Sicilian Diary

Our cook from Germany is still calling us with new excuses for his delayed departure each time. Last week the problem was his car; apparently he had started his journey but had a breakdown and had to turn back. He is now waiting for the part to arrive to fix it. All this was relayed in dialect in a 30 minute telephone conversation at our expense. We have skype! Bu no, we were on the kitchen phone. While the cook recounts his misadventures and reassures my husband that he is the man we have been waiting for and that he can do whatever we want him to do, I am wondering if my husbands has gone mad. But he assures us all that this is indeed our man. Even this week – luckily the cook called us, to say his son gets mid terms holidays from school in May 15 so can we please hold on for him till then – my husband still has faith in him. I hope so much he is right. Much rolling of eyes between myself and my mother-in law.

Back in Milazzo there’s a big screen in the piazza showing the inauguration of the teatro – which has been closed for twenty years. Part of the sindaco’s (mayor) final showdown for votes, the castle next to our house – which has been under restoration for the last two years – should be reopening this week too. Palm trees and flowerbeds are sprouting up everywhere. The historic Chiesa di San Francesco di Paolo – Milazzo’s adopted patron saint of seafarers – was opened a couple of Sundays ago with much civic and military aplomb and a fire and brimstone bishop giving hell to his sinful flock. Piazza Roma at last is opened, with its shining new slabs of concrete and indigenous (not) palm trees and strategically placed benches which a few pensioners have already laid claim to – and all because the sindaco is a partner in the soon to open bar of the piazza. This is also the motivation behind the newly paved pedestrian street in the centre and the cute shiny new bar with nice benches right ou...

We’ve just had a lovely two days on Panarea island. One of the best things about living here is having the Aeolian islands on our doorstep.Awkward enough to reach from abroad – the flight to Catania, the hire car or bus t Milazzo, then coordinating arrival times with the departure of the boats to the islands etc .. but we just drift down to the port and hop on the hydrofoil and we’re there in a matter of hours. I have left Panarea until last, because it is notorious for being extortionately pricey and full of rich posers, usually from Milan. Naomi Campbell shops in the boutiques here. Georgio Armani anchors his boat off shore. But at this time of year the island is deserted. There are only a few locals – aided by the Polish, Romanian and North African staff – fixing up their hotels, restaurants and bars for the onset of the season. Lots of whitewashing and painting going on. We are probably only about ten tourists stayingon the island in total. Since there has been plenty of rainfall ...

We decide we would like to give candidate B a trial contract for two weeks, but that we need to tell her about Candidate 3 coming back from Germany the following week. I leave my marito to talk terms and conditions with her, sensing she will prefer to talk to him alone, and also that I would not have the patience to deal with her pushiness. She initially aggress to the trial run, but the next day phones us to tell us she cannot accept because she does not like the fact that we will try out candidate three the following week, meaning that we might sack her after a couple of weeks if he turns out to be better. My mother-in-law says we were far too honest and should never have told her about candidate no. 3. If he turned out to be better then we could just have let her go, without having to mention him. We need to be as ‘furbo’ –clever or sly – as they are, she says. But we didn’t want to be nasty. Anyway, mio marito calls her back to say we won’t try out candidate no. 3, because we have ...

The time has come to find a new cook. Things had been running too smoothly for the last while – a quiet January and February were too good to be true. Our cook is leaving us to work in a supermarket because the hours suit her and her small children better. We are not terribly sorry; she has been ok but we have had to teach her a lot and always be alert to potential slip-ups and mistakes. She gave us two weeks’ notice, which wouldn’t have covered Easter, but luckily we managed to persuade her to stay until Easter Monday … She didn’t show up on Good Friday – a big night out in Italy, now pretty much laicised despite the Vatican at the heat of Italy … her husband called in to say she was immobilised in bed with a bad back. Since we know this was the day she was supposed to start her new job, it all seems a bit suspect. Having her husband call … on Holy Saturday she is back in action however which makes it eve more suspicious. Anyone who has ever suffered from a bad back will tell you it ...