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's that time of year again. Getting into the Christmas spirit with a ceramic nativity from Santo Stefano di Camastra.
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 been wanting to post about my visits to Etna and how the volcano has always been a rich source of inspiration for me. Her latest eruptions have given me the motivation to get to writing about her. Yes to the Sicilian’s Etna, is very much a ‘she,’ a strong female symbol of…
Continue reading ➞ The inspiration of Etna
I’ve never been a green thumb, actually I’m the direct polar opposite. If you name a plant I’ve probably killed it. One time I even managed to liquidate two cacti whom I had named Iglesias and Beniamino, they strangely rotted to death after I over watered them (yes I managed to over water a…
Continue reading ➞ This month in the garden: the Kiwi
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
If I could take only one emblematic book with me from Sicily, I’d defiantly choose Salvatore Quasimodo’s complete poetical works. One of Sicily’s Primo Nobel’s in Literature, Quasimodo illustrates all the colours of his native island. His lifetime’s work, themes and forms span from sparse expressive poetry, experimental pieces, poems inspired by mythology, politically charged…
Continue reading ➞ Literary Islands: Salvatore Quasimodo
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
Isn't it funny how the beach and the sea gets better in the Autumn/Fall. This canoeist had the right idea, jump in and make the most of it, on the seaside near Capo d'orlando, Messina.
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.
A surprise discovery at the Teatro Vittorio Emanuele, Messina an original mural depicting the myth of the half man half fish, Cola Pesce who dove under Sicily, painted by Renato Guttuso.
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
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