Andrea Camilleri

Sicily is home to some of Italy’s best known and successful writers.   To name just a few, but there are many more, Luigi Pirandello from Agrigento, won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1934.   Giovanni Verga, from Catania, was part of the Verismo (Realism) literary group in the latter part of the 1800s,  and contemporary writer Andrea Camilleri, also from the Agrigento area, is probably the best known author in the whole of Italy today.

Camilleri, up until he started writing his hugely successful crime novels featuring Salvo Montalbano as a provincial police inspector, was a theatrical director specialising in the production of Pirandello’s plays.   Today, at 87, defying all medical opinion that heavy smoking kills you, his publishers urge him to write as many Montalbano tales as possible although he says he has already written his last related crime story, 5 years ago, which is stored in his publisher’s safe with instructions to publish it when he feels he’s unable to write anymore or, more likely, has got fed up with his character.

Inspector Montalbano

His books have been translated into 30 languages, the last of which was Korean. In English the award winning translator, Stephen Sartarelli, manages to brilliantly capture Camilleri’s wry and cynical Sicilian humour. In Italian the books are written with a generous sprinkling of Sicilian dialect which doesn’t seem to cause any trouble for mainland Italians. Stephen Sartarelli uses a mixture of London Cockney and some British northern dialect in his English translations which also seem to work very well. The Patience of the Spider, The Shape of Water, The Snack Thief and many more, deal with Sicily’s (and Italy in general) present social condition. Notoriously anti-Berlusconi, Camilleri deliberately wanted to make a critical commentary about his turbulent government as well as denouncing how the state deals with the mafia and how the church has an enormous influence on Italian politics.

cathedral-Ragusa-Ibla

On Italian tv a new series of another 4 of his books has become very popular. All the different series shown so far have done miracles to boost tourism to Sicily as they are all filmed in some of the most suggestive areas of the island. One of the series has also been shown on Australian tv and BBC 4 in the UK. Concentrated into the smallish triangle of Ragusa Ibla, Modica and Scicli, on the southern tip of the island, and also Punta Secca (Marina di Ragusa) where Inspector Montalbano’s house is – right on the beach! – these are all UNESCO world heritage sites because of the Sicilian Baroque architecture to be found here.

But this area is not just famous for it’s architecture. Modica boasts a curious laboratory where they still make chocolate from the original Aztech recipe brought by the Spanish during their domination of the island in the 16th century. Visits can be made to watch how it’s made and taste their produce. The chili flavoured one seems to be the most popular, as well as the orange and lemon ones, but there are many other flavours too.

Just walking through Scicli looking up at the wrought iron balconies and their sculpted supports of cherubs, griffins, shiplike figureheads and rearing horses are enough to attract any keen photographer’s eye. Nearby Noto, reconstructed after an earthquake in 1990, is the most famous town for the splendid Sicilian baroque architecture.

Naturally in the television series there is never a rainy day. Only sun-drenched streets and parched countryside and Montalbano who often starts the programme off with his early morning swim in the calm, blue sea in front of his house. All of which conjure up idyllic summer holidays.

Another important part of Camilleri’s character is his love of food which is more than his love of women even. All the popular Sicilian dishes appear at least once or twice during the programme: live octopus, arancini, pasta con le sarde, fresh grilled fish, sardines al beccafico all washed down with a good Sicilian wine and Montalbano’s grunts of ecstasy whilst eating it. At the end of the programme you are wishing you had something more interesting than that mouldy bit of cheese sitting alone in the fridge.

Searching for the restaurants where Montalbano eats his freshly caught fish has also boosted the restaurant/trattoria trade in the area, especially those beach ones with the flappy curtains and golden sand all around. Some of the best beaches on the island can be found in the area of Marina di Ragusa.

His last book Una Lama di Luce (A Flash of Light) deals with clandestine immigration onto the island (a real life problem these days) and Montalbano’s proverbial impatience with his superiors and authority in general. Full of the usual wit, quirky characters and vivid pictures of desperate life on this island, it also portrays Montalbano not so much as the hard-nut policeman that he tries to be, but reflects his weaknesses and fragility attached to human nature. Different stories are intertwined ending with the usual dramatic turn of events making it yet another brilliant novel to be read in one sitting.

Marian Watson Virga

Ingham

         Someone capable of creating the second largest winery in the world, putting Marsala wine on the dining tables of US presidents, becoming the no. 1 share holder in the New York Central Railroad, Erie Canal and the Michigan Central Railroad.

Someone capable of buying the part of Manhattan where Fifth Avenue would later be laid out, funding the building of churches in Italy and England, setting up Italy’s top shipping company, monopolizing the world sulphur trade, supporting early Risorgimento revolts, acting as a business mentor to Vincenzo Florio senior and avoiding deportation due to fraud?

The answer to this and to many more question will be unveiled at …

SICILIA BRITANNICA
A seminar cycle analysing the history of the British presence in Sicily (1713-1936).

Themes to be debated include travel literature, finance, trade, industry, politics in the late Bourbon period and the Risorgimento, pedagogy, archaeology and antiquarianism, botany, zoology, geology, landscape architecture, painting, banditry and organised crime , sports and entertainment, spirituality and fiction.

Details: farestoria.com – facebook.com/farestoriasicilia – twitter.com/farestoria
Registration: € 40 each. Please send confirmation via email to info@farestoria.com

      Prompted by some comments during an interview with the Anglicised Sicilian lawyer and writer, Simonetta Agnello Hornby, we thought we would take a look at the similarities and differences between two of Europe’s biggest islands.  On the face of it, the two places, Britain and Sicily, have little in common – one, a damp green wind swept rock jutting into the Atlantic, the other a sun-drenched raft afloat in the middle of the Mediterranean.  Yet the often opaque links have reverberated through the centuries.  From shared invasion, war, emigration and cultural exchange, all the way to attempted colonial dominance, the two islands have more in common than meets the casual observer’s eye.

The overarching factor conditioning all these observations is a shared island mentality.  There is something about being surrounded by water that seeps deep into the psyche of a people.  Agnello Hornby is the first to point out that the two locations share a fear of invasion.  Sicily’s experience of just such an event is within living memory and echoes throughout its history with alarming regularity – Piedmontese, the British themselves, the Spanish, French, Swabians, Normans, Saracens, Romans, Greeks, not to mention those who have dabbled at the edges.  Britain, particularly England, has a similarly long list, but further back into the murky realms of its dim and distant past: Celts, Romans, Vikings, Saxons, Angles, Jutes, Normans.  Britain’s modern day fear of invasion is psychological rather than actual leading to assumptions of threat where none may actually exist, especially when faced with some genuinely beneficial pan-European policies.  The polar opposites of overt strength and fragility of identity are both evident as the country struggles with its place in the twenty first century, especially when one remembers it hasn’t actually suffered the boots of enemy armies for many many years.

Largely, Britain shows a healthy and tolerant respect for its more recent waves of immigrants; however, the multi-cultural magnanimity sometimes masks a darker side and has prompted much press debate about the idea of Englishness.  Notably, the Celtic nations of Britain, so long dominated by England, have a far more developed sense of self whilst maintaining strong immigrant communities.  All the nations of the United Kingdom have received Italian and Sicilian immigrants, yet with the mass surge of emigration to the United States, Argentina and Australia, the Anglo-Italian communities have received less attention.

John Florio – Wikimedia Commons

In fact, migration between the two islands stretches back further – some would say it was first reflected in the Roman dominance of both provinces.  If you’re not a Stratfordian and believe the theory, even William Shakespeare could claim an Anglo-Sicilian heritage.  According to Martino Iuvara, Shakespeare was a Messinese known as Michelangelo Florio Crollalanza, who fled religious persecution and morphed into the Bard of Stratford.  He was supposedly aided to settle by the famed translator and lexicographer, John Florio.  Strip away the idea and you are still left with Giovanni (John) Florio who undoubtedly moved in the same literary circles as the playwright.

Naturally, many Sicilian immigrants were drawn to London and it is difficult to disentangle island migration from those who arrived from the mainland.  The city’s Little Italy is centred on Clerkenwell, specifically, Saffron, Farringdon and Clerkenwell Roads, along with Rosebery Avenue.  As elsewhere, the residents were prominent in the restaurant and ice cream businesses.  Time has seen the London community divide and drift, but certain areas are still renowned for an Italian influence, including centrally located Soho.  These days, it’s easy to bump into someone from Sicily whilst sipping coffee in central London.  The recent economic crisis has prompted many bright, able young Sicilians to try their hand in England’s capital.  Sadly, their university educations are often left to one side as they work the espresso machines.  For migrants and natives alike, London’s streets are rarely paved with gold.

Communities exist, or once existed, throughout the length and breadth of the UK, with notable pockets in Wales and Glasgow in Scotland.  The unheralded town of Bedford is one destination with a surprisingly high proportion of migrants from the Mezzogiorno.  The town developed a post-war paid settlement scheme which encouraged workers to take up positions in the brick-making industry.  Unsurprisingly, the culture shock and climatic differences were considerable and the families had to fight to keep their traditions alive.  Delicatessens were to eventually open and relieve the workers from the dull British post-war culinary experience – something the British themselves would embrace enthusiastically.  Every immigrant story is different and those best placed to tell them are the families who have experienced the hopes, joys, pain and suffering.

Thus far, we have looked at those escaping poverty, but what of commercial and aristocratic interchange.  As 19th century migrants crossed the channel to find work, British entrepreneurs were heading in the opposite direction in search of natural resources and agricultural bounty.  Sicily gave them Marsala, sulphur and much more.  Accounts from Victorian writers are peppered with versions of the commercially-minded Englishman pegged to his island resources.  Raleigh Trevelyan’s book Princes Under the Volcano provides a fascinating insight into this period, focusing on the Ingham-Whitaker fortune.  Ingham arrived in Sicily in 1806, a practical Yorkshireman with an eye for the main chance; he invested in the wine trade, emulating John Woodhouse, who was already sugar-coating Marsala for the English tastes of Nelson’s sailors.  Embracing Sicily, if not its ideas on business, he lived with the Duchess of Santa Rosalia – records are sketchy on their marriage.

Joseph ‘Pip’ Whitaker – Wikimedia Commons

Joseph Whitaker, Ingham’s nephew, took over the business which had already diversified and invested across the Atlantic.  One of his sons was Pip Whitaker who excavated the Phoenician ruins on the island of Mozia.  More interested in ornithology and archaeology than business, he could afford to indulge his passions.  Pip married Tina, who took Anglo-Sicilian socialising to new heights – spending the family fortune on lavish soirees and decoration, which attracted the local aristocracy and some of the crowned heads of Europe.  Even as late as the 1920s, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa was happy to model himself on the perfect English gentleman, equipping his wardrobe with the finest British tailoring.  He had a famous ‘English reserve’, a facet of his character he frequently failed to encounter when mixing in British aristocratic company.  Talking of such orthodox attitudes, it’s time to put a few stereotypes under the microscope.

Famously, the English (not the Celts) are sometimes accused of being withdrawn and the Sicilians of being taciturn – both affecting a certain aloof, wary nature.  Like every stereotype, there may be a grain of truth in the complex mix of national identity, but the reality can be as varied and surprising as it can be conventional.  Factors like climate and history – “the island mentality” – have a bearing, but with the interconnected nature of the modern world this doesn’t provide the whole picture.  The easiest explanation is suggested by the notion of individual personality being channelled by the conduit of expected or ritualised behaviour.  Sooner or later, though, people become themselves and expectations adjust to human contact.  We have been overwhelmed with warm welcomes from Cornwall to Siracusa.  The opposite has very occasionally been true, but sometimes everyday life has little room for the stranger and we all have our off days.

It’s fascinating to think that the same Norman blood runs through the veins of some Sicilians and Britons.  The Norman Conquest on both islands was a complete game changer, albeit one manifested in differing ways.  The Norman rulers of Sicily found an island enlightened by the scientific and practical learning of the Arabs, but riven by petty conflict.  In order to preserve and use Saracen knowledge, Roger II employed the likes of al-Idrisi, who produced his famed map for the ruler.  To a certain extent, toleration flourished and different creeds were accepted.  Norman church architecture embraced the Byzantine mosaic tradition and sported Arabic cupolas and arches.  However, these northerners also built those defensive bastions of war – castles – in order to protect their hard won jewel.  The British landscape is similarly enhanced by Norman castles, the 12th century keep of Richmond castle not so far removed from the lava walls of Paternò.

Sicily & England by Tina Whitaker – Book Cover

The countries exchanged a floating Norman population, hungry for courtly advancement or religious promotion.  More Normans were happier to descend from the Saxon ravaged climes of England to the court of Roger than were content to move in the opposition direction.  Names such as Walter of the Mill were Sicilianised (Gualtiero Offamiglio) and became enthroned in history.  Forty years separate the demise of British Norman rule in 1154 and the fall of Norman Sicily.  It would be easy to think that the people vanished, returning to Normandy with their tails between their legs, but they stayed, married, settled and adapted to new rulers – their feudal pride, if not always their wealth, intact.

It’s pointless to expect that these historical ties will show two societies in sync with one another.  The northern and Mediterranean milieux count for a lot, ostensibly creating very different approaches to life and diverse living arrangements.  The connections are more subtle in nature, glimpsed in their simultaneous acceptance and rejection of invading ideologies and cultures – the feisty protection of something innate, something perceived to be unique.  Lampedusa’s Prince of Salina said that Sicilians believe they are gods, a lofty and sarcastic self-assessment that could also be applied to the English.  Cultural accomplishment and struggle for identity, whether expansionist or boxed by the marauding sea, can lead to this kind of hauteur, although such an attitude is not so noticeable in practice.  It’s difficult, but arguably essential, that cultures wedded to long and complex pasts have to loosen the bonds and move forward into the unknown.

Andrew and Suzanne Edwards

The following poem,”Scraps of Life,”  was published in 2010 by the anthology, SWEETLEMONS 2. It is composed of International writings with a Sicilian accent…

SCRAPS OF LIFE

I stretch back, wrapped like as mummy as this jetliner

slashes and shimmies thru ebony clouds

on its way to my tropical future.

Just a demitasse ago, I’d taken my last steps in my mamma’s home.

The riot of colors remained, but rivers of family photographs vanished

and, although the contour remained the same,

my mother’s flaking home felt like an alien house.

Gone forever her contagious laughter.

Gone forever the tantalizing aromas of secret sauces

wafting thru its dollhouse rooms.

Today’s former relatives seem as closely related to me

as the fellow straphangers I’d just abandoned on the city subway.

A smog of shame, however, smeared the relations and

rendered them like unmade beds.

As seamlessly as mom’s heart bonded the family,

it dissolved with her paralyzed pulse.

Her intense love blinded me to our furbu and flawed family tree.

No doubt she would loathe today’s seemingly polite estrangement.

My memory leaks past scenes through its landscape of life’s clips.

I remember mother’s knarled hands comforting

the boy me thru three bouts of pneumonia.

In leaner times, I remember that same woman giving me

her last morsel of food.

I remember that daughter of Dante introducing me to poesia.

I complained to my children that scavengers swallowed all scraps

and remnants of her life at the beginning of her final sleep.

I complained about the ant-like army of pretentious societal darlings,

G-d fearing blood, but not soul mates.

Surely, mamma witnessed thru lazy, tired and aged eyelids these

slobbering occupiers collecting and stripping my memories from walls and drawers.

No surprise in this society fueled by illusion.

I’d seen sinners sanctified before.

Brandishing the refreshing wisdom of youth,

my son said, “Dad, let go. She lives in your words.”

About SWEET LEMONS 2 ANTHOLOGY, (International writings with a Sicilian accent), 2010
This is an anthology of short stories, poems and essays by writers and poets with a Sicilian background living in the United States, Canada and elsewhere. The texts deal with “Sicelitude” and the authors’ coming to grips with their Sicilian identities.

       We are very pleased to announce that CEI International School Palermo (ISP) has achieved IB accreditation (International Baccalaureate). As parents of one of the younger students attending the school, we were already sure of the excellent level of education provided by the school. As far as we are concerned this confirmed the outstanding work by teachers, administrators, and the entire staff of the school.

The International School Palermo is a department in a long established Jesuit Italian school, Centro Educativo Ignaziano. The IB model was chosen as it best fit the vision of the school and its parents. Most of the families in our school are Sicilian and they hope that their children will be able to leave our school with the prestigious IB Diploma. This diploma will allow them to study at universities all around the world, equipping them with skills, knowledge and mindset for our ever-changing world.

A key person in the ISP’s (International School Palermo) accreditation process has been Mrs Anne Laurenson, the Principal and the soul of the School. Principal Anne Laurenson describes the journey to IB accreditation as being very difficult but rewarding. Last week we went to meet her and asked for some insight and background about the ISP and the accreditation achieved by the school.

Mrs Laurenson, regarding the ISP: please tell us how the pursuit of the ISP began.
“The school was founded in 2008 in response to local demand from internationally minded parents looking for suitable provision for their children. Some of these founding parents had links with other International Baccalaureate World Schools and collaboration began which resulted in the formation of CEI International School Palermo. There are currently 3,500 IB World Schools in 143 countries around the world, and we have just added to that number.”

How many classes did you have in the first year of the ISP and how did it evolve?
“We started with two classes, Kindergarten and Transition. There were 22 children, two teachers and a classroom assistant. Currently the school has provision for students from Pre Kindergarten (age 2 and a half) to Grade 5 (age 9), following the IB PYP model. We have over 75 children, eight teachers, four teaching assistants, a principal and upper and lower school coordinators of the program. This is the culmination of a lot of hard work and dedication on the part of founding parents and joining staff”.

So what is the complete curriculum program the ISP is working on?
“In fact, the IB Primary Years Program (PYP) is designed for students aged 3 to 12 years of age. Primary School will finish at the end of Grade 6. CEI International Secondary School is already in the planning, aiming to follow the prestigious Cambridge International Programme to age 16. Students will then return to the IB programme for grades 12 and 13″.

Were you here since the beginning?
“I came in the second year, 2009. At that time, the two teachers from the first year had left so we started with brand new teaching staff. Previously, I was working as Vice Principal in an international school in Shanghai with over 1200 children. Back in the UK, my mother and my husband’s father had health problems so we decided to return to Europe. Allan, my husband, who also teaches in the School, found this opportunity here in Palermo and we just applied and got the job. It was really lucky as the job only arose because an American teacher dropped out. I think it was meant to be. So here we are, after the Canary Islands, Hong Kong and Shanghai, we now feel that Palermo could be our place to stay long term”.

How difficult has been for the school to reach the IB accreditation?
“The ISP took the minimum of three years to gain accreditation for the programme and gained many commendations from the IB visiting inspection team. The high calibre of this programme means the accreditation demands are vigorous and far-reaching. The final inspection included policy review, curriculum review, meetings with parents and children, observations of teaching and learning and an extensive five-year action plan”.

Does that mean that the hard work devoted to gaining accreditation needs to continue?
“Exactly. We have been working so hard for this, sometimes I had sleepless nights filling in paper work and preparing for the visit so we could get the stamp. But, it doesn’t last forever, it needs to be renewed, they will return in 5-years time: part of us getting the stamp is to show them an action plan: ‘what we intend to do for the next 5 years’. When they come back in 5 years from now, they go through our action plan and make sure we have achieved what we planned. So the hard work continues in order for us to maintain our international standards”.

How does the IB Programme benefit our children?
“Our children are happy, confident thinkers, willing to try new things and they are quickly becoming bilingual. The most significant and distinctive feature of the IB Primary Years Programme is the six transdisciplinary themes: Who we are, Where we are in place and time, How we express ourselves, How the world Works, How we organize ourselves and Sharing the planet. 

These themes provide IB World Schools with the opportunity to incorporate local and global issues into the curriculum and effectively allow students to “step up” beyond the confines of learning within six subject areas: language, math, science, social studies, arts, personal social and physical education”.

In the meeting, Mrs. Maria Grazia Gitto, one of the school’s invaluable bilingual classroom assistants, was also present, and we asked her to identify the ultimate aim of the school, both for the community and for a city like Palermo.
‘’We need something better, something open to the world, a way to attract people, politicians, sports men; they look for something special for their children. Very often – she continued – these children will leave Sicily and live abroad: this school will provide a good mother tongue level of language, which will help them to succeed in their various career.’’

If that same question were asked of me, as a parent, I’d have answered that deep in my heart, I hope my children will use their knowledge and proficient level of English to remain in Sicily and contribute to the redemption of this land. I think we should try to instill that message into our children at a young age.

The world is their oyster but the hope is for them to appreciate and love their heritage, remaining here to bring up their own families with similar values.

The economy of Sicily can be expanded and the island made a better place if we can improve communication with the rest of the world. We need to attract investors, artists, ordinary people who decide to come and live in Sicily. It’s a land that deserves to be back in the centre of Mediterranean commerce and affairs. The International School, which is almost entirely taught in English, is key to this process.
The meeting was very agreeable and you could read on everybody’s faces at school, the joy of having reached this high standard that has repaid for years of sacrifices. We take the opportunity, on behalf of all the parents, to thank Padre Beneduce, Mrs. Anne Laurenson, her husband and teacher Allan, all the teachers and staff that keep up the good work and promote this magnificent reality.

Nowadays I enjoy walking to the school with the other parents, watching our kids line up, singing in English on the way to class. The entire setting is nice, located between Villa Trabia and the English Gardens. There are plenty of facilities too and they can practise all sort of sports outdoor.

Before starting our working day, we enjoy sitting in the lovely garden inside the school grounds, at the café run for decades by Pippo and his family. He prepares fabulous ‘ristrettos’ and often he calls us by the name of our kids, who in turn go there during break times or after school, accompanied by chatty mothers sitting at the tables under an already warm sun.

I hope this article will deliver a ”message in a bottle”, reaching and convincing at least one person or a couple of parents to come to Sicily and raise their kids near the sea, with the good weather and genuine food … at the International School of Palermo. The ristretto at Pippo’s bar is on me.

Giovanni Morreale

May 09, 2013     

        In this Spring/Summer will come to life Cum Laude. The Fashion brand “Made in Sicily” wants to develop eco-sustainable fashion, balancing modernity and tradition, innovation and craftsmanship. In the coming months there will be a glamour event in Milan that will involve important personalities. During this event will be present a new product that doesn’t respect logic of globalization that is “to produce at law cost taking from quality”. These products will represent a perfect mix of quality and design, in harmony with the concept of eco-sustainibility.

This new brand proposes clothes and accessories that represent a perfect mix of quality and design. Cum Laude will fabricate only one hundred models of particular bags created with Italian materials and ancient Japanese kimono. These models will represent rare product for customers. Sicilian Brand is involving models from all over the world by the initiative “Cum laude in the world”. Cum Laude has decided in fact to combine woman’s beauty and landscapes’ beauty, showing art and history by fashion.

After the first phase in Tokyo (Japan), San Francisco (USA) and Melbourne (Australia), Cum Laude has decided to honor his own land. They will shoot the spot in Palermo, in a typical and famous open-air market called “Vucciria”.
The strength of Cum Laude’s creations is the mix with nature and materials like silk and hemp, all eco-sustainable. These textiles are intensified by natural colorations that are extracted from black tea, pomegranate and saffron.

Roy Paci in Concert “CorLeone”

Can you tell me a little about your new projects?  I believe you have a new record with CorLeone?

Yes, at the moment I’m on tour with the new record from CorLeone.  The CorLeone project was started in 2004, with the first album in 2005.  Now at the distance of eight years, we have put together the second album with musicians from different backgrounds – the line-up has changed a bit and now we are out on tour.

How would you describe the music of CorLeone?

Describing the music of CorLeone is no easy task!  Also because, in fact, it draws from the worlds of research and experimentation, the vanguard of sound, the world of post or new jazz – a world completely open to improvisation and the ability to liberate yourself among different musical approaches.  It’s a music that goes flat out.  But, at the same time, it makes a nod towards the traditional music of Sicily – the guts of the banda-style music seen on the island.  Both things.

You work with many musicians.  I’m very interested in your collaboration with Manu Chao.  Did you play with Chao on Próxima Estación and La Radiolina?

I played with Manu Chao on the records Próxima Estación and La Radiolina and I went on tour with him in 2000 and 2001 – the whole world tour.  It was also one of the best moments in my life, tutto bello.

Were you at the Glastonbury Festival in the UK with Chao?

Yes, but my recollections are vague.  There were so many festivals that, if I’m honest, I don’t recall them all so well.

In the future, do you have any more plans to play with Manu?

At the moment no because we haven’t seen each other for a long time, however I’m always happy when we have the chance to meet up.  But now, I must say that I’m very involved in my own projects, with CorLeone, and probably at the end of the year also something new with my main project, Aretuska – Roy Paci & Aretuska. 

And the Banda Ionica, I’d like to talk about the Banda Ionica.  In the first place I heard a song from the Banda in the film, Dopo Mezzanotte.  I thought to myself “wow, I must find out more about this”.  The music has something of a funereal, melancholic air.  It has a lot to do with the history of Sicily?

Well, the Banda Ionica is an ensemble of many musicians that I have chosen from different bands along the east coast of Sicily, from Catania to Siracusa.  I have used a repertoire by those who have written for the bande, who have written a certain type of music influenced, above all, by the rituals during Easter Week.  At the same time, within the Banda’s musical web there is something very recognisably Arabic, something Spanish.  The music of the Banda comes principally from these elements.

I read on your internet page that you’re participating in something called “gastrofonia”.  Can you explain what this means?

Gastrofonia is a work, a study that I have been doing for many years, recent years.  It’s best described as the sound horizons of food or, more precisely, the collecting of vibrating food frequencies and turning them into a soundtrack.  The more food we have, the more harmonies are created, more musical accord.  It’s a science that I’ve invented that I’m looking to take forward by laboratory-style workshops and by performance with well-known chefs throughout the world.

Throughout the world, not just Italy?

Not just Italy, because we have been invited to America for a performance in a university.

Therefore, gastronomy must have a big role in your life?

Yes, gastronomy, starting many years ago, is a passion of mine.  I’ve cultivated it as a sort of hobby.  In short, though, it has developed a little more into the recognition that this hobby is a different way of making art – it’s great to fit it together with music and create a synergy.  Gastronomy has always been analysed by taste, touch, from a visual point of view and as something created, but nobody had previously done the very specific analysis relating to the sound of food.  I’m following this route.

You’re an innovator, a musical innovator, a touring musician.  Are you satisfied with this life?  It must be complicated?

Yes, I’ve got a complicated life, it’s true.  It’s so full of many things, so many fascinating things, so much stimulus.  But I wouldn’t be able to imagine leaving this behind, to live without behaving in this way.  My thirst for knowledge and understanding isn’t at an end and I’m still young enough to continue searching out and enquiring into things that inspire passion and that seem important to me, to keep the fire alive, to keep on evolving throughout life.

This is your public life.  At home do you listen to the same music or something different like classical?

I listen to all types of music.  Perhaps, at first, I ought to say those I don’t listen to.  I don’t listen to over-commercialised pop and I’m not fond of fusion.  However, I listen to all types of music, from jazz to ragga and I’ve listened to African music for quite some time.  I also listen to the innovative electronic scene, thanks to musician friends who have collaborated with me.  They drive me on to new discoveries.  I also listen to a series of new talented young musicians promoted by my independent record label, Etna Gigante. One of these projects is called “See You Downtown”, a project in the hands of the young producer John Lui.  It’s a very innovative musical concept for the Italian music scene.  In fact, it’s a different musical experience that could well have an eventual impact on the international panorama.

This is probably an impossible question, but what music has influenced you most during your career?

Well, all the traditional music, folk music, music with Arabic influence, that’s what has allowed me to fly.

For the next question, bear in mind that Roy’s interviewer is English!  I went on to ask him about British/Irish music and couldn’t resist asking him about Shane MacGowan and The Pogues, a personal favourite of mine.  His answer was instantaneous.

Do you know The Pogues’ music?

The Pogues were part of my musical formation and, of course, I’ve listened to them, also as an influence on my projects with Aretuska, they are one of the reference points.  The Pogues, The Clash, Mano Negra are all important regarding the planning of the Aretuska project.

Interviewed by Andrew Edwards

CorLeone Portrait

More on Roy Paci’s fascinating life and work can be found at www.roypaci.it

        When Aeneas sailed along the coast of Sicily, Dido had already committed suicide. Virgil‘s description of that coastline is so accurate that one may imagine that the poet knew it personally or sought the visual experience of sailors and voyagers.

In reality Dido, Queen of Tyre and Carthage, could not have died then because she was born about 300 years after Aeneas. If we date the Trojan war at around 1,700 BC and, with more accuracy, the foundation of Carthage at 810 BC, we then realize that the two heroes of Virgil’s epic poem had little chance of meeting except in Hades.

When Aeneas’s ships sailed towards Sicily, the island was yet to witness the arrival of the Phoenicians or of their progenitors, the Canaanites. On the other hand Aeneas came from Asia Minor and the myth of his settling in Italy could be read as symbolic of the first expeditions of those enterprising Asian tribes that came to be known as the Etruscans.

 The Phoenicians arrived in Sicily during the 10^th/9th century, many settled at the same time as the foundation of Carthage for the same reason, civic disorders, shortage of food and over population. By the 9^th century Syracuse was already a Phoenician settlement –its island, peninsula and double harbour was a typical choice of the Cannanites. Solunto (Selaim, Punic word for rock), and Palermo, both on the Sicilian Western coast, were possibly founded by inhabitants of Biblos or Amrit/ Arwad. (The Phoenician city states stretched from today’s Syrian coastline to the Lebanon and to Israel) These people brought to Sicily a plant which the Anatolians had used to make a ritual liquid, symbol for blood, slumber (death) and euphoria (life), the vine. On the other hand the Phoenicians saw the utility of wine as food, to give courage and vitamins during the long voyages, the Insolia – from which Marsala wine is made- and Grillo vine are originally Phoenician.

The Phoenicians were so called by the Greeks but they thought of themselves as Caana’ and built trading stations on their sailing routes rather than colonies in the Greek sense, bases for their ships to spend the windless seasons, sites from which to trade.

 On the Western tip of Sicily, near today’s Marsala, was Motya, another flourishing Phoenician port with two harbours, salt mines, an arsenal and  deities such as Taanit, Baal and Melquart. On the mountain of Erix overlooking Motya, was the temple dedicated to Astarte famous all over the Mediterranean for sacred prostitution, popular with sailors well into the Roman age.

 Most Phoenician trading ports in Sicily were dependant on Tyre and then on Carthage which went on paying a heavy tribute to its mother city even when more powerful. Tyre flourished in 1,000/800 BC starting with the reign of King Hiram who had trading relations with the dynasty in Judah-Israel and found a solid relationship with David and then his son king Solomon. Queen Elissa was Solomon’s grand-daughter and, following a coup d’etat in Tyre, she fled to Cyprus (a dependant of Tyre) and then on to found the new city of Carthage whose name means exactly that: new city.

Death of Dido, Cayot – Louvre

 Elissa (el issa, the goddess) who had inherited her kingdom through the female line, as was customary in Mesopotamia and Egypt, then took the name of DIDO, the leader, the feminine form of DVD, David,  Dux, leader.

We don’t know to what extent the figure of Dido is legendary, but the coup d’etat at Tyre, her brother Pygmalion and the sudden weakness of the kingdom are part of history. Strangely what is less known are the trading and cultural links between Phoenicia and Sicily which are recorded by archeology; for a people who invented the alphabet as we know it, little had been left for us to read since, alas, those great Phoenicians wrote on wax and on papyrus, they didn’t have marble on which to sculpt great deeds and all they wanted was trade, not to conquer territory.

Gaia Servadio

My book on the story of Dido is partly fiction and party history. It is an ebook on available on Amazon, Kobo and iTunes

Photo by Giovanni Morreale

      Censuses give a person’s age in the census year, from which an approximate birth year can be determined. In addition, often the following information is listed: date of arrival in the U.S.; country of origin; whether naturalized; occupation; and address. Family members living at the same address are shown with the same information as above for each member. A man and wife’s record may also include their ‘age at first marriage’ or ‘year of marriage’, but the wife’s maiden name is not given. The children’s names may be helpful if you remember the naming conavention previously discussed. The first name of a man’s oldest son would be the same as the man’s father; oldest daughter named after his mother, etc. Children’s names may help to confirm the person’s identity when other records are found. If you plan to research the wife named in a census, the younger children’s names may reflect her parents’ given names.

Having the census information, you can search on-line for the person by first and last name, at ellisisland.org, castlegarden.org, or Ancestry.com. Use the census information to narrow the search to those who fit. The most commonly used of these sources is the free site ellisisland.org which has over 25 million passenger records, and the following discussion refers to that site.

When you log on to http://www.ellisisland.org, if it is your first use, you’ll be asked to join or contribute to the Ellis Island Foundation, but this is optional. You can register for free, with a user name and password. Future searches may ask for those, but there is no charge to do the searches. After registering, you’ll see search boxes for first (optional) and last names, year of birth (approximate or exact), and gender. If your search is too general (last name only), you may get TOO MUCH information, with hundreds of names to sort through, or you may get a warning that there were too many passengers by that name and you should be more specific in your search.

If your search is too specific (searching first and last names, exact year of birth, and gender), you may get NO matches. This is not necessarily because the person’s name is not in the database, but may be because the recorded data (whether correct or not) doesn’t exactly match your search criteria. For example, obviously your grandfather Andrea Petix was a male, but whoever entered the information in the original manifest or in the database may have interpreted ‘Andrea’ as a female name and entered the gender as female. Therefore, your nannu wouldn’t show up if you searched for males only!

I usually start my search just with my best guess for the first name and surname. That will produce either a message saying no one by that name was found (with options for alternative searches), or a list of folks with the requested first name and surname. It may contain as few as one, or as many as hundreds of folks with the same name as your ancestor. Here’s where the census information comes in. The manifest list gives first and last name; residence, usually nation of origin and TOWN (which is what we are seeking); year of arrival; and age on arrival. Study the list to see if there is anyone with your ancestor’s name whose arrival year and age at arrival result in a birth year close to the one calculated from the census information. For those that are close, check the nation of origin. If you suspect or already know the town of origin, that narrows it further, but be careful because town names are often horribly misspelled. Again, there may be several people with the same name, approximate birth date, and town of origin as your ancestor.

In the display, each name listed is followed by three links. Clicking on ‘View’ for each will bring up more information as noted below, but you must be a registered user.

• Viewing the ‘Passenger Record’ will give the ethnicity, origin, age, gender, date of arrival and ship name.
• Viewing the ‘Ship Manifest’ will give a “thumbnail” of the original manifest with options to a) enlarge it or b) look at a shortened ‘text version’. Original manifests may have more than one page. Follow the instructions to see other pages. Note: later records are typewritten, but most are handwritten. The handwritten names are NOT the signatures of the passengers, but the name as written in by a ticket agent or ship’s officer.
• Viewing the ‘Ship Image’ can be skipped until you confirm you’ve found the right person.
• Next time, I’ll review the information available on typical passenger manifests.

Angelo Coniglio

…….. …The Lady of the Wheel

KALAT HAPPENING 2013

Archeological research and discovery of knowledge & flavors in Sicily

JULY/SEPTEMBER 2013 CAMPOBELLO DI LICATA (AG) SICILY website: http://happening.kalat.org

In Sicily, between July & September 2013, at Campobello di Licata (Agrigento’s province) will take place the innovative Happening Kalat, the international youth summer camps about archaeology, history, art, music, free time & Sicilian gastronomy, promoted in the frame of QLT (Quantum Leap Trend), an exemplary project for Italy’s Southern regions, supported by Fondazione CON IL SUD. The activities will be also carried out with the scientific advice of Corso di Laurea Magistrale in Archeologia dell’Università degli Studi di Palermo, the supervision of Assessorato BBCCAA della Regione Siciliana e della Soprintendenza ai BBCCAA di Agrigento, in collaboration with the Sicilian Coordination of Libera, Agrigento’s Direction of Slow Food® and the SOAT of Campobello di Licata & Grotte.

After the approval of an Innovative Action for Employment regarding the Ministry of Labour, Kalat is proposing an exciting new formula which joins archaeological research in lands confiscated from the mafia (in collaboration with Libera) with Sicilian food, wine & sweets tastings (in collaboration with Slow Food®). It also includes creative workshops on Prehistory, excursions & guided tours, swimming and sand sculptures at Licata’s beach, photo contests, video projections & musical evenings.

The international summer camps of archaeology, -which are reaching their XVIII edition through the Kalat project-, will include field-survey, data processing and the recovery of the Old Bronze Age necropolis called Iachinu Filì (XXII-XVI centuries BC), which contains dozens of cave tombs, some of them reused during Byzantine Age.

The results of survey activities allowed the identification of more than 170 archaeological sites ranging from the Neolithic Age to Arab Age, which turned Campobello di Licata the most archeologically investigated territory in Italy. Besides the recovery activities of the Parco antico di Iachinu Filì resulted in the creation of the Kalat project’s permanent exhibition. It will outline the initiatives, the methods & 18 years of research & discoveries, as well as faces, memories & the moments spent by more than 1000 Italian & foreign youngsters within the Kalat project.

This enriched programme is open to enthusiasts, students, volunteers, researchers & experts between 18 and 35 years old. The official languages are English and Italian.