{"id":77,"date":"2009-01-17T10:12:49","date_gmt":"2009-01-17T14:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=77"},"modified":"2009-01-17T10:12:49","modified_gmt":"2009-01-17T14:12:49","slug":"memorie-siciliane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/memorie-siciliane\/","title":{"rendered":"Memorie Siciliane"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently I received a comment from a reader whose family is originally from Monreale<\/strong> in Sicilia<\/strong> (Sicily). These two names, Monreale<\/strong> and Sicilia<\/strong>, immediately brought back a stream of memories from a holiday I enjoyed many years ago in this beautiful region. My adventure started in Rome where I caught a night train to Palermo<\/strong>.\u00a0Making my way to\u00a0my reserved seat I found myself sharing a compartment\u00a0with a young Sicilian lady, who was studying at a university on the Continente<\/strong> (as the Sicilians call the Italian mainland). We began chatting\u00a0and during our conversation the Siciliana <\/strong>(Sicilian lady) informed me that it\u2019s\u00a0traditional to eat an arancino siciliano<\/strong> (a fried ball of rice resembling an orange) on the ferry during the crossing of the Stretto di Messina <\/strong>which divides Sicilia from the mainland. So it was that at 2 o\u2019clock the following morning, with the train neatly ensconced in the massive belly of the ferry,\u00a0I was awoken by my\u00a0travelling companion to\u00a0drag myself\u00a0up onto the ponte del traghetto<\/strong> (deck of the ferry) in order to savour my first arancino<\/em>. I must say that, as much as I hate\u00a0getting up in the middle of the night, it was well worth it: the arancino<\/em> was delicious and the view across the Stretto di Messina<\/em> on that clear starlit night with the shimmering lights of Reggio Calabria<\/strong> on one side and those of Messina<\/strong> on the other was magical. At 8 o\u2019clock in the morning we arrived in Palermo where a friend was waiting for me, and my discovery of this fantastic region began. <\/span><\/p>\n

I come from Tuscany, a region in the center of Italy that for centuries remained relatively insular and free from foreign invasions,\u00a0thus developing\u00a0its own homogenous culture (language, art, architecture, etc.) in a \u2018linear\u2019 way without strong external influences. Sicilia, being an\u00a0incredible melting pot of cultures was for me\u00a0a completely new experience.\u00a0Influxes of foreigners\u00a0have followed\u00a0one upon the\u00a0other over the centuries,\u00a0beginning with\u00a0the Phoenicians (who founded Palermo in the 8th century B.C.)\u00a0and followed by\u00a0the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Arabs, the Normans, the German kingdom of Svevia, and the Spanish, until its eventual unification with Italy in 1860. Travelling through Palermo and its surrounding was like a\u00a0voyage through a tapestry of time and cultures: the Christian church of San Giovanni degli Eremiti<\/strong> crowned with red Arabic domes, the Greek temples and theaters of Agrigento<\/strong> and Selinunte<\/strong>, the beautiful Byzantine mosaics of the Cappella Palatina<\/strong>, the rich baroque adorning many buildings and churches\u00a0such as\u00a0the incredible Chiesa del Gesu\u2019<\/strong>, and the majestic Norman cathedrals of Monreale<\/strong> and Cefalu\u2019<\/strong>.\u00a0Many years later I\u00a0was very surprised to find, in the Norman architecture of\u00a0Southwell Minster in England, the same big round arches over the main doors, the same square towers, the same decorative overlapping motifs, all things that I had first seen in the hot Mediterranean ambience of Sicilia. The word Normanni<\/strong> (Normans), incidentally,\u00a0means uomini del nord<\/strong> (Men from the North). <\/span><\/p>\n

This mixture of cultures is still very much alive today: walking through the mercato della Vucceria<\/strong> in Palermo is like walking through an Arabic souk, while in the south of Sicilia you can eat\u00a0the traditional North African dish of\u00a0couscous. Albanian traditions and costumes are still preserved in Piana degli Albanesi<\/strong>, a small town 24 km south of Palermo founded in 1488 by Albanian immigrants. My friend took me there one day to taste the best cannolo siciliano<\/strong>, a delicious sweet made from a tube of crisp pastry filled with ricotta, candied peels and chocolate chips.<\/span><\/p>\n

I also treasure some funny moments from this holiday such as the evening we went to watch a play performed live at the Greek\u00a0archaeological\u00a0site of\u00a0Selinunte: it was a Japanese play performed in the original Japanese! Nevertheless, sitting on the ancient Greek stone steps under a clear sky at sunset looking down towards the verdant valley and the sea beyond\u00a0was\u00a0 quite a spectacular show in itself, even if a bit\u00a0hard on the posterior\u00a0after a while. Another amusing memory belongs to the day we were visiting the Cattedrale di Palermo<\/strong>: a little old man approached us and started telling the story of Santa Rosalia<\/strong>, patron saint\u00a0of Palermo whose remains are preserved in a massive silver urn.\u00a0In the middle of his monologue the old man suddenly exclaimed: \u201cIf you give me 1000 lira I\u2019ll tell you the weight of the silver urn\u201d. Of course we just had to know, so we gave him the money and he told us the enormous figure that, unfortunately, I can\u2019t for the life of me remember.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently I received a comment from a reader whose family is originally from Monreale in Sicilia (Sicily). These two names, Monreale and Sicilia, immediately brought back a stream of memories from a holiday I enjoyed many years ago in this beautiful region. My adventure started in Rome where I caught a night train to Palermo.\u00a0Making…<\/p>\n

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