literary Islands: Vitaliano Brancati
Dear Father Christmas, As you know every Christmas I experience away from my family and friends is always tinged with guilt and melancholy. Even if the blessings of my children and new friends distract me from dwelling on negativity. Such is the life of an expat. I don’t particularly want any…
Continue reading ➞ An Expat’s Open Letter to Babbo Natale
It is common in Sicily to see people living in unfinished houses or apartments with exposed bricks, cement and reinforced steel poking out dangerously like rusty modern sculptures on roofs left behind as it to say: ‘I could build a second storey if I feel like it, ora vediamo ...' Yes, the quintessential loitering phrase…
Continue reading ➞ The Sicilian art of the incomplete
Most language students who study Italian at university level are familiar with Giovanni Verga as his short stories in the simple realist style are a perfect introduction to Italian Literature as they are easy for first-year students to follow. Verga’s short tale Cavalleria Rusticana was made into an opera libretto which together with the…
Continue reading ➞ Literary Islands: Giovanni Verga
I’ve always been a coffee drinker. I started off with instant stuff, then graduated to frothy cappuccino, milky latte and now I live in Italy it’s one hundred percent hardcore espresso. I briefly flirted with tea drinking in my youth, in the anglo saxon tradition of taking afternoon tea, so common in England loving Australia…
Continue reading ➞ A coffee temptation
Some friends have told me they are finally coming to Italy next year and I’m over the moon to get to see them! They are coming in August, a time of year I’d really encourage people to avoid. I don’t understand why travel agents encourage people to book holidays to Italy in August or…
Continue reading ➞ Five reasons not to book your holiday to Italy in August
According to the Roman Catholic traditions in Sicily the first two days of November are known as ‘All Saints day' and 'All Souls day' (respectively dedicated to the churches’ canonized Saints and the deceased). As with most traditions they have become colourfully interpreted by popular culture and anticipated by the thirty first of October, good…
Continue reading ➞ I morticini Halloween in Sicily
It’s become a tradition at this time of year to attend a series of Festa’s or celebrations dedicated to patron saints that are common to most towns here in Sicily, not out of any particular religious desire but simply to have a day out, rummage through the endless stalls and perhaps start buying those pesky…
Continue reading ➞ Festa time at Capo D’orlando, Messina.
I’m surrounded by people who love the sport of hunting. What’s a poor passive greenie like me supposed to do? There’s nothing much I can do, other than hoping whatever game is being pursued gets away and everyone comes home empty handed. This year it seems everything is going well for the animals and I’m…
Continue reading ➞ Run, cinghiale, run!
Observing the news of the recent tragedy off the coast of Sicily which saw more than 300 people drowned and later other boat loads rescued, I feel obliged to clarify certain terminology which is being misused by journalists. It may seem a bit pedantic in the face of the loss of life but it’s…
Continue reading ➞ Migrants, immigrants and refugees
This past week I’ve had several reminders why I’m such an unwilling expat. Random encounters with rude and ignorant people who in their defensiveness are hurtful. Living in small town Sicily every time I open my mouth it is painfully obvious that I am a foreigner ( here they don’t say, what a lovely accent,…
Continue reading ➞ Sicily, how rude!
This September has been a sombre month, the end of summer and the prelude to winter it is a transitional period in the cycle of life with the promise of new beginnings. The month began with the funeral of a friend's great grandmother who was the matriarch of the family. Carmela was elderly and she…
Continue reading ➞ A funeral, a wedding and a baptism in Sicily
Well, I survived my latest translation job. I have to give it all a read through today and send it off tomorrow. With the aid of a translating program, I ran the science article through to literally translate it word for word and then spent the week going through it all. The pieces of the…
Continue reading ➞ Finding your bearings with language
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